Speaking to Media Week, MediaCom chairman Jane Ratcliffe expanded on the agency's ambitions in and around the three key regional hubs served formerly by Brilliant and now under the MediaCom umbrella, in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.
MediaCom bought in a land grab that will mean the WPP agency will take its place as one of the most influential in UK regional media.
The independent agency had a rough start to 2011 following the loss of the TV, radio, outdoor and digital business for DFS, worth around £40m in billings, to MediaCom, and the £12m Asda regional media business to Carat.
Brilliant has now been put into the hands of administrators Begbies Traynor who will deal with any business conducted by the regional agency until 30 November, with MediaCom taking responsibility for the agency business from 1 December.
Ratcliffe said that MediaCom would honour any client-booking with media owners from the beginning of the month onwards, with responsibility before that landing with the administrator.
All of Brilliant’s former clients have now been sent novation notices to inform them of the purchase of the agency by MediaCom.
No former Brilliant clients have publicly expressed a desire to leave the agency, following its change of ownership.
Neither MediaCom nor Begbies Traynor has released the financial terms of the Brilliant deal.
There has been a lot of change in the regional agency market this year. Aegis Media bought the in July for an initial payment of £27m, which may rise to as much as £95m depending on the future performance of the agency.
Aegis renamed MediaVest as Carat Manchester and also to Carat, folding the Manchester office into the former MediaVest agency.
At the end of last month, Stuart Feather, the co-founder of Feather Brooksbank, now Carat Edinburgh, to form his own start-up.
Follow Mark Banham on Twitter
.jpg)
.jpeg)
