• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 9, 2003

MediaCom, one of the smallest of the major media agencies, has become the first to establish a worldwide media buying post, naming Jon Mandel global buying officer. Mandel, who has been co-CEO and chief negotiating officer of MediaCom U.S., will assume oversight of buying operations outside the U.S. that account for about 70% of the agency's media billings.

Alexander Schmidt-Vogel, CEO of MediaCom Worldwide, said the move was designed to "capitalize on the global consolidation of the media industry for its clients," but Mandel tells MediaDailyNews that the move has just as much to do with leveraging insights about discrete media markets as it is about integrating them globally.

"There are two important parts to this," he explains. "One is to see what we can do to develop and put deals together globally. But let's face it, it's hard enough to get things done regionally. The other important part is to understand what's being done regionally in one market that we can leverage in another market."

As examples, Mandel cited innovative media buying practices taking place in the U.S., Germany and Russia that might create opportunities for other markets.

"They have some creative ways of thinking about media that we could all benefit from. One of the most fun ones to me is something we did in our Moscow office. In Russia, you can't do transit advertising. It's very problematic. They just won't let you do it. But we did a very interesting deal for a laundry detergent brand with the Russian subway system," says Mandel. "In their subway system, they have people who stand at the heads of escalators to direct traffic. We worked out a deal where these guys would single out people and tell them how good their clothes would look if they used this detergent. "Hey, you in the purple shirt, try this detergent.' And everyone around him would look at the guy in the purple shirt."

Beyond media creativity, Mandel says the global buying post will seek to leverage market practices as well as business relationships.

"If Bertelsmann is developing a new publication for the U.S. that's based on something they are doing somewhere else, maybe there is a way we can do something on the ground floor that will help them here<" he says.

As far as true global media buying initiatives, Mandel says the business of buying media still is based essentially on local deal making. Part of that is because of the way marketers and media vendors are set up, but he says a definite goal is to facilitate global buying initiatives.

"Do you want to wait for it to be set up that way, or do you want to make it happen," asks Mandel, adding, "This goes well beyond the deal itself. A lot of this is about having relationships and making sure you have the best relationships at the highest levels of these companies on a worldwide basis. In the end, it gets done locally, but it helps if you have somebody pushing down from above."

With Mandel focusing more on those relationships, more of the U.S. management responsibilities will shift to Ariadne (Dene) Callas, co-CEO and chief strategic officer of MediaCom U.S., who adds the new position of president and a greater focus on the day-to-day management of MediaCom's U.S. operations.