Former MAA chiefs sign assets deal for new trade body

Two former chairmen of the Marketing Agencies Association (MAA) have set up a new organisation to acquire the trade body’s assets and intellectual properties and have vowed to provide a platform for “progressive, future thinking entrepreneurs” working in the marketing industry.
The Marketing Agency Action Group has been formed by Clive Mishon and Graham Kemp, who sealed the deal yesterday afternoon (Thursday). Both are investors and mentors across a number of marketing agencies and believe it is vital that independent entrepreneurial agencies have a collective voice.
Kemp founded The Marketing Store in 1998, and was global chief executive until he stepped down in 2007. The same year, he co-founded Wiki-Solutions, a management consultancy. He has also been chairman of RPM and Infinite Ideas and has been a major supporter of the MAA.
Having started his career at Clarke Hooper in the Eighties, Mishon went on to be CEO and then president of The Marketing Drive Worldwide. He was also a major investor in Kitcatt Nohr and has been a non-exec at Pulse Group and NDL. His is currently chairman of The Big Kick, Wolf Brand Experience and 360 Mentor Marketing & Investment Group.
As a part of the acquisition, the Marketing Agency Action Group has agreed to meet the commitments to the existing MAA members while their memberships remain current. The manifesto for the newly formed entity will be unveiled in the coming months.
Mishon and Kemp plan to “reframe and energise the voice that represents the best interests of independent marketing agencies”, a sector which they claim represents the majority of the near 20,000 UK agencies and practitioners.
Launched in December 1989 as the Sales Promotion Consultants Association (SPCA), the organisation was rebranded in 2001 as the Marketing Communications Consultants Association (MCCA), taking on its current name in 2010.
However, the organisation went into administration last month, with its six members of staff, led by managing director Rebecca Crook, made redundant earlier this week. The Marketing Agency Action Group will be looking to recruit a new team in the near future.
Mishon said: “The landscape for the marketing industry, the business models that we operate and the greater need to promote and retain talent have all moved on so much that the demise of the MAA provides an opportunity to create an entity right for this time.
“That is not to say the MAA did not do some great work like the Do Different Awards and networking events for emerging talent like Green Jam, both of which we will develop, however the opportunity to start afresh building on the best of the old whilst driving a new proposition was too great an opportunity to miss.”
Kemp added: “We felt that the MAA has made too great a contribution to the marketing industry to allow it to completely disappear. We have acquired the assets to enable us to provide a platform for progressive, future thinking entrepreneurs in communications to help change the landscape. It can’t be business as usual and we will encourage members to determine the priorities going forward. It’s the chance for some fresh thinking and new energy.”