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 media director of Media Merchants, Justine Butler.
Butler described herself as an oddity in this current age of brief tenure periods and multiple career moves, in that she joined Media Merchants directly following university and celebrated 18 years with the company this March. She started at Media Merchants as a dual receptionist/media coordinator and is now the media director.
“With our agency being full service, I like many in the team, have had the opportunity to be exposed to a range of clients and diversity in advertising disciplines from creative, design, video and TV production, to media buying, strategy and digital production and performance. That all said, I admit culture is the primary motivation for me, and many others I’d argue, in staying with the agency.”
Media Merchants is Independently owned and led by James Fitzgerald, and Butler said that the agency embodies the true sentiment of a ‘family-run’ business.
“With over 60 staff across our Brisbane and Sydney offices, 14 staff have been with us over 10 years – which I think would be a rare find in many agencies these days.
“James is a key part of what has built the agency ethos – even recently with our Sydney and now our Brisbane offices in lockdown, James makes it a priority to personally call around to each employee. Particularly Sydney in their 6th week of stay-at-home orders, it is an important personal connection that shows true care for our people. Similarly, with myself and all our Department Heads and Managers, it’s about constant communication and support so no one feels lost or isolated during challenging periods out of the office environment.”
Butler credits this personable culture as one of the reasons for the resurgence of the independent media agency in recent years.
“It says a lot about a business in how they treat their people, particularly in tough times, and clients have started paying attention to this. Much like how consumers want to buy locally and support businesses doing the right thing during this pandemic, clients are paying attention to how agencies responded. Reviewing relationships if disillusioned by inattentive or dispassionate service, which is often the outcome of unsupported staff.”
Clients
Founded back in 1999, Media Merchants’s client portfolio largely consisted of major retail and discount variety brands; Crazy Clarks, Specialty Fashion Group, Priceline, and Amart Allsports amongst others.
“While like many agencies, we may have parted ways amicably over the years with some of these brands, we are still proud to be working with foundation clients such as City Beach and Videopro 22 years later. We also find repeat business, via Marketing Managers who have moved on from one client only to come back to us under a new brand.”
With a history that dates back to last century, Butler said that Media Merchants has continued to evolve in both approach and clients.
“We’ve kept our retail nous, but MM has broadened our portfolio beyond the traditional ‘retail’ pool. We are proud to work with exciting new Australian start-up brands that include Plungie, reFUNDed, EGR Auto, in addition to highly respected brands such as Great Southern Bank, as the execution agency (creative) for all their asset rollouts during the exciting rebrand this year.
“Much of our recent growth has been in performance, with our team working across Australia and the US on clients such as Wrinkles Schminkles. Our in-house content teams producing both high quality and fast turnover creative for electrical and white goods brands under National Product Review.”
Specialisations
When asked about Media Merchant’s specialisations, Butler admitted that full service sounds like an oxymoron when but said that’s where she’d argue they stand out from the crowd.
“Our clients typically don’t have the budgets to burn tens of thousands on a commercial or piece of content that may only be live for one campaign, nor do they have the resources in their marketing teams to juggle multiple agency relationships. Media Merchants can offer those that desire a simple one contact solution an appealing alternative. But likewise, we extend the flexibility for other clients to work with a select range of our services as needed to complement their in-house teams or other agency partners.
“Last year we launched a green screen studio in our Sydney office which further has enhanced our ability to create fast turnaround, effective content.
“We are here to make a positive difference to clients, it may sound like old fashioned customer service, but we want clients that end a conversation feeling they have had all their questions answered, problems and challenges solved.”
Being part of IMAA
Butler said that after being an independent agency since the turn of the century that she is excited to see a voice in the market like the IMMA championing the independent media agencies.
“The IMAA has come to the market during a true renaissance for the independents. While many of us have been proudly independent for decades, it’s great to see a voice in the market actively championing our presence at the table in major media negotiations, new product offerings and the opinions in the trade press. We’ve also seen substantial operational benefits by working together as a group, as most recently exemplified by the trade insurance agreement that was achieved which has saved all agencies in the IMAA significantly on costly premiums.”
