With the industry in a constant state of flux, MiC will periodically touch base with leaders who are navigating those changes along with changes in their own careers. Here, after being in the job for a little more than a year, we speak with Media Experts CEO Karel Wegert.
Last May, Karel Wegert returned to Media Experts to take the reins as the IPG Mediabrands agency’s CEO. He replaced Robert Jenkyn, who had worked as CEO since 2021. Before his return, Wegert had been with Media Experts for 15 years, mainly in digital roles, and was EVP before leaving in 2022 to spend a year as president of Mediabrands’ data and tech agency Kinesso Canada.
Media in Canada recently checked in with Wegert to get his views on the past year and his thoughts on the future of the agency and the industry.
You were obviously comfortable returning to Media Experts, but I guess there was still work to do. What initiatives have you been working on since then?
We sat down last year as a leadership team and looked at what Media Experts represents in the marketplace and what our strengths are. I was blessed with fresh perspective after having been away for a little while. At the same time, I also still had a 20-year history and experience with Media Experts proper and what it has always been as an agency. We agreed that we needed to evolve, to reassess, restate our position in the market, and what makes us unique as an agency. We need to refresh our look and feel because it hasn’t changed since about 2014, and feel it isn’t necessarily representative of the culture that had grown at this agency over the years.
What is the positioning?
Media Experts was independent for 35 years before we were acquired [as part of IPG Mediabrands]. We have only ever operated in the Canadian market and are structured a little bit uniquely because we have three offices across Canada. Three significant offices across Canada, not just satellite, but we also don’t treat those offices as independent P&Ls. We basically act as one team across all three offices so we can pull in insights, knowledge and resources for our clients. It’s always given us a very Canada-first slant.
When we step back to really look at what our clients are trying to do in this market, whether it’s a local Canadian brand or a brand trying to break through in the Canadian market, ultimately, they are trying to win in the Canadian market. It takes deep understanding of this market to do that. We don’t have a head office in London or New York handing us down our approach to media or anyone dictating how we should do things… Ultimately, we needed to lean in on our tradition as Canadian experts in the marketplace.
Have you introduced any new tools or capabilities into the agency?
Where it makes sense, we do need to lean into the capabilities that exist across IPG. Having come from the Kinesso side of the of the house, it was easy for me to identify those opportunities to make connections and leverage some of the technology that does exist centrally. We’re definitely more connected in that respect, whether it’s advanced measurement solutions via MMM or other types of modeling, and more advanced approaches to media optimization and the automated side of the business.
At the same time, we still are very much looking for those opportunities to create our own solutions and products that could benefit our clients. Last year, we leaned heavily into attention metrics as an example of a relatively new set of KPIs that we can optimize against, drive more relevancy and act as a as a proxy for interest or sales. It’s another kind of consideration metric in that muddy area of media where it’s difficult to really assess a theory, make an impact and maybe drive people towards purchase. We feel attention metrics are a really good opportunity for some of our clients in that space.
How do clients feel about attention metrics?
It’s been great with our clients and not just our existing clients. We’ve had some really good growth. This year, we started the year with the Honda Canada business, which was a really significant win. Shortly after that, one that is very close to my heart, we’re very happy to welcome WestJet back to the family [after two years with Touche]. I’ve worked on the WestJet-side business since the first day I worked at Media Experts in 2007. I actually think some of what shaped our narrative, look, feel and branding, and the fact that we leaned into the Canadiana side of our culture, was influenced by our experience with WestJet. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to pitch on it and fortunate enough to bring them back this year.
Are there other capabilities or areas of technology want to invest in?
The obvious answer is AI, just because AI is such a hot button issue right now. I think it poses a unique opportunity and challenge for our industry because we’re working really hard to empower our people and to put the tools in their hands so that they can be more efficient and benefit from the speed and scale that some of these tools can offer. . . then the interesting flipside of that whole conversation is how do you continue to differentiate in a world where things are more and more automated, particularly on the media side. So again, going back to the craft of what we do and where we can find that balance between the efficiencies that AI can bring and the rigor and the experience that we can bring to the table and where can we offset and balance out the technology with the experience and detail on a market-by-market and client-by-client basis.
With the growth in technology, are you looking for new types of skills from employees?
To a certain degree, I think there is more of a technical set of hard skills. Coming in at the entry level, we see more and more candidates coming to us with more programming language knowledge. We are operating in a very complex world now in the media space. Whenever we find people that have that balance of either marketing or media background but also have some development skills, it’s interesting and something that was very rare a few years ago.