MediaCom aims for €50m Irish turnover

THE SCOTTISH division of MediaCom — the media buying arm of international advertising group, WPP — is aiming to grow its new Irish business into a €50 million company within the next two years.

The company has been building up a clientele hear for the past nine weeks, since expanding into the Irish market, but only formally began trading at its new Dublin office yesterday.

According to MediaCom Scotland managing director, Euan Jarvie — who will initially spend time between Edinburgh and Dublin heading up both offices — the business has already lined up the likes of Nokia, Muller, Wrigleys, Dell and Royal Bank of Scotland (Ulster Bank/First Active here) as clients, giving the Irish arm an initial turnover of around €28m. The Scottish division of MediaCom has annual sales of more than £70m (€90m).

Much of the new company’s clientele has come from the former Mediacom Ireland business — now incorporated as the buying arm of advertising agency Grey Helme, but formerly a local agent for WPP in the Irish market.

Employing 11 people, MediaCom Dublin’s staff levels will be boosted significantly over the coming months until a fully integrated indigenous management team are in place.

Mr Jarvie said he is very confident of picking up new business here even in the current economic slowdown.

“These are very opportunistic times for media agencies because they are exactly the kind of times when companies look carefully at their advertising budgets and want to make sure they get the best value for money available.”

He added that while the cultural similarities between Scotland and Ireland benefit the tie-in between the two companies, the Irish market — being an independent advertising territory — offers MediaCom the chance to secure some big multinational contracts outside of the British market.