M.E.D.I.A.

When media agencies and sales houses join forces to better meet the needs of advertisers

We would like to bring to your attention a groundbreaking initiative launched in the Belgian market this past Wednesday January 15th:  M.E.D.I.A. “Our Media Environment Deserves Ideas and Ambition”. This initiative was jointly launched by UMA, the Belgian Association of Media Agencies and the R12, an unofficial group which gathers 14 media sales houses that represent 90% of all media investments in Belgium and includes not only all of our egta members: IP Belgium, Q Group, RMB, SBS Belgium, Vmm and the Var) but also sales houses from other media.

This initiative stemmed from the overall conclusions reached by the 22 senior managers from the participating companies who met on a regular basis over the past 18 months following an extensive survey among all Belgian media agencies and sales houses (321 answers).

In Belgium, as in all other markets, the media industry has undergone enormous evolutions in the past years creating tremendous new business and growth opportunities.  Media have multiplied their touchpoint offer, encouraging sales houses to expand their sales expertise with a cross media approach as well as many other new solutions.  Media agencies on their side have profoundly repositioned themselves by acquiring wider marketing and communication know how in addition to their historic media buying science. They have started diversifying their offer to include a broader range of marketing & communication products which are connected or not to traditional media.  All these changes have resulted in a growing lack of knowledge and understanding of each other’s tasks and at times, in a great deal of frustration(s).

Starting from these observations, the R12 and the UMA have decided to join forces to initiate further steps to create the best possible media advertising environment and to match their offer with both consumers’ experience and advertisers’ needs in an ever-evolving media environment.

This is the first time that so many media representatives (agencies and sales houses alike) have united to set up a forward-looking plan with clear and ambitious industry-wide objectives, highlighting the need to increase mutual knowledge, the development of common research and investments in human capital

How it will translate concretely?

The M.E.D.I.A. project group’s action plan includes a series of workshops and events including 6 monthly webinars during the first quarter of 2013 with the purpose of sharing information on specific aspects of media related topics and to learn more about each other’s tasks, roles and projects better.

It also includes:

Of course, plenty of other ideas are currently under discussion.  The initiative is expected to last for at least 3 years.

Target: TV & Radio

What they said ...

Let's hear it from the industry:

» Pierre Vanderbeck - RMB
» Thierry Van Zeebroeck - Var
» Denis Masquelier - IP Belgium
» Ben Jansen - Vmm
» Thierry Tacheny - SBS Belgium
» Ann De Bisschop - Q Group
» Hugues Rey - Havas Media Belgium

Background info

Please click on the links below to download the press release.

Press release - ENGLISH

Press release - FRENCH