“Media agencies represent investment of around 600 million euros. There are few associations that represent this volume and, nevertheless, there is no clear interlocutor,” says Pedro Baltazar.
Nova Expressão, Pedro Baltazar’s media agency, rejoined the Portuguese Association of Media Agencies (APAME) in March, having left it in 2019. The main objective of this return is “the union of all media agencies around a single association, which would make it possible to ensure a stronger position, greater capacity for intervention in strategic matters and greater presence in the media, thereby giving greater prominence to this industry.”
Since 2013, media agencies have been divided between two associations. On the one hand, there is APAME, the oldest association, and, on the other, APEIP (Portuguese Association of Advertising Investment Management Companies), created by Omnicom Media Group and GroupM, two multinationals that left APAME around a decade ago and joined together in the new structure.
In the first, APAME, the agencies from the Havas, Dentsu and Mediabrands groups remained, taking turns to hold the presidency, along with the agencies from the Publicis group, Media Gate and the respective purchasing centres.
“Together, media agencies represent investment of around 600 million euros. There are few associations that represent this volume and, nevertheless, there is no clear interlocutor; no one really knows who they can speak to,” he explains to +M.
The owner of Nova Expressão says he will officially raise the issue at the next APAME general assembly, a body he chaired until 2019 as representative of the media agency and, from then on, as representative of Powermedia, the purchasing centre of which Nova Expressão is a member. “I cannot initiate contacts; as APAME, I do not have the representativeness to start conversations, but I can publicly defend the issue,” he says.
Pedro Baltazar believes that agencies, united in a single association and with “a level of interlocution equivalent to that of the other associations”, can take positions and communicate clearly with both media groups and clients, thereby gaining strength on all fronts. Speaking with one voice is particularly important in a context in which the industry is facing major changes with the resulting challenges, fundamentally related to technological innovation. “There is much more that unites us than separates us,” the leader reinforces.
