OOH really works optimally with MMAP!

CYBERTORIAL* Dedicated, passionate, knowledgeable, efficient and available! MMAP now sells for over 150 different OOH media owners, with a national coverage.

Operating out of its funky offices in Bryanston, MMAP is no stranger to out of home advertising. Having been in the market for the past 11 years, the two-time MOST Award winning company has grown its business significantly over the years. Michael Bratt sat down with company founder and managing director, Michele Munro, to discuss the business and what it has been up to recently.

While MMAP offers opportunities across different OOH platforms, including a number of digital offerings, the company has a renewed focus on one area in particular: 3m by 6m internally illuminated billboards.

“We always represented media owners that have the three by sixes, but it was always on an ad hoc basis… now we are getting into the 3m x 6m rotational package game in a big way,” Munro explains. “They offer huge flexibility, and great value to clients.”

Then factor in the fact that MMAP invests substantially on an ongoing basis, in updating its database of media owners and their individual offerings. The benefit? Instantaneous knowledge of inventory, availability, flighting cycles and contract terms at one’s fingertips.

MMAP Founder and CEO Michele Munro — MMAP Founder and managing director, Michele Munro

With a staff complement of just six people, MMAP now sells for over 150 different OOH media owners, with a national coverage. Commenting on the small number of staff Munro says, “It’s a business model that works. We don’t need a massive amount of staff to do what we do, we manage it. We make good use of the staff we have. We’re very technology-driven, and our systems and data management allow us to deliver with optimum efficiency.”

And media owners recognise the benefits of using MMAP’s expertise. The ones that utilise MMAP’s services do business with many of SA’s largest blue chip clients, and Munro says the number of media owners just keeps growing, with MMAP meeting with at least three new players every week. MMAP also has service level agreements in place with many of its media owner partners. The result is that MMAP has been able to retain a solid base of loyal clients over the years.

Doing business with the motto “supportive, transparent, committed, reliable”, Munro says the support the business receives comes down to several characteristics that are core to the company’s ethos. Good really isn’t good enough. Excellence is the guiding light for the company, achieved through quick turnaround time, passion, knowledge of the out of home space, being able to tailor make campaigns, competitive production costs, managing the whole out of home process from start to finish, and innovation.

Munro describes the business as “THE one stop shop” for OOH advertising needs. A unique aspect of the business is that it works on a cost of sales commission model and it is able to print and flight even on weekends, if needed, as happened recently with a big campaign on the R24 highway.

Another positive for MMAP is its staff. The team is led by Munro, who is very experienced with OOH having worked in this space for the past 13 years. She has also built incredibly strong relationships along the way. Two of the current staff members began in the business with Munro with one of them, Annelies van Zyl, working her way up to general manager. The team loves to get involved in creative thinking when it comes to outdoor execution and Munro believes that a lot more can be done with out of home in terms of tactical, smart and innovative campaigns.

And innovation is the watchword when it comes to harnessing the big trend that MMAP is seeing in OOH advertising – the demand for digital in the space. While MMAP does not push digital over traditional formats, both are available – the best format for the message will prevail.

However, being unbiased in its recommendations is crucial to the business model. Munro wanted to explain more about the process of how MMAP operates. “MMAP does not make the decisions in terms of bookings. We supply the available inventory to the client and they decide on what they want to book. We do not buy, we facilitate the entire process” she explains. She adds that the process is always totally transparent as the media contracts are between client and media owner.

Having won two MOST Awards in the past, MMAP will be in the running again this year. However take note, the company has been moved to a new category. It was always in the OOH category, but has been shifted to the brand new Media Sales Consultancies category.

Munro believes that service delivery has been key to MMAP’s MOST Awards success. “We tend to excel in service delivery, just pulling out all the stops and going the extra mile. We really pride ourselves on that,” she says. Munro also stresses that MMAP has an open door policy. “Our media owner partners are welcome at any time. In fact we encourage it so we can be abreast of what’s out there and all the new innovations and sites.”