The consolidation of the largest independent European communications group, ServicePlan Group, with a turnover of 6.6 billion euros and present in more than 20 markets, passes through Spain. His House of Communication has experienced a growth of 81% in the Spanish market after the integration of MediaPlus Equmedia. Its CEO, Florian Haller, analyzes the group’s strategy in a context marked by geopolitical instability and the artificial intelligence revolution.
ServicePlan Group has experienced significant growth in an ever-evolving media landscape in recent years. What are the key factors driving this success in a competitive advertising market? How is ServicePlan Group adapting to changes in media consumption and consumer preferences?
The most important factor for our growth is the idea of House of Communication. Many customers today are looking for efficiency, they are looking for more effectiveness at a lower price. The internetization of the world has led to an incredible fragmentation of different media. Bringing everything together under one roof – creativity, media and technology – is what really sets our group apart from other providers.
With a turnover of 6.6 billion euros, they are the largest independent group in Europe. What are the advantages of maintaining this independence from the large global advertising holding companies in the current context?
A great differentiator compared to large holding groups is our independence. It means we are not listed on the stock exchange, and this allows us a greater customer focus than larger companies that are listed: we do not have to submit quarterly reports to our shareholders because we are owned by management. We have managing partners who have a serious interest in the business. And this combination of, on the one hand, being more customer-focused and, at the same time, having greater continuity from management, which has a serious participation and interest in the business, differentiates us greatly from the business model of the large companies. holdings.
The model of House of Communication It is something specific to ServicePlan. How has this concept evolved since its implementation and what advantages does it offer over more traditional agency structures?
At first, we created House of Communication as a “one-stop shop” concept, and although in some ways it still is, it has evolved more into a concept whose cycle offers a comprehensive solution to the client: while our creatives generate emotion and awareness, we generate reach through the media, and finally we bring people to platforms and CRM platforms for purchase and repurchase.
A good example is what we are doing for BMW on a European scale, where we create an asset to generate emotions, we disseminate it in digital media, we measure the effect of digital media, we bring people to the platform, we introduce them into the CRM system , and then we can talk to people again through email marketing, in-car advertising or other BMW-owned platforms.
How is geopolitical instability impacting your clients’ advertising strategy?
Our clients are currently greatly affected by geopolitical instability. The German automotive industry, for example, is suffering from the conflict between the West and China, because they have many production plants in China. The Chinese market is a large market, and this disengagement, which comes particularly from the US, is a major problem for European and German companies.
Also, obviously, the horrible war that Russia imposed on Ukraine is a trade problem, because Russia was also an interesting market, which basically everyone decided to abandon, including us.
And the current American insecurity, which we see in the Trump versus Harris race, does not help either, because Donald Trump’s program is not very promising for European companies.
What does MediaPlus Equmedia bring to the ServicePlan ecosystem? What is your contribution to the ServicePlan group?
It contributes in several ways. On the one hand, obviously, the Spanish market itself is really important. The Iberian market is a large and significant market, and we would not be able to offer a European media offering if we did not have the Iberian market.
Secondly, the Spanish-speaking world is a much larger world even, with 500 million native Spanish speakers. We also hope, through strong House of Communication in Madrid, to be able to radiate to other Spanish-speaking markets.
And thirdly, Spain is also a hub for creativity and digital talents. We see many digital talents in Spain. Therefore, MediaPlus EquMedia helps us access them.
How is ServicePlan MediaPlus positioned in the Spanish market as an independent agency?
MediaPlus is one of the fastest growing media agencies in the Spanish market, and the first among independent ones. And much of its appeal also comes from the effect of House of Communicationn. That’s why I think we are in the right place at the right time.
MediaPlus’ transformation into a data-driven agency with a focus on AI is quite remarkable. Can you share some concrete examples of how you are applying AI in your services and what role Generative AI plays in your growth strategy for the coming years?
AI, from my point of view, is the third great milestone in the last 20 years. I have seen the rise of the internet, which changed our business radically. Then the rise of the smartphone – the iPhone was launched in 2007, it sounds like an eternity away, but it isn’t. And now the third big change and milestone is definitely AI.
We are working in two directions. On the one hand, we have developed a generative AI tool to create images, video and text for our clients. We do this in our own environment for data security reasons. Many customers don’t realize that when using Midjourney as a standard tool; They are making your data visible to third parties.
On the other hand, we have developed a concept called “Agentic”, where we bring together different AI solutions and make them talk to each other. Thus, we can create solutions for companies, automated competitive reports, for example, or an integrated solution for a travel company, where we automatically create texts with images and prices for tourists interested in going to Spain or wherever.
And the third big advantage is obviously managing data better and making it the basis of a future-oriented media company.
The integration of Equmedia has been decisive in its growth in Spain. What specific capabilities of the Spanish agency interested you? And how have they managed to preserve their local know-how while aligning with Serviceplan’s global culture?
The most important factor was that we believed that the people who ran Equmedia were a good fit for us. We have known Equmedia for a long time. I think integration is determined by the fact that key leaders can work together. It works with key people.
That was the key deciding factor. The other was obviously Equmedia’s market position, which was strong: its growth story, digital capabilities and other factors. But again, if the chemistry between the leaders does not fit, integration in our business is essential…
Equmedia competes in Spain with large multinationals. What differentiating elements of your value proposition are allowing you to win accounts over the industry giants?
Besides the fact that we are more customer focused than large companies holding companyat least from my perception, we can also advise our clients more freely on what their correct solution is. Large holding companies are usually very tied to a fixed environment of obligations. And we, as a smaller competitor, can go for more modern, more future-oriented and customer-focused recommendations, unlike large holding companies. Because we don’t have that much to lose here. We don’t have a huge structure that we need to maintain. And we have no vested interests.
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