A Slovene and a German company founded a joint company, Mediaplus Adria, to enter the media planning and media leasing market in the SE European region. The two companies are the largest European integrated communication agency owned by partners (direct ownership of the employees) and the largest regional player, also owned by the employees.
Leading communication companies in their fields and independent communication agencies, Pristop Group from Slovenia and Serviceplan Group a global agency group from Germany founded a new joint company Mediaplus Adria, with head offices in Ljubljana.
Pristop Group is one of the leading consulting and communication companies in SE Europe, with more than twenty years of collaboration with the most important local and global companies. Serviceplan Group is the largest independent agency in Europe, founded in 1970 in Germany as a traditional advertising agency, whose key pillar is the European media agency Mediaplus. The turnover of the Serviceplan Group closed the 2016/2017 financial year with an increase in sales of 14 per cent and generated agency fees of EUR 388 million what is well above the industry average this year. The Pristop Group, on the other hand, increased EBITDA by 25% from 2015 to 2016, and foresees a 15% growth of this indicator in 2017.
Serviceplan Group has spread its network across the globe and covers an extensive scope of communication fields, operating as an integrated agency model under the umbrella name of “house of communications”. The success of companies in the Pristop and Serviceplan groups is based on independence, innovation, creativity, partnership management model and integration of different areas to achieve a common goal – creation of the most successful trademarks in collaboration with the costumers.
Mediaplus – one of the media pillars of the Serviceplan Group – is the largest independent European media agency, which combines the traditional media planning with the trends and opportunities brought by new communication channels. Ever since its founding in 1983, Mediaplus has been a synonym for innovative and creative media use, strategic media concepts, efficient media leasing and a goal-oriented approach, which includes scientifically supported market and media research. The proof of this is its leading position according to the RECMA, an independent French study, which awarded Mediaplus the first place in Germany, both based on the turnover and growth criteria and on the number of awards it received. Lately, Mediaplus is expanding its operation across the borders of its home country with branch offices in Vienna, Zürich, Brussels, Dubai, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, Bucharest, Prague and in other cities.
Since September 2017, Mediaplus has enlarged its business mosaic with the Mediaplus Adria company, whose mission is to spread knowledge and good practices in the SE European region. This is only one of the numerous investments which prove that the DACH region is the strongest partner of the countries in SE Europe in the field of direct foreign investments. In Pristop, the German partners found a reliable partner with a similar vision and organisational culture, who has good knowledge of business in the region. For Pristop, this partnership means an opportunity for growth, both in the sense of business expansion and in the sense of acquisition of new knowledge. Mediaplus Adria will be led by Alina Žugelj Pikalo, together with her German colleague Thilo Krämer.
Photo: Alina Žugelj Pikalo and Thilo Krämer
Thilo Krämer was in charge of the Mediaplus internationalisation and has many years of international experience with media planning and media management. He managed international accounts in the USA, Great Britain and France, was the East markets manager at the WPP media agency Mediaedge:cia, and in the last few years, he has been the CEO of Mediaplus in Hamburg.
Alina Žugelj Pikalo has a wealth of experiences in the Slovene media space. She started her career in the advertising marketing at RTV Slovenija and continued her path at the Grey/Mediacom agency. Currently, she is the media director at Pristop Media. She is a specialist for planning media strategies for local and global customers and an expert for research and optimisation tools.
The strategic development and market expansion of the new company will be in the hands of Klemen Avsenik, who has many years of experience in marketing and the media world. He started his career as a media planner at the OMD agency and later worked in media himself, first as researcher at MTV Adria and then as sales director at Šport TV.
The Pristop Media company, which will be remain under the management of Barbara Modic, will continue to focus primarily on the Slovene market. Mediaplus Adria, on the other hand, will offer media planning and media leasing services on the SE Europe markets for their own and international customers. With its understanding of the customers and their needs, the desire for innovative and effective campaigns, and the good business practice of Mediaplus, Mediaplus Adria will bring a breath of fresh air into the media planning and media leasing markets in the region.
