Last week the Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) celebrated its two year anniversary since its launch at Darling Harbour with 20 foundation members in 2019. The organisation now has over 120 members as it continues its rapid growth.
Mediaweek caught up with the IMAA’s general manager Sam Buchanan about what the group has achieved so far and what it has planned for the future.
“It literally feels like 30 years ago, that that day on the harbour where Covid was something that was happening in other parts of the world,” said Buchanan. “We still have to pull ourselves back and make sure that we’re not growing too fast. The secret is that everyone wanted it, everyone’s needed it, there was no one in this space, and it was just a job that needed to be done. We are very passionate about leaving the industry a better place than what we found it. And supporting Australian businesses, it’s hard not to be passionate about supporting Australian Business.”
IMAA launch event at Darling Harbour
When asked to reflect on the achievements of the IMAA over the last two years, Buchanan said that he is proud of the work that they have done to support independent media agencies.
“It’s growing at a pace that no one ever anticipated that it would. But we knew it. It’s really exciting to see the vision come to fruition. In the first two years where we’ve done the world’s first trade credit insurance deal, and grown to over 120 members. We’ve provided education and support almost on a daily basis to our members. We’ve worked with both federal and local governments. We’ve provided a voice for indies that they didn’t have before and put a spotlight on the sector which is worth 37% of the market. We’ve run surveys, and we’ve supported indies wherever we can.”
What is next for the IMAA
When asked about the future of the IMAA, Buchanan said that the next year of work lies in three pillars with the first being education.
“Education is absolutely massive for the IMAA. We’re an industry that learns on the job. And people haven’t learnt on the job. I learnt by sitting next to someone smarter, and we haven’t had that. We’re setting up a training hub within our website. There’ll be a central portal for all of our members to go to. Whether they’re going to go to our training or our YouTube channel, or they can go to our resources like OMA, CRA, IAB or our certified training through our media partners.
“The second part of that is launching the IMAA Academy. That’s the training for zero to five years experience. We’ve been working with a consultant on bringing this to life now. We’re at the final stages of the content being complete for the one on one with media. And then we’ll have it completed by the next three or four weeks. We will then start working on the other sectors with the other industry bodies on bringing that to life. That will be rolled out to university leaders, media partners, and our members and be an accredited verified education platform.”
Buchannan said the second pillar is reconciliation and diversity which the IMAA has begun to work on with its announcement this week of its new Diversity Council. The council aims to educate and empower member agencies on the value of embracing a diverse and inclusive workplace.
“We’ve got 11 leaders from all over Australia who have made up this council. We’ve got our vision, we’ve got our purpose, we’ve got what we’re going to do in our role as the IMAA as an educator. It is an interesting space and it is sometimes hard to get your head around diversity inclusion and to make sure you’re up to date with the information on where to go for these conversations. We’re also doing a major event in partnership with JcDecaux at the Opera House on International Women’s Day with Jelena Dokic speaking.
“With reconciliation, we’re in talks now with many partners about what that looks like. We’ve got a wrap with Reconciliation Australia, we’ve got a charter that our members are getting involved with, and the majority of members have signed this charter. And we’ve got a charity programme that we’ll be launching later on in the year that actually has tangible difference to First Nation people.”
The third and final pillar for the IMAA this year will be events, with the organisation currently in the market to hire an events coordinator.
“Operation bounceback is our big event, that’s where we get all the industry bodies to talk about what they’re doing and what you need to know going into 2022-2023,” said Buchannan. “It’ll be at the entertainment quarter, there’ll be probably 50 to 70 CEOs from all of our agencies in New South Wales and it will be streamed around the country. And then we’ll have regular events after that.”
Speaking further in the future, Buchannan said that there are a lot more opportunities for the IMAA to explore.
“There is a lot of opportunity in accreditation and training. I think there are a lot of things that we can do on that front. There are things that we can do with the government. We will grow and with that growth, we’ll be guided, by our members. We’re not hamstrung by any kind of politics. We don’t see any kind of limit to what we can do, because we are only limited by the voice of our members and our own imagination.”
The state of indies
Buchannan said that one of the main concerns in the broader industry, the great resignation, might not affect independent agencies due to satisfaction rates, but overall staffing remains a problem because of how much the sector is flourishing.
“In our last survey, 85% of our members have indicated that they are not moving from their current workplace because they’re very satisfied. That indicates that the great resignation might not happen. It kind of proves the stuff that we hear that indies are a preferred place to work. And that’s why we’re seeing a lot of people jump over to indies because of that culture.
“From the spend level, all indications at the start of this year have been just ridiculously strong. So everything we see is pointing to pre-2019 levels. The biggest problem we have is that we don’t have enough staff to book the ads in so we are in a really, really strong spot. I haven’t spoken to anyone who’s having a tough time, the only time is just making sure we get the right staff. And we’ve got a few plans for that down the track as well. We’ve got two big things that we’ll announce in the next three or four months, around what can we do for staff and how can we help improve the quality of any educational stuff.”
