The Independent Media Agencies Australia (IMAA) welcomed many new members last year and among them was Equality Media + Marketing, led by founder and managing director Marilla Akkermans.
Mediaweek has been profiling IMAA members, and this week Akkermans spoke about designing her own company that valued employees’ personal and professional lives.
Her media career began when she was 18-years-old, where she worked for both large and boutique agencies and developed an impressive list of clients, including Holden, Forty Winks, World Vision and Metricon.
She then spent two years at the construction company’s internal communications, starting as national marketing coordinator before moving to marketing manager.
In 2016, she was pregnant with her first child and said she was asked to take on clients maternity leave. Akkermans shared that the workload grew with “little thanks and no concession”, causing her to feel undervalued.
From there, she vowed never to allow herself or others to feel the same.
As a mother, she said that no other mother should sacrifice time with their child for career progression and chose to design her own company that made it possible for people to strike that balance.
Akkermans founded Equality Media + Marketing in 2018. She made sure her company was a place where outspoken people could share their views and openly share their “whole life” dreams and felt supported to achieve them.
She also ensured that her company had an open policy for parents and part-timers with the understanding that employees need support to live full lives.
“Every person can craft their work-life in precisely the way that suits them to get the job done. This means no set job hours, set days, limits to the number of clients taken on,” she said.
“We are changing the face of media and marketing by doing good work and being a force for good,” she added.
This seems to be doing wonders for the team, who grew to 17 people amid the Covid pandemic.
Equality has also been recognised among industry peers as a finalist for the 2021 Melbourne Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, B&T Women in Media Awards and Best of the best, and has earned the 26th spot in the AFR Fast Starters List.
She said her agency prides itself on providing expertise across the entire marketing spectrum.
“We develop creative that works, media campaigns that work – or if something is not working – we have the skills and knowledge to work out why.”
Equality has seen a significant increase in their client base, which includes Zest Living in Yarrawonga, Harpers Rise in Sunbury, and Lakeview Taumata, a billion-dollar mixed-use development in Queenstown, New Zealand, set to be one of the largest ever projects on the south island city.
“We are working across all aspects of their marketing including branding, strategy, social and will work on all other aspects as it rolls out,” she said of the Lakeview Taumata project.
They have also increased their services to existing clients and introduced strategy, branding, creative development, CRM management, marketing consulting, organic social management, website development and analytics, with over 45 projects underway across the different services.
Looking to the year ahead, Akkermans said her company would continue to be a force for good, as per the company’s vision statement, as a major and active supporter of the Women’s Property Initiative (WPI).
She said: “As a company that predominantly works in the property industry, it has been important to not only choose a charity that aligns with the Equality Media vision but also addresses an important housing shortage and issue in the community.
“WPI is a not-for-profit that helps provide homes for women who are at risk of homelessness,” she said.
“Without housing, access to support services, employment, education, and productive participation in society is extremely difficult. Our focus on supporting WPI in 2022 will be working on the QPI 25-year anniversary donation drive – providing strategic expertise across the business and full marketing remit,” she added.
On the IMAA
Akkermans and Equality Media joined the IMAA last year, and she noted that the association has been outstanding at solving problems within the industry.
Among the benefits she noted of her team being the IMAA was being part of a broader community of independent agencies and having access to peers, industry professionals, media partners and experts.
Akkermans added: “We are very proud to form one of the many members of the community who are all working to provide exemplary service and partnerships to clients and the industry alike.”
