''It's bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.''

The 47-year-old Howcroft lives a contemporary tale of two cities: in Melbourne he has the Hawthorn home he shares with his wife and three children, as well as his beloved Melbourne Football Club, where he's a member of the board, while Sydney, where he spends most of each working week, provides his professional role as the CEO of Y&R (Young & Rubicam) Brands and his authoritative contribution to Gruen Planet.

That will change in January, when Howcroft starts a high-profile new position with Network Ten, the struggling television broadcaster that recently announced swingeing redundancies expected to cut 116 editorial and production jobs.

If he is distracted by the pending switch, which allows him to combine work and family in his home town but places him in a trying business environment, Howcroft is not showing it.

Speaking over lunch in Melbourne he is articulate and composed. The word ''engaged'' peppers his conversation, and it's something that Howcroft does naturally.

He listens closely, asks questions and when he hears an idea he likes might grasp your arm to offer encouragement. Over the course of a 90-minute conversation he doesn't feel the need to peruse his smartphone once.

''He can relate to every level in the community. Russel's as comfortable sitting around the boardroom as he is in the outer with the cheer squad,'' says Karen Hayes, the CEO of Guide Dogs Victoria and Howcroft's fellow Demons club director.

''Russel will walk around the MCG and see a father and young child and just walk up to them and say, 'Would your boy like to come down to the rooms and see the players?' Kids just don't get that opportunity, but Russel will do it. And that's a gift.''

Because he has a public profile and the industry itself is quite insular, the television business is fascinated by Howcroft's move to Network Ten. He will be the executive general manager, with operations in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth reporting to him, and in turn Howcroft will report to the company's chief executive, Sydney-based James Warburton.

Howcroft says he isn't second-in-command at Ten, as has been reported, just a member of the executive team.

''His move is a surprise in that he doesn't have a background in television,'' says James Manning, the editor of trade journal Mediaweek.

''At the same time, given that Ten need some fresh thinking that's an attractive quality.''

It has been a disastrous 12 months for Network Ten, a company that boasts media scion Lachlan Murdoch as the chairman of the board and mining magnate Gina Rinehart as a major shareholder.

On some nights it ranks behind not only its commercial rivals Seven and Nine, but also the ABC.

A slew of new shows have publicly failed, including the reality competition Everybody Dance Now, which was hosted by Murdoch's wife, Sarah, and was cancelled after just four episodes when it couldn't draw more than 400,000 viewers in mainland capital cities (Gruen Planet, by comparison, draws about 1 million).

Some industry analysts believe Howcroft might be able to stem the looming cut in advertising rates that will follow this year's dismal ratings, although he points out the advertising business has two arms: the number crunchers who buy the space and the creative figures that fill it. ''I've always been a filler,'' Howcroft says.

The attraction for Network Ten - a company whose share price has dropped from 95¢ to approximately 30¢ over the last 12 months - might actually be his skill in resuscitating brands.

The channel doesn't just have a problem with bad shows such as The Shire rating poorly - genuinely strong series, whether it's the comedy Modern Family or the acclaimed drama Homeland, underperform.

Neither Howcroft nor Ten want him to say too much of anything about the network, which has just launched its make-or-break 2013 line-up.

He won't nominate his favourite Ten show - ''I like all of them,'' he deftly replies.

He adds that programming is not part of his job description, but it's apparent that the challenge that awaits him, and the inexhaustible demands of television, don't deter Howcroft, they excite him.

''Television is still the number one commercial medium in the world. It's where all the eyeballs are,'' Howcroft says.

''I'm interested in the commercial side of television, but I've also been fortunate to have some engagement with the production side. I like the speed with which they have to create ideas for content. I like the notion that it's a 24/7 activity.''

He says he would ''love'' to continue appearing on Gruen Planet, which has had five successful years with host Wil Anderson being flanked by Howcroft and his philosophical foil, Todd Sampson, an arrangement that is likely to continue.

''Without Russel's voice the show would be in a lot of trouble. Russel is, by his nature and his belief system, someone who will stand up for commerce,'' Casimir says.

''His is a voice you don't often hear in a place like the ABC. Russel is the person who is going to defend advertising, defend capitalism.''

This outlook was forged in a typically eastern suburbs upbringing. Howcroft's father was a stock and station agent in the Western District who had a creative bent, and Russel, who was born in 1965, grew up in Malvern with two older sisters, playing cricket and football in the suburb's Central Park.

His father began in advertising when he was 45 (roughly the age that his son is leaving it), and after Howcroft scraped through his HSC at Scotch College and completed a business (marketing) degree at what is now Monash University without really finding something that interested him as much as young women and playing the drums, his dad arranged a week's work experience with a former employer, advertising agency McCann Erickson.

At the end of the week they asked him to stay and Howcroft has happily worked in the industry ever since.

Howcroft has done most of his work in Sydney and London, where he and his wife of 19 years, Kate, spent five years in the early 1990s as he mastered his craft. But his time elsewhere only reinforced his dedication to Melbourne.

He can, with little prompting, rhapsodise about the city's seasons, its trams or the importance of a ''spoke and hub'' design that puts the CBD at the centre and allows residents of every kind to aspire to the same shared destination.

''I'd like Melbourne to find a way to be even more progressive,'' Howcroft says. ''To find a way to have the best infrastructure, to find a way to have the best university in the southern hemisphere, not just one of the best, to find a way to be clearly the most educated city, to really be a beacon for multiculturalism.''

Casimir believes Howcroft is that old Victorian staple: the Liberal wet who is centre-right on economic matters, centre-left on social issues. He agrees, but with the caveat that his own activities aren't as liberal as his beliefs. Howcroft, who uses a simple black metal paperclip in place of a money clip, believes for example that some corporate regulation is necessary, but too much is inefficient, and he is upset by people who exhibit meanness to others.

The first major advertising campaign Howcroft worked on was for the Holden VN Commodore, launched during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Since then ''ideas have been my fuel'', but with each promotion - particularly his last one in 2010 when he took charge of all nine divisions of advertising group Y&R's brands in Australia and joined the company's international executive committee - he has got further away from the creative coalface.

While he is enthusiastic about his current position, Howcroft admits that one of the factors that contributed to his decision to join Network Ten is that if offers ''a new passion''.

He is also in the midst of satisfying another passion with his position as a Melbourne Football Club director.

He joined the board in 2008, recruited by former club champion and then new president Jim Stynes, who died in March.

''Jim said to me, 'I want you join my board. And if you're not going to do it, then tell me someone who's better at what you do than you are','' Howcroft recalls. ''He was good - Jim sold to your ego.''

Howcroft, who was born the year after Melbourne won its last premiership and puts ''Go Dees'' on club-related emails, arrived at a time when the club was $5 million in debt and the AFL was publicly doubting the strength of its brand.

While contributing to the subsequent Debt Demolition campaign, he took charge of resolving the uncertainty over what Melbourne stood for.

''In a brand strategy sense what you'll do when a client comes to you and they're not going as well as they think they should you'll go back and see what they did when they were going well,'' says Howcroft. ''The history really matters in brands; the critical thing was about being proud of the heritage.''

''He loves the Melbourne Football Club as much as he loves his own kids,'' says Hayes. ''Russel has extremely strong values and absolutely does not deviate from those. I'm sure he has similar values, such as integrity, that Jim [Stynes] had, and I'm sure that's what Jim saw in Russel.''

Howcroft spoke briefly to Stynes, whom he describes as ''a very significant character with extraordinary leadership'', when he made a brief appearance at a club function prior to the first game of the 2012 season.

It wasn't a goodbye, Howcroft says, but he understood that it was the last time he would see the Irishman, who was losing a long fight against cancer.

The idea Russel Howcroft took from the example set by Jim Stynes is a simple one, and it comes with the clearness he values in his professional life. ''You might as well go for it,'' he says. Network Ten awaits.

Craig Mathieson is a Melbourne journalist.