Mediassociates

Mediassociates is an independently owned media buying agency with offices in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Mediassociates sells services such as media planning and buying, advertising consulting, analytics, mobile, and social media marketing. In 2015, Mediassociates was included in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies^[1] in the United States for a second time, based on 98 percent growth over the prior three years.^[2]

Company History

Mediassociates was founded in Connecticut in 1996 by current company president and CEO, Scott Brunjes. The agency’s first major campaign was for American Auto Finance, an automotive refinancing group that focused on broadcast advertising using direct response systems. Mediassociates quickly moved to a headquarters location in Danbury, Connecticut.

Mediassociates expanded into digital marketing in 2002, first with search engine marketing, followed by digital display advertising, online video, mobile, and social media marketing.

In 2012, the company opened a subsidiary company called eEffective, a digital programmatic trading desk. Advertising Age describes programmatic media buying as “a wide range of technologies that have begun automating the buying, placement and optimization of advertising, replacing human-based methods.”^[3] Mediassociates’ early foray into programmatic buying was in anticipation of the rapid growth of this innovative method as confirmed by Magna Global Intelligence’s 2013 projection that worldwide programmatic ad spending would leap to $32.6 billion by 2017, with spending in the US increasing to $16.9 billion.^[4]

In 2013, Mediassociates moved its headquarters from Danbury, Connecticut, to Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to accommodate increased staff.

Publications and Media Coverage

Between 2008 and 2012, Mediassociates published a series of columns^[5] in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine on advertising technology trends. Mediassociates claims to have made a number of accurate predictions about emerging and future media platforms and technologies:

• Businessweek column “Why Widgets Don’t Work”^[6] predicted that the then-new communication fad of widgets, or small icons of software on computers, would not replace rising social media usage. The column, “The Trouble with Twitter,”^[7] predicted that Twitter would have difficulty monetizing its user base with an intrusive advertising model in its small, text-based social user interface. Both predictions proved accurate, and subsequent columns were picked up by NBC News ("How Apple Plays the Pricing Game"^[8]), quoted in The Atlantic ("The Fall of the Internet and the Rise of the Splinternet" ^[9]), and reprinted in Xinhua News, the most influential media outlet in China.
• On December 30, 2009, a Mediassociates’ column in Businessweek titled “Five Ways Apple’s Tablet May Change the World”^[10] predicted that Apple would soon launch an “iPad” device; Apple did announce its new iPad one month later on January 27, 2010.^[11]

The agency continues to publish periodic columns^[12] in online media journalism portal, Digiday. The agency’s own blog on advertising trends is Thoughtgadgets.com.

Awards and Recognition

• In 2014, Mediassociates was included in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States. It was ranked in the top 3,000 companies based on a growth rate of more than 125 percent from 2010 to 2013.^[13]
• In December 2014, Mediassociates President and CEO Scott Brunjes received a Celebrate CT award from the Connecticut Economic Development Association for the company’s contribution to the economic growth of the state.^[14]
• In 2015, Mediassociates made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States for a second time, based on 98 percent growth over the prior three years.^[13]

External links

• www.mediassociates.com
• www.eeffective.com
• www.thoughtgadgets.com

References

1. "The 2015 Inc. 5000". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
2. "Frequently Asked Questions". Inc.com. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
3. "The CMO's Guide to Programmatic Buying". adage.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
4. "Programmatic Ad Spend Set to Soar - eMarketer". www.emarketer.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
5. "Ben Kunz - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
6. "Why Widgets Don't Work". BloombergView. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
7. "The Trouble with Twitter". BloombergView. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
8. "How Apple plays the pricing game". msnbc.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
9. Thompson, Derek. "The Fall of the Internet and the Rise of the 'Splinternet'". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
10. "Five Ways Apple's Tablet May Change the World". BloombergView. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
11. "Apple - Press Info - Apple Launches iPad". www.apple.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
12. "Ben Kunz, Author at Digiday". Digiday. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
13. "Newtown's Mediassociates among fastest-growing U.S. firms". NewsTimes. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
14. Steinmetz, Paul. "Contributing to Connecticut's economy". www.hamlethub.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.