Carat/MP: Repositioning for World Class Services

Media Perspectives, a media strategy, planning and buying agency, penultimate Wednesday became officially affiliated to Carat, an independent communications specialist and market leader in digital media solutions. This follows the signing of a technical affiliation agreement between the two media giants in Lagos. Under the agreement, Media Perspectives will now be known as Carat/Media Perspectives (trading as Carat/MP) and will have immediate access to Carat’s wide network covering 70 countries. It will also share in the West African operations of Carat’s international clients. In addition, the agreement will give Media Perspectives access to Carat’s global resources to service its clients. The Managing Director/CEO of Media Perspectives, Mr. Emeka Okeke, in this chat with M2’s Yetunde Ogundipe, talks about what attracted MP to Carat and what it hopes to achieve from the union.

What does this alliance with Carat mean to your company?
Naturally, for me the feeling is like that of a woman who has been in a long courtship or relationship with a man and at some point, both of them decide to get married and the rest is history. Ours can also be likened to this. We really like this development because we’ve been in this courtship with Carat for quite some time.
The pact couldn’t have come at a better time as we are currently re-strategizing to offer first class services to our clients. With the signing of the agreement, the company now stands in a better stead to render outstanding services to its clients as it will be better exposed to global best practices within the Aegis Media Group.

Many companies in Nigeria scramble for foreign affiliations as a sort of prestige booster. What really made MP go for this affiliation?
Let’s look at the history of the company. Media Perspectives has been in operation for five years and prior to the affiliation, the company had worked itself to the viable position of unarguably the number one media agency in the country. What this means is that if we could come this far without any serious technical affiliation with any foreign company, it says a lot about the agency. It tells you what we can do for ourselves in the quality of services we render to the market. And as a member of one of Africa’s largest marketing communications conglomerates, Troyka Holdings Ltd., it was only natural that the company should be affiliated to a company with similar strength, wide network and vision.
There comes a point in the life of a company when the managers and stakeholders, in a bid to give more value, begin to think of taking the company to the next level. Observing today’s world, you will realize that no tree can make a forest; we are interdependent on one another. You will also recognize that global brands demand quality service from their agencies anywhere in the world. Hence, the need to play at the global stage and up our game in the industry to make the kind of impact we are expected to make.
The relationship is largely going to be a technical one. That is to say that we expect both parties to share knowledge, to exchange and share experiences. Carat is a massive company, a global media. Media Perspectives also has a very strong footprint and market in Nigeria. There is a kind of symbiotic need for the two companies to come together. The technical affiliation is the stamp that confirms Media Perspectives is on a mission to take the company to the next level and redefine the landscape.
Carat is a subsidiary of Aegis Group, the world’s fastest growing marketing communications group with a market capitalization of over £1.5 billion. This will go a long way in helping the company in areas such as digital media solutions and modern integrated communications planning solutions.

In the last five years, MP has become one of the leading independent media planning, strategy and buying agencies in Nigeria. So, what do you hope to gain from this technical affiliation that you don’t already have?
If you look at the way the media has reformed in today’s world, media has shifted; it is probably the most dynamic subsector of our industry. And if you look at the changes that have happened in the world, they are naturally driven by today’s digital development.
We can’t sit here and claim pioneer status of that development. That is to say that Media Perspectives has come of age to hold the hands of proven networks in the world in order to claim the knowledge that this development offers in the global market place. Specifically speaking, the tools we have been deploying in the market have been local tools tailored to address local-centric media problems. Now with Carat we are able to go deeper, take the local tools to another level and begin to look at other tools that will address digital market problems and proffer digital solutions.
We can begin to look at: How do we analyze the kind of data that we get in this market? Are there other ancillary services that the multinationals - the companies that play within our market - desire in this place? And above all, when there is a global tender for business, do we have a partner with the same vision and the same pedigree that we can hold hands with in partnership to go after the business? Carat had been observing us for about four years, and we on our part had been observing Carat. And it got to a point that the time finally came for us to take the relationship to another level. The affiliation is the confirmation that both parties are ready to re-define the media landscape not just in Nigeria but on the African continent.

Where do we see MP in the next five years?
What you should expect from MP is a quantum leap from the service delivery point of view. What you will expect from MP is better customer service. Be assured that the quality of service - where data and infrastructure permit - you expect from any Carat operations anywhere in the world is what you should expect from us.

What brands are the two companies working on presently?
Presently MP works on Nokia account with Carat. Carat won the Nokia account on a global level although we can say it is more on a regional basis because the pitch is not yet completed but Africa is closed.
Working on a brand like Nokia is an opportunity for us because of the kind of learning that the business provides and the kind of experience it gives to any agency that works with it. It is demanding but that is the sort of thing we love to do. We enjoy challenges.