Mediafactory defies convention to achieve a winning formula

Tuesday, 5 November 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Their magnetic power posed a serious challenge to their directors When these men and women move places, the heavy weights in the corporate world seem to move with them, to be guided and shielded by their expertise and collectively they form a lethal and formidable team. From modest beginnings nearly ten years ago, a single minded vision, combined with the potent mix of unshakable commitment, sheer grit and toil, the Mediafactory Group has trodden thus far unexplored territory in Sri Lanka. The leadership of the group, joint Directors, Prashanth Supramaniam and Kapila Vidanagamage, defy convention and thrive on questioning existing practices. Looking back at a decade in the business, the vision of two young entrepreneurs has not only been realised but superseded, with their newest experiment of setting up individual business units to spin by themselves, competing against each other, creating Sri Lanka’s first and largest media buying cartel.

Mediafactory Group’s five separate buying arms, namely, Pulse, Praxis and Primus, which combined form the Media Factory Ltd. and Infinity and Plus together which comprise Madison Media Sri Lanka, an affiliate of Madison Media of India, are each led by seasoned professionals in the industry whose relationship with their clients, built over years of dedication and excellent service, is their core strength. “We have found in the short period that we have tried and tested this business model that it is an overwhelming success. The two main companies and its separate business units are all headed by top industry professionals who have developed their own style, charisma and acumen and a strong client base,” Supramaniam said. “The industry has only so many game changers and we believe each one our guy is good enough to compete against any of the other agencies in their own right. So why stifle them? Let them grow and create cells that compete with every other agency and even among themselves,” he added. The five Chief Operating Officers heading these individual cells are pillars of Mediafactory Group, adopting the group’s business culture, futuristic thinking into their own businesses, yet they are poles apart in their individual styles of operation. Integration Harshana Weragama who heads ‘Pulse’ strongly believes in integrating Above the Line (ATL) advertising with Below-the-Line (BTL) advertising for successful campaigns. Himself a seasoned campaigner, he capitalises on customer engagement, going to the grassroots to achieve the best results. Heading ‘Praxis’, Chaminda Samarakoon is known for his innovative buys and is not afraid to experiment with the unconventional to achieve top results. A great believer in integration he skilfully uses traditional mass media in his approaches. Invention in analysis and developing intricate modelling techniques is the forte of Sashi de Silva, at ‘Primus’. With a Masters in Statistics his strong analytical skills gives him an edge over most. Shanthi Sivagnanasundaram, who heads ‘Plus’ has worked with giants in the industry like SriLankan Airlines and Nestle, before she took over her current post. Shanthi’s strength is linking the dotted line between corporate strategy and media planning. Heading ‘Infinity’, Upendra Gamage is a street smart leader, with deep local insights to the consumer. His strong analytical skills are complimented by his skills in optimisation. All five unit heads possess strong academic backgrounds with Degrees and MBAs both from local and foreign universities but their success lies in their individual style of management, highly competitive spirit based on a foundation of mutual respect and trust. Pragmatic approach The two CEO’s of the competing arms of the Mediafactory Group look at their roles and mandates pragmatically. “We are passionate about our brands and fiercely protective of our clients. But we respect and acknowledge the fact that our other units work with the same reverence and passion on competitor accounts. We accept and are ready to work in that environment which is the success of this business formula, we just to it better,” Madison Media, Sri Lanka CEO Monika Weerasinghe said. On the other side of the fence Media Factory Ltd. CEO Prasanga Jayathunge voiced similar sentiments. “If you look at media buying strategies in the international market and how companies have adopted mind-blowing methods to keep the business within the family, I think we are on the right track,” Jayathunge said. Yes, growing our portfolio as a group is top priority, but the best interests of our client and maintaining and growing their confidence in us, while simultaneously providing an unbeatable service is paramount,” he added. His thoughts on the subject echo what IPG CEO Michael Roth, one of the four big boys in international media buying, has to say on the topic. “Our focus is and will remain on our clients and our people, which are the strength of our company. There’s nothing about scale that makes for better creative ideas, or leads to better integration of marketing disciplines. Ultimately, we’re all about our clients’ success and we intend to keep it that way, so that we can in turn build on our positive momentum in the marketplace.” These sentiments are shared by other heads of the top international media agencies like Martin Sorell of WPP and Maurice Levy of Publicis. Sam Balsara of Madison Media India, who is considered among the top three ad industry professionals in the sub-continent, says that he is greatly encouraged by the development of this new business model at Mediafactory Group and adds that he is happy to be part it. Setting a precedent Explaining the strategy that has propelled Mediafactory Group to a leading position, Supramaniam says, “With the business model we adopted, we have set a precedent in Sri Lanka. This model is practiced by Media agencies internationally, who have formed cartels with this business model of individual units in the same group competing with each other, but we are the first to practice it in Sri Lanka.” The secret and reason behind this supreme client confidence is the overriding passion of the servicing team to protect their clients and the confidentiality of their accounts to the maximum. Intense battles rage among the individual units for top accounts and the CEOs of the two media buying companies are constantly managing such battles with the overall winner being the client, who gets the best deal out of this intensity of passion and emotion, attached to the individual brands owned by these teams. “This business practice has also given us another key advantage of shaping and modelling the career progression our top team, who all bring a wealth of experience and individual relationship with clients,” Director Vidanagamage said. “Each of these business units heads have their own style of doing business, led by highly individualistic, industry professionals who have developed their business into a fine craft over years of experience and we do not want to kill their career progression and leadership, but to nurture and develop it further, while preserving our core values and our own very strong individualistic, corporate culture,” he added. Modest beginnings Media Factory was set up by the two directors Prashanth Supramaniam and Kapila Vidanagamage almost 10 years ago as a very modest operation of one computer, two lap tops and four people including the two directors. Today it is a top player in the communications industry, offering clients seven disciplines of marketing communications specialisation. The large umbrella of Mediafactory Group, hold five separate companies; Media Factory Ltd., Madison Media Sri Lanka, Magenta Ltd - their creative arm, Mandarin BTL. Ltd - the activation arm and Momentus Ltd - their PR and digital arm, which combined total over 90+ employees. What began as Sri Lanka’s first specialised media agency, transforming media operations from being a non-strategic scheduling job, to a strategic process closely aligned with corporate objectives and a broader study of the consumer in their media world, has today once more revolutionised the local advertising industry. They remain a game changers asking questions from the industry and forcing change.