
51GROUP IMD |
BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2019
These versions of the original ad are
then delivered over the internet to all
the media outlets.
Before online services like IMD
Cloud, video ads were duplicated
on video tape and couriered to their
destinations. This process using
physical material took far longer than
online delivery. Therefore, online
delivery gives people involved in the
creative process more time and a
greater ability to change video ads at
the last minute, an example of which
might be using a different price point
or to correct an error.
Moreover, by doing this all online, the
carbon footprint also falls compared
to tapes and couriers. Indeed, a French
authority’s study pointed to a 28-fold
reduction.
Everyone involved in the online
process can log on to IMD Cloud,
play their role and see what the status
of an ad is as it goes through this
process. Previously, when ads were
moved around on video tape, this
transparency didn’t exist. Frantic phone
calls to hunt down missing ads were
a daily reality; now they are a thing of
the past.
Our performance has made us the
leader in many countries, including
Germany, Italy, India, China and Brazil.
For example, around two thirds of the
TV adverts in the UK come through
Group IMD.
How our success was achieved
It’s possible to identify several elements
of our company’s strategy and
approach to growing internationally.
For starters, we’ve always had a very
focused strategy and concentrated on
one core offering. For example, we
avoided the temptation of going into
the business of moving TV programmes
around online. This might seem like an
identical business from a distance, but
in reality the customers and technology
are considerably different.
We also took time to hire great local
staff for our business in every market
we entered. Sometimes we used
headhunters or recruiters; sometimes
we used our own network of contacts.
In any case, without great local leaders
our markets wouldn’t have developed.
All our employees have to be able to
communicate in English, but being
local means that they understand their
market and the local clients much
better. This is particularly appreciated
in markets like France and Japan.
Another factor in our success was the
winning of some major global brands
as clients, such as Unilever and L’Oréal,
which helped us open up different
markets where they wanted to enjoy
the benefits of our service.
Most of our growth was organic, but
in some markets we acquired other
similar businesses. To do this, we
needed people inside the business
who had the skill set for mergers and
acquisitions. This has now happened in
Spain, Ireland, China, India, Singapore,
New Zealand and, most recently, with
the merger with Honeycomb.
We also invested in a Latin American
business, A+V, taking a minority
shareholding, rather than attempting
to set up a business in a continent
that can be hard to navigate. We’ve
Signing a deal to buy
our competitor in China
Before online
services like IMD
Cloud, video ads
were duplicated
on video tape
and couriered to
their
destinations
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