Indie agencies team up for Alliance of Media Independents
The Alliance of Independent Agencies (AIA) and the Land of Independents have collaborated to launch an initiative aimed at sharing knowledge and support for independent media agencies.
The Alliance of Media Independents (AMI) will function as a full-time offering, supporting independents by providing exclusive benefits to its members, fostering closer ties with relevant media owners, partners and suppliers, and launching events for all levels of agency staff.
It will in effect sit as a sub-division within the AIA.
Agencies that are part of the AMI at launch are: AMS Media Group, Bountiful Cow, Crossmedia, December19, JAA Media, Pashn, Republic of Media, The Specialist Works, the7stars and Total Media UK.
Martin Woolley, chair of What’s Possible Group, will be chair of the AMI. Paul Phelps, CEO of AMS Media Group, will serve as vice-chair.
Collectively, the launch agencies represent more than £800m in billings. This would make the group the third-largest media buyer in the UK, behind WPP’s EssenceMediacom and Omnicom’s OMD, according to the latest Nielsen figures.
Woolley told The Media Leader that another half-dozen agencies have indicated that they are “likely” to join the alliance in the coming weeks — this could soon push the AMI’s combined billings above £1bn.
The initiative is being supported at launch by Google, consumer research company GWI and Experian.
The Land of Independents was founded in 2020 as a loose collective of independent agencies looking to offer cross-industry support in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the AIA was founded in 2018 as a marketing community dedicated to growing the capability and profitability of its member agencies. According to managing director Terry Martin, the AIA has grown “rapidly” over the past 18 months to now include over 100 independents.
‘Single route’ to indie market
“For me, getting to know the Land of Independents agencies was one of the few positive things to come out of the pandemic and post-Covid period,” Woolley said. “We discovered so many things we could help each other with and collaborate on — and even though we were busy pitching against each other at the same time, it’s always felt natural and positive.
“I want to foster that same friendly openness within the AMI.”
Woolley said that, over the past four years, he has held several conversations with fellow independent agency leaders on how they could better take advantage of their aggregated buying power.
“We are certain that will be of interest to media owners and suppliers who want a single route to the indie media agency market,” he added.
In conversation with The Media Leader, Woolley said the formation of AMI is not an attempt to “stitch together different agencies and therefore be able to compete with networks for business”. He reaffirmed that the indies will continue to compete against one another.
However, the AMI will create a simpler pathway for suppliers, such as Google, GWI and Experian, as well as media owners, to approach independents as a collective — and vice-versa.
“What’s attractive to those guys about it is the long tail,” Woolley suggested. “You’ve got six big networks — you know how to find them. But the other 15-20% of the market is really diffuse and difficult to address in one place.”
The AMI will also help champion the successes of indies as they fight to acquire business from major holding company networks and in-housed brands.
Woolley expressed a desire to help “normalise” the idea that bigger and better-known brands are increasingly moving to independent agencies.
He continued: “Our goal is to help the indie media agency community flourish. Which gives advertisers real choice — not just the 17 shades of vanilla they are often served by the networks.”