Report by Stephen Allan, worldwide chairman and chief executive officer
Stephen Allan, worldwide chairman and chief executive officer
At MediaCom, we believe that everything is connected – and this belief has led us to fundamentally change our business. We don’t call ourselves a media agency any more; instead we’ve re-invented ourselves, becoming The Content + Connections Agency.
This has driven how we optimise our clients’ entire communications systems, rather than just focusing within individual channel silos. In short, we’ve become Systems Thinkers, creating distribution strategies for our clients’ content and ensuring there are no consumer dead-ends on their path to purchase.
Our unique ‘Systems Thinking’ approach, fuelled by our Content + Connections positioning, is delivering transformative business results for both our clients and us. Last year alone, we won an unparalleled $3.9 billion of new business, +21% versus 2013. Our new Content + Connections positioning and planning process were central to extending relationships with a number of existing clients, including Fonterra, Indeed, Merck, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Mars and The Coca-Cola Company. Mars awarded us their global planning, following a competitive review, while our relationship with The Coca-Cola Company continues to expand, from just one market a few years ago to over 25 today. Additional new business wins included iconic brands such as Anheuser Busch InBev, DOCOMO and eBay. As a result we now work with a third of the world’s top 30 advertisers.
Industry recognition has come, in part, from RECMA’s global agency measurement criteria. We are ranked No.1 and No.2 for new business and overall agency evaluation, respectively. Additionally, we have won Agency of the Year awards for 2014 in Asia Pacific, Germany, India, Poland, Singapore, the UK and US.
When I took over as worldwide CEO in 2008 I said that we wanted to become the world’s No.1 network – a bold objective. With our new Content + Connections positioning, I have every confidence that 2015 will see us move ever closer towards that objective.