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Full-service media agency group will play a key role in expanding the capabilities offered by fast-growing MTP
Meet The People (MTP), the innovative alternative to the big advertising holding company model, today announced that True Independent Holdings (TIH), parent company of True Media, True Media Canada, Coegi and RADaR, is joining the MTP group of agencies, taking over general media services for the growing agency group. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
With offices in both the U.S. and Canada, along with capabilities that include media planning and buying, a programmatic trading desk, and a data and analytics unit, TIH represents a significant addition to the growing MTP roster. With the completion of the deal, the agency and its subsidiaries will join VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail, Saltwater Collective and Swell Media as a full partner in the MTP agency group.
“Joining forces with TIH and its agencies is an important step in the evolution of Meet The People,” says MTP Founder and Group CEO Tim Ringel. “It adds substantial scale, skill and technology access to our media offering, representing our ambition of excellence for our clients, which will help all of our agency brands better serve our clients.”
Founded in 2005, True Media quickly built a reputation for strong strategically based planning and aggressive client advocacy in media negotiations. Its forward thinking also helped it stay ahead of the curve in performance media, leading to its launch of Coegi, a digital media and programmatic advertising agency, and RADaR, an ad performance data and analytics firm.
Now, as part of MTP, the TIH family of companies will anchor a robust offering of MTP-agency media services while continuing to work with other independent agencies and clients across North America. Existing MTP media agency Swell Media will maintain its specialty in e-commerce and B2B under this new structure.
Founder and CEO of True Independent Holdings, Jack Miller, says, “This is an exciting time for all of us. Tim and the entire team at MTP have crafted an agency group that is both grounded in valuing the individual and focused on innovating the industry through independent agencies. It’s an approach that perfectly aligns with the ways we’ve always conducted business, and I’m eager to see what this new relationship will enable us to achieve.”
Under MTP’s innovative new organizational approach, all of the roster agencies can work closely together as a community in a single ownership structure while retaining independence as a core strength to establish their own identity and culture. By combining entrepreneurially minded firms into one fully integrated platform, MTP is able to bring specialized services to clients while providing fully integrated agency-of-record solutions to these brands at the same time.
“It’s an operating model that exceeds the expectations of clients in every way,” says Ringel. “It allows us to offer integrated thinking, better services, faster solutions, less friction and deep expertise, all in a collaborative and transparent manner. These are the things that make a real difference in the relationships between brands and their agencies.”
With the addition of TIH’s 200-plus employees, the combined operations will boast headcount of over 750 employees in both the U.S. and Canada. It continues MTP’s steep growth trajectory over the past few years, achieved with strategic and financial support from Innovatus Capital Partners LLC, the New York–based portfolio management firm.
“We’re thrilled to have TIH join the Meet The People agency group,” says Innovatus CEO and founding partner David Schiff. “Jack and his team have built some extraordinary companies, and we look forward to building something even more amazing out of these combined operations.”
“MTP has the kind of scale, focus and drive we were looking for,” adds Miller. “We’ve always been aggressive about business growth. Now we have an equally ambitious partner who can help us realize even greater potential.”
PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to True Independent Holdings in this transaction.
ABOUT TRUE INDEPENDENT HOLDINGS
True Independent Holdings is one of North America’s leading independent marketing and advertising groups with capabilities that span strategy, media, data, analytics, digital, social and content development across its award-winning agencies True Media, True Media Canada, Coegi and RADaR. Collectively, our companies provide marketers with the ability to collaborate and access best-in-class services by leveraging technology, data analytics and a deep understanding of consumer behavior to help grow business for clients. Our structure enables the agencies in our portfolio to exist independently and grow entrepreneurially yet collaborate when needed to meet our clients’ needs. This integrated approach ensures our clients receive more holistic and effective solutions in less time from true experts.
ABOUT MEET THE PEOPLE
Meet The People is an international group of unified but independent agencies bringing together key marketing services under one umbrella, allowing for fully integrated but deeply specialized solutions, from creative and design to activation and measurement. Backed by Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC, Meet The People is deeply committed to the idea that people are at the core of any organization and drive success, and that advertising works best when clients have access to expertise and deep talent.
ABOUT INNOVATUS CAPITAL PARTNERS
Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC is an independent adviser and portfolio management firm with approximately $2 billion in assets under management. Innovatus adheres to an investment strategy that identifies disruptive and growth opportunities across multiple asset categories with a unifying theme of capital preservation, income generation, and upside optionality. Innovatus’ lower-middle-market strategy seeks to invest in companies with a strong market position, tangible and identifiable value, and excellent growth potential. The investment team works closely with business owners, management teams and lenders to develop creative financial and operational solutions in both control and noncontrol situations. The team targets lower-middle-market and middle-market companies with revenues of $25 million to $250 million, with typical deal sizes from $10 million to $50 million.