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 general manager of Oddfish Media Darren Fischer.
Oddfish Media started in 2005 with Fischer and Pete O’Dell with the company name coming from a combination of their surnames.
“Funnily enough it is a combination of O’Dell and Fischer, and we had to pay someone to come up with that. We didn’t think of it ourselves, so I’m not going to take any credit for that,” said Fischer.
Fischer said one of the main reasons that he went out on his own and joined O’Dell was predominantly because clients wanted him to do everything for them.
“Once they build a relationship and get to know you, and they like you, it’s ‘can you do this for me?’. So, you start running their whole media for them and putting plans together for them, but you’re working for another company.
“I was working for WIN NBN at the time, and then one of the clients said ‘can you help me out full time?’. I said alright, I’ll start up a business, I’ve got a mate of mine, we’ll work together.”
Foundation clients
The company started with about half a dozen clients such as Fair Dinkum Sheds, Australian Jewellery Liquidators, and Worldwide Appliances.
In 2006 companies such as Original Mattress Factory signed up when they had two stores, which Oddfish has helped them grow to over 46.
Fischer said that Oddfish started with around two and a half to three million dollars worth of business and have grown their portfolio from there.
“We have a whole bunch of clubs, plumbing services on the Coast. Eagle’s Plumbing is still with us. Roche Group has been with us for a long time. Masterton Homes have been with us in some form for a long, long time. Worthington BMW and Hunter Valley Gardens have been with us for a long time. “
Recent Wins
Some recent wins for Oddfish include Hokin Homes, Hunter Primary Care, and Aztec Solar, with the agency setting up shop in a new region.
“We set up the Newcastle office almost 12 months ago, and we’ve got a guy running that, he’s come on as a director as well. Obviously, he’s had wins because he needed clients. “
Changes to the industry
Fischer said that one of the main changes that he has seen since opening his agency has been the systems used.
“We had a booking agency, so we used to book everything through a booking agency. So that’s how it started, you’ve got to crawl before you walk, and then you’ve got to focus on what the next steps are. We pretty much focussed on systems.
“We also put on BCC, which is a wonderful piece of software, which was a part of the buying systems. As we’ve moved forward, we just use a lot of digital stuff and social media, and all those software packages. The cost has certainly gone up to run the business, but they do make me quite efficient.”
Specialisations
When asked about his agency’s specialities Fischer said that he focuses on performance.
“We will help people with creative, we’re not a creative agency but we obviously plug in to a lot of creative agencies. They can do an ad for $100,000 to $200,000 and we can plug people in that can make an ad for like $5000.
“We’ve got that diversity from a creative point of view. It’s all part of our mix – we know the importance of creating and messaging and we get involved in that side of things, but it’s all related back to the performance. If the message is not right, it will hurt the performance.”
The IMAA
Fischer said that he is glad to me a member of the IMAA seeing the benefit it brings for indie agencies.
“The single reason is bringing everyone like a union almost, to help us get things more efficiently or cheaper at the end of the day. If he can save some money, because these businesses are really expensive to run because you’ve got to get so much data and we can’t produce our own data, you’ve got to buy the data. So, any relief, these guys can work together as a body is fantastic. Already with the insurance, is brilliant.”