A year ago at this time, McKim Media Group was celebrating its capture of Strategy’s Best Media Operation title (in a tie with MBS/The Media Company). Today, the agency no longer exists – in name, anyway. But it lives on, as part of this year’s winner: Optimum Media Direction Canada.

OMD officially came into being on Jan. 1, 1999, when New York-based Omnicom combined the media buying units of its Canadian agency groups.

It is now the country’s largest media buying operation, with an estimated $960 million in billings for 1999 – nearly 10% of Canada’s $8.8-billion annual ad spend, and close to double the billings of its closest competitor, MBS/The Media Company.

Omnicom’s agency holdings in this country include BBDO Canada, Palmer Jarvis DDB, TBWA Chiat/Day and Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell (which has a seat on the OMD board, but operates autonomously).

The merger has given the members of the OMD Canada team added clout, heightened independence and greater access to research data, says Ann Boden, formerly the head of McKim, and now president of OMD. At the same time, however, it has increased the onus to succeed.

The agency made several steps in the right direction this past year, she says, with the acquisition of such high-profile accounts as the Clorox Company of Canada, Daimler Chrysler Canada and the Western Canadian telecommunications giant Telus.

‘We’ve been building a company and solidifying things with our clients and staff, and still we [managed to get] this new business,’ Boden says. ‘I honestly didn’t expect that this would happen right away.’

Indeed, one of Boden’s concerns is that OMD may have been too inwardly focused during its flagship year. For the coming year, she says, the goal is to keep the 140-person organization focused on clients and their needs.

The agency will also concentrate on developing its procedures for hiring and retaining employees, she says, and will work toward introducing some new proprietary tools, with a view to beefing up accountability.

Boden says the buying philosophy that once prevailed at McKim (‘The right placement of the message with the right audience at the best price’) now informs OMD’s efforts – and will continue to do so in the new millennium.

‘We were very successful as McKim Media Group, and that’s why Omnicom made us the nucleus of the company,’ she says. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’re doing a lot of little tweaking, but philosophically we’re the same.’

Helping employees from the different buying units adjust to the transition has been one of the major challenges for OMD since its inception.

Couple that with a growing trend in the industry that sees media management people defecting to the sales side, and it’s clear that staffing issues are going to be a priority for the organization for some time to come.

‘We have to show people that having a career in media is a very promising thing,’ Boden says. ‘In the past, a lot of people thought media was just to get your foot on the ladder. We, as an industry, have to prove that you can have a career path in a media company.’

Making media a more attractive field in which to work means offering better salaries and training, greater rewards and recognition, and a lot less stress,

she says.

A 30 year media veteran, Boden says this is the most exciting period she has witnessed in the business.

Media, she says, has assumed greater importance within the marketing mix than it ever possessed before, and will continue to grow in stature. Clients no longer compete solely within their own category, but against the messages that bombard consumers in every medium and category – a phenomenon that has increased their appreciation of media. Separate media pitches and more complex, innovative media strategies are fast becoming the norm.

Looking back over the recent past, Boden says she is pleased with the imaginative work that OMD has done on behalf of a number of major clients, including Gillette Canada, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Kraft Canada and Pepsi-Cola Canada. Initiatives like the multi-media ‘event’ that OMD created around the launch of Gillette’s MACH3, for example, demonstrate the operation’s strengths when it comes to planning and buying.

‘People think that because we’re big, we only go on our buying clout,’ Boden says. ‘[But] it’s not just our clout – it’s our planning prowess as well as the innovation that we bring to our clients. We think outside the box.’

Size is a major factor in today’s media equation, Boden acknowledges. (‘We have to have the clout to go head-to-head with the large media owners. If we don’t, it will be difficult for clients to get good costs.’) But it is by no means the only factor.

‘Big certainly helps,’ she says. ‘But I’d rather be the best, as well as the biggest.’

Also in this special report:

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Introduction p.MAG85

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: How we identified the winners p.MAG86

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Silver: The Media Edge p. MAG96

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Bronze: Carat Cairns p.MAG98

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Best Media Director: Bruce Grondin: p.MAG101

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Best Media Operation, Quebec: Cossette Media p.MAG105

– Strategy’s 1999 Best Media Operation: Media Directors’ Honour Roll p.MAG106