The IMAA, the national, not for profit industry association for independent media agencies launched last year.
Since then it has continued to grow its membership base and make a series of big announcements, including its trade credit deal and a number of new media partners.
Mediaweek has been profiling members of the IMAA – previous features can be found here.
This week we spoke to the founder and director of Thump Media, Chris Franke.
Originally from Sydney, Franke spent four years at News Corp in Sydney and Brisbane on the Daily Telegraph and Courier Mail. During that time he developed relationships with key stakeholders and brands.
Thump Media was founded in Brisbane in 2015 by Franke to address what he felt was an opportunity for brands with mid-level budgets to get more out of their media partners and agencies.
“We were under no illusions that big agencies have their place, for the most part! but with a background in media sales and PR at News and AAP, we knew there was a lot more brands could be getting out of media partners if agencies didn’t deliberately create separation between their clients and the media partners,” said Franke.
“Thump has traded now for nearly 6 years trading in transparency and the development of customer-first, platform agnostic media strategy that drives results for everyone. “
Thump Media has put together a solid stable of clients that include TripADeal, Scenic Group, Greyhound Racing NSW, Seriously Digital Entertainment, and ZBET.com.au.
“Our only client at launch was a little startup online travel company based in Byron Bay called TripADeal. They were 18 months old at the time, but during our relationship they were crowned Australia’s fastest growing company two years in a row (AFR Fast 100 – 2016 and 2017) and they were crowned Australia’s best online travel agency is by AFTA in 2017.
“We are proud to say that we still have a super tight relationship with the guys at TripADeal. As announced last year, private equity recently joined the TripADeal party and as their exclusive agency in Aus and NZ we are pumped to be part of the travel bounce-back with TripADeal over the next 12-24 months.”
Thump Media is fully accredited across Australia and New Zealand to buy its own media and receive competitive rates. When asked about the agencies specialties Franke pointed to one particular segement of the industry.
“Thump Media has a deep understanding of the travel category in particular. We have recently locked in an exciting partnership that allows us to manage search, social and performance media alongside of the above the line activity we have primarily focused on since 2015.”
Thump Media is also a member of the IMAA which Franke said has been great for both is agency and indies in general.
“We love being part of IMAA! Sam Buchanan and the IMAA do a bloody fantastic job of advocating for indie agencies and the great work indies are doing in market. They recently negotiated an Australian-first volume deal for indies and trade credit insurance and the upskilling and industry leader seminars offer opportunities for us boutique guys to access resources we otherwise wouldn’t.”
