Indie agencies team up for Alliance of Media Independents

The Alliance of Independent Agencies (AIA) and the Land of Independents have collaborated to launch an initiative aimed at sharing knowledge and support for independent media agencies.

The Alliance of Media Independents (AMI) will function as a full-time offering, supporting independents by providing exclusive benefits to its members, fostering closer ties with relevant media owners, partners and suppliers, and launching events for all levels of agency staff.

It will in effect sit as a sub-division within the AIA.

Agencies that are part of the AMI at launch are: AMS Media Group, Bountiful Cow, Crossmedia, December19, JAA Media, Pashn, Republic of Media, The Specialist Works, the7stars and Total Media UK.

Martin Woolley, chair of What’s Possible Group, will be chair of the AMI. Paul Phelps, CEO of AMS Media Group, will serve as vice-chair.

Collectively, the launch agencies represent more than £800m in billings. This would make the group the third-largest media buyer in the UK, behind WPP’s EssenceMediacom and Omnicom’s OMD, according to the latest Nielsen figures.

Woolley told The Media Leader that another half-dozen agencies have indicated that they are “likely” to join the alliance in the coming weeks — this could soon push the AMI’s combined billings above £1bn.

The initiative is being supported at launch by Google, consumer research company GWI and Experian.

The Land of Independents was founded in 2020 as a loose collective of independent agencies looking to offer cross-industry support in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the AIA was founded in 2018 as a marketing community dedicated to growing the capability and profitability of its member agencies. According to managing director Terry Martin, the AIA has grown “rapidly” over the past 18 months to now include over 100 independents.