The Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) announced the appointment of Sam Buchanan as its inaugural general manager in late March.
Buchanan has held several senior executive roles in large media organisations, including Fairfax Media, Jetstar Media, NewsCorp Australia, Prime 7 and SCA before moving to media agencies, working as chief commercial officer for foundation IMAA member McKenzie Partners, helping the agency commercialise its data insights and identify new revenue streams.
Following his appointment, Buchanan spoke to Mediaweek about his role, and the big plans that the not for profit has for 2021 – including a game changing world first for independent media agencies.
Who is Sam Buchanan?
Buchanan said that he has come from a media family and has worked across all three sides of the industry including media vendor, client side and agency side.
“Whilst I have worked almost everywhere at an APAC level, indies have sort of been my favourite place to work with or in.
“I was part of the founding five agencies two years ago, then last year when we launched with 20 agencies, I put my hand up and was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to run it.”
Buchanan described the role as varying from day to day and includes tasks such as promoting the IMAA, education platforms, and evening out the playing field for independent agencies.
“My world is just basically building out opportunities and putting attention onto indies.
“When we first started no one knew how big that it was going to be or the appetite for it on both sides of the media and the agencies themselves. Now we are in a position of what do we want to do and how we are going to go about doing it.
“It is a sector that’s worth 25-32% of all media dollars and been in growth for the past 13 years so it’s a pleasure to work on.”
Achievements of IMAA since launch
It has been a busy year for the IMAA in the last 12 or so months, growing from 22 to 72 members.
The group has also announced a partnership with thenetworkone, the world’s largest independent agency network, providing its members with a range of benefits and access to events.
The IMAA also ran its first ad campaign last year through a partnership with ARN, and a major campaign is expected in July 2021 about the benefits of working with indie agencies across TV, digital, out of home, radio and print.
“Originally when we first started it was about putting a spotlight on indies but now, we realised that there is so much more that we can do.
“We have built out a network and a community of support for everyone and made sure that our indies made it through Covid.
“We also developed an accreditation for indies, and now agencies are proud to have the IMAA badge displayed on their websites and signatures.”
What’s next for the IMAA?
Buchanan said that the goal is to continue to collectively solve the problems of indies.
“There are so many things on a day-to-day basis we are working on, being a non for profit it makes it very easy to be picky and choosey because you’re not driven by anything other than the benefits of helping indies.
“Indies are so hot right now it’s our opportunity to maximise what we can do together. Our goal is to level the playing field a little bit, whether the gaps are in education and helping the next generation of staff come through.
“We also want to do some good work such as working with charities, and to provide our agencies with purpose.”
Big things coming in 2021
Top of the to-do list for the IMAA this year has been the lofty task of significantly reducing trade insurance, in what Buchanan described as a world first, game changing, trade credit deal.
“It is going to blow the world of trade credit insurance up, which is really really exciting.”
However, despite the excitement surrounding this announcement, Buchannan said that the IMAA isn’t done with more big ticket items planned for 2021.
“We have proven from what we are about to announce that we are a 5,000-pound gorilla emerging from the forest and together we have a very, very loud voice.
“We will be launching the IMAA academy later on this year for new starters in the industry that anyone joining the industry can have access to and can do a digital, out of home or TV module.
“We will be doing physical events in H2 when we can emerge from the Covid haze. The first will be called Operation Bounce Back. That will be either around Australia or streamed around Australia, we haven’t quite worked that out yet but we will be working with our 27 media partners on what that looks like and what indies need to know going into the next 12 months.
“We also have a few surprises up our sleeve.”
