UM was honoured to be recognized by winning Media Campaign of the Year for Oh Henry! 4:25 and Silver for Media Agency of the Year at Strategy’s 2019 Agency of the Year Awards. Read below for the full article with UM’s President, Shelley Smit.

Many agencies would say they’re client-focused. But when Shelley Smit says that about UM, she really means it.

Smit, who has been president of the Mediabrands shop since it first opened in 2010, has been in media since the ‘90s, but spent a decade at Labatt Breweries of Canada. She doesn’t stand out among her VPs – 70% of UM’s senior leadership also came from the client side.

UM is divided into “pods,” teams comprised of planners and investment specialists, with each pod focusing on a finite number of accounts (typically up to three clients). UM started with two of these dedicated groups and it now has six. “The TV buyer sits right beside the planner, who sits right behind the digital pure-play buyer and the social buyer.”

Using the example of a pod that handles Sony Pictures, Smit explains: “Every movie is a new launch, and they have 20 a year. You can’t carry over learnings from one to another – there are different targets, the creative comes out of the U.S., and they basically have three weeks for success. After it launches, they have to question every day whether or not to put more money into it. And then Monday afternoon after opening weekend, they meet with the client and review.”

Read the full article in Strategy here.