Simply since you hit the large time, doesn’t imply you neglect the little man — or the place you got here from. So it's with unbiased media company PMG, which has adopted up its gigantic August win of Nike’s North American media AOR enterprise — wherein it beat out a number of holding firm media companies — with two smaller wins, This Weblog has discovered.
In keeping with the company’s founder and CEO George Popstefanov, Texas-based PMG has landed media and artistic AOR duties for Nothing Bundt Muffins (PMG’s first win that features its artistic instruments) and entered into a brand new sports activities advertising and media AOR partnership with well being instrument Therabody.
“We're excited to associate along with PMG throughout insights, technique, artistic, media and measurement to guide in a class that continues to construct relevance and enhance the lives of all people,” stated John Solomon, Therabody’s CMO in an announcement. “Already we're seeing the facility of their technique and strategy to driving significant connections for our model.”
This caps a 2022 wherein PMG’s income is anticipated to develop near 30 p.c over 2021, stated Popstefanov, who didn’t present precise income. That comes after 77 p.c progress in 2021 over the primary 12 months of the pandemic. He stated the company has loved round 35-40 p.c of compound annual progress fee (CAGR) since its 2010 inception.
Like many unbiased company founders, Popstefanov is a holding firm refugee of types — a CEO who left the holdco world after the corporate he labored with, Vary On-line Media, was purchased up by iProspect, a Dentsu store in 2008.
Popstefanov began PMG in 2010 and from the outset envisioned a media company that embraced tech and engineering earlier than it was cool. The truth is, his first two staff had been engineers, he stated, who're nonetheless with the almost 600-staff firm a dozen years later.
“Being a part of that holding firm for a bit of bit made me understand there’s alternative ways to do that,” he stated considerably politely. “For me it was actually about constructing a technology-enabled providers firm, targeted round individuals and doing one thing totally different.”
But it surely wasn’t simply to be technologically savvy that Popstefanov went down the engineering path. The purpose was to match outcomes higher to investments. Companies now name that efficiency media.
“PMG’s efficiency media heritage and philosophy that efficiency extends throughout all advertising exercise is among the many issues that set them aside,” stated Jay Pattisall, vp and principal company analyst at Forrester, who covers PMG. “This mindset, their investments in expertise to afford them a holistic view of the shopper journey and their investments in artistic capabilities/artistic optimization, are key to PMG’s success.”
Particularly, PMG has been in a position to apply its proprietary advertising expertise known as Alli to all of its shoppers, which embody Ralph Lauren, Apple, Hole and Kohler, which it gained on the finish of December 2021 (and which Popstefanov likes to level out was gained towards a defending holding firm, Omnicom’s PHD).
A part of PMG’s secret sauce is that its crew of technologists sit with shoppers who're “are cross-trained in media in order that they perceive the challenges we're working to unravel,” famous Ashley Stewart, PMG’s head of brand name and advertising communications.
It’s labored nicely sufficient that Nike, on high of handing media AOR to PMG, is licensing Alli and implementing it with its different world companies (IPG’s Initiative), stated Popstefanov. (He didn't present phrases of the license settlement or its monetary worth.) And he feels the company has benefited from specializing in the tech facet for so long as it has.
That edge has labored nicely, not just for PMG however for different independents. “Many efficiency companies are versatile sufficient to use to artistic and content material or construct artistic providers providing off the again of their media practices,” stated Pattisall, noting retailers like Tinuiti and Wpromote. “The holding firm media companies are sometimes one step faraway from artistic and content material by advantage of their construction. In right this moment’s media surroundings, that may make a distinction.”
However that edge gained’t final without end, Pattisall stated. “That is one thing that many full-funnel companies declare and ship,” he stated. “The emphasis on CTV, streaming and retail media partnerships open a brand new world of audiences and measurability. PMG are usually not alone in mastering an ‘All Advertising Should Carry out’ world.”
With Media.Monks and Stagwell each working as new-generation holding firms which have invested in digital-first and tech-intensive options, on high of the companies Pattisall talked about, the market’s getting a bit extra crowded for what PMG presents.
However, Popstefanov identified a distinction: PMG is privately owned. “I don’t envy Martin [Sorrell, CEO of Media.Monks’ parent S4 Capital] and I don’t envy Mr. [Mark] Penn [Stagwell’s CEO]. They’re each operating public firms.”
And, in accordance with Stewart, there’s one thing distinctive about working at PMG, which has gained company of the 12 months and finest place to work accolades from media publications over the previous couple of years.
“I’ve by no means labored at any ‘company’ like PMG,” she stated. “The tradition, transparency, imaginative and prescient, taking good care of individuals and offering job safety are all really real.”
