Canadian Ad Insider

M&K Media Accomplishes Major Milestone, Celebrates 21st Anniversary

[00:00:00] Dave Forde: Launching an agency is never an easy task. But when you can grow that agency, win new clients, retain clients, hire staff, and promote staff, promote that same staff for 21 years, you are in a very small club. I'm your boy, Dave Forde The Connected One, and today we are joined by the founders of M &K Media, Julie McIlroy and Julie King.

Ladies, good afternoon and how are you? Great,

[00:00:24] Julie King: Thanks. How are you doing Dave?

[00:00:27] Dave Forde: I'm excited to talk to the two of you because I feel that myself and all the listeners are gonna learn something really interesting cuz 21 years. So again, congrats. Wow.

[00:00:36] Julie McIlroy: Thank you. Thank you.

[00:00:39] Dave Forde: All right, so let's go to the first question.

Why did you actually launch an agency in the first place? I mean, wasn't it scary? There were so many competitors at the time, your first time launching agency.

[00:00:51] Julie McIlroy: Well, we both worked for big, massive HoldCo agencies and [00:01:00] we'd been there 20 years and we basically thought, you know, Maybe we could do this differently. Maybe there's a better way to do it. And part of it was with the HoldCo, with all the big benefits comes all of the downsides, which is reporting through to a global, management team.

There's always restraints on, on giving people raises and headcounts and et cetera. So, We thought that, we, we certainly knew what we were doing, but maybe we could do it differently and do it better. and you know, it really wasn't scary. , we really believed in ourselves and our network and, and it's key that we say we believed in ourselves and our network because it was our network from years of having great relationships that propped up our business and [00:02:00] made us a success.

[00:02:01] Julie King: It was timing too, timing's everything, so we weren't afraid. We knew we had great credentials, great contacts. .

[00:02:09] Julie McIlroy: We never thought anyone would blame us for trying. And

[00:02:12] Julie King: I think it's one of those things you do and then in hindsight go, oh, look back and go, well, maybe it was scary, but it

[00:02:19] Julie McIlroy: wasn't. Lots of people, uh, have since said, oh my God, you were so brave.

And, and we weren't that brave. We just thought, you know, we just, we, we know what we're doing. We could do a good job. Yeah. I, I must say, leaving our jobs was problematic in that we had pretty good jobs and we had what would be called golden handcuffs, which was, profit sharing and a car and, you know, expense account and a, a really good, benefits package, you know, in the days when they used to have them.

So, but [00:03:00] you know, we've never looked back. Not for one minute,

[00:03:04] Julie King: And within 14 days of opening, we won 13 days, actually, little Caesars Canada. Wow. And the client, Brad Jandrew, who we worked with for several years, he's, hired us again on his Mr. Lube.

[00:03:16] Julie McIlroy: Business. Yeah. Shout out to Brad. And, and that's happened more than once.

You know, several times that clients take us when they go somewhere else. .

[00:03:28] Dave Forde: So now you had your first client, which sounds like very easy to win, and again, they've become a repeat client. But what about the challenging client? You know, can you maybe name who that was, if possible. And then how did you win that that customer over?

You know, your toughest clients? Well,

[00:03:46] Julie McIlroy: let's

[00:03:47] Julie King: say tough, but a challenging client was Chatham Canada because we were still small . It was still Julie and I and. Chatham you'll know has Gold bond, Icy Hot [00:04:00] Sells and Blue Vidder. And it was a US, it was in the us the business, and then they wanted to pitch it out to Canada.

So they're used to dealing with the US big shop. And then our PR contacts suggested we do the RFP. And we did. And we just showed them exactly what we could do and we're capable of, and, and they hired us. We are

[00:04:22] Julie McIlroy: delight. . Yeah. It put us on the map because it was, it was about 2 million at the time. Yeah.

Which was, it's a package good company, which was huge. Um, and, uh, we really worked really hard to win that business. And then we, but we had the strength of years of packaged goods experience and healthcare experience. So we were a very senior team. And that just start, you know, was. The beginning of who and what m a k stands for is, is that there's a very senior [00:05:00] team in place offering very sage advice and knowing how to get it done and how to put the work that needs to be done behind it.

[00:05:11] Dave Forde: Now you talk about part of what allowed you to launch your agency was the confidence and belief in yourself. Can you elaborate a little bit or talk a little bit about. When was that moment that you knew you had a solid business found?

[00:05:25] Julie King: I think we both think it was in year two, but one thing to keep in mind, we launched when we launched in April, May, and then, uh, in September 911 happened.

Wow. So that put the brakes on everything for a month. Sure. That was a challenge. And then, um, After that, I think that's when we started working with David Chilton. He was launching Crazy Plates with, Greta and Janet Podleski and they hired us for 52 weeks of radio. And then probably in year two [00:06:00] we, uh, made back our salaries and more business kept coming in and we start to hire about year two or three.

So it's just been a lovely, reasonably moderate growth, you know, not too fast, not too slow. And we've been able to staff and,

[00:06:18] Julie McIlroy: and yeah, the joy of that has been grew every year, but we were able to staff all the businesses appropriately and hire on when needed. And there was no hiccups ever. It was just natural organic growth.

 The majority of our business, even to this day, is all by referral, by people who we've worked with before, M&K and during M&K and organic growth within the brands. And you know, recently, more and more we get stuff, sort of leads from Google, right? Um, but uh, still it's all word of. We get invited.

[00:06:58] Julie King: Sorry, Jul. The other great [00:07:00] thing is we've been lucky with staff because we, again, with our connections, we knew so many talented people, we were able to bring them on and they wanted to work with us. So it's been, it's been great that way. Um, it, it's ended up being a really good team and a strong senior team that we've known most of them for years.

Yeah.

[00:07:19] Julie McIlroy: But that's not to say that we're not like we're a very strong senior team, but we have. Half of the company is, is young and , you know, excited about everything. And curious and smart. And, and smart, smart as whips. And, uh, we're so excited by, our staff senior and, and, um, the newer employees because, they're responsible all for, for everything and all the success that we.

[00:07:50] Dave Forde: Now you already touched on how within your first year, nine you, 911 you, you experienced that. Can you go on, talk a little bit more in terms of the, the changes or how your, your [00:08:00] agency had to adapt over the last two decades? ,

[00:08:04] Julie McIlroy: well, it, we started in my back bedroom, coincidentally through Covid, we're back in my back bedroom.

but that's another story, . But, um, I, I think the first move was within a year moving out of the back bedroom and, and renting space. Um, and then after that first move, we've since moved twice more to bigger, better. Um, space. Yeah. So, and then it's just starting as technology grew and we layered on, um, you know, buying, you know, IT systems, the cloud, you know, all of those things to make, to make work, um, more efficient.

Right. And, um, yeah, so.

[00:08:57] Julie King: and the obvious latest challenge is [00:09:00] covid. Yeah. And how we had to, the word everyone hates it's overused, pivot with, along with everyone else, but uh, and have all the staff equipped to be able to work at home.

[00:09:10] Julie McIlroy: Okay. Yeah, so there was a heavy investment in IT and you know, capital investment behind, you know, updating everybody's laptops, et cetera.

Uh, I think the whole thing was our, we look, and everybody did this too, at the way we manage, uh, our businesses and our, and our people, in order to keep everybody motivated, keep, all the work fresh and, you know, the processes. I mean, the big one that we finally think we've got down is, we had to revamp our whole, and this answers one of the later questions.

We created a whole backend team, to handle virtual, you know, processing of invoices and affidavits and [00:10:00] payment of vendors. Now the exciting part is the work, but the way we get paid Yep. Is by, you know, billing and paying out disbursements. So, so that was a huge, lot of work in the last two years to take it from, you know, physically holding a paper invoice to doing it all online.

[00:10:25] Dave Forde: Now the knowledge that the two of you, as well as your team have gained over the years is tremendous. I'm sure. You know, if there's any brands listening out there, any advice you have for them to, to grow their brand and thrive, you know, 10 years.

[00:10:41] Julie McIlroy: I would say this is great work moves business and, but great work is never, ever easy, so.

I think my biggest advice is if you want to be successful, you have to work hard. And [00:11:00] working hard doesn't necessarily mean you know that you're not enjoying yourself. If you, if you're working on great works, you're, you're, you know, you're working through a lot of amazing research you're coming up with, with compelling strategies.

You are r eaching out to all your marketing partners, to come up with great ideas to, to realize that strategy or that vision. And but it's not easy. It's hard work. It takes a lot of people working together and it takes tenacity. Uh, and if you are willing to do that, you're gonna have great campaign.

and you're gonna move the business and you'll be successful. I would

[00:11:45] Julie King: also add that brands have to be listening to their customers. Their voice is louder than ever. Now. They have to listen to what they're, they're after, and they should be addressing it and accommodating them where they can. I [00:12:00] think that's a huge difference, is how loud the customer can be.

[00:12:05] Julie McIlroy: Yeah. And, and, and M&K and our partners, we, we spend a lot of time on that, because out of all of that listening comes our strategy because that's where we get our insights from listening to the customer also doing whatever syndicated re research or proprietary research analysis that we can do.

But, um, at the heart of everything we do is the customer.

[00:12:31] Dave Forde: Now, the average business doesn't survive 10 years. , you ladies have made it to 21. So again, as I've already said, congrats. I'll say it again. I'll keep saying because that really truly is, is remarkable. Thanks Dave. Thanks. what would you say are, you know, one or two of the things that allowed you to, to get to this point of 21 years?

[00:12:53] Julie McIlroy: We're really lucky that, a lot of our clients, in fact over 60% are 13, 14, [00:13:00] 15. Wow. And yeah, so our retention and Julie mentioned staff retention. We have staff retention. We have client retention. And I told you that we also seem to have a lot of organic growth and, and, people referring us. So we're always working on new business.

We're always working on our fabulous. Clients who have been with us for a long, long time. And, and there's, uh, sometimes we know more about the brands than the current, client does because we've been on it for much longer. So, continuity, day-to-day, every day, great service. I mean, that's key.

[00:13:43] Julie King: Absolutely key. Um, And we don't waiver. There's no excuse. Everyone has to provide absolutely exemplary service.

[00:13:47] Julie McIlroy: There's a bar and every M&K employee has to be operating above it always. And if they're, you know, if you know people are human .

[00:13:59] Julie King: The other [00:14:00] thing too, Dave, is we stay current and we insist the staff do.

All the learnings you can get out of, from suppliers, from events, from, seminars, we insist they go and, keep current and learn. And then we're always educating and teaching our clients as well. Which is a, you know, a bonus for them, but it's really important to us that we stay on top of everything.

[00:14:22] Dave Forde: .So how has digital impacted your business, both for day to day and then also just with what your clients need and expect?

[00:14:30] Julie McIlroy: Absolutely. It's been a game changer for us. I mean, 10 years ago we were 99% conventional, and now we're plus 50% digital. . So our whole digital practice has blossomed and grown and, and now it's our, our primary media or medium, and continues to grow.

[00:14:56] Dave Forde: Now, I, I don't even know if [00:15:00] you'd be able to answer this question in terms of how many campaigns you've executed over the years, but are there any that really stand out as like favorite campaigns, favorite projects that you've worked on?

[00:15:12] Julie McIlroy: We have so many clients, it's pretty hard. We probably have the, the top 50 , but, well, Julie and I talked about this, in the early days.

We worked on the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, for five, six years and the Ride to Conquer Cancer. It was very moving for us because, this turned out to be in year one, the single largest fundraising event in Canadian history. It was what, 17 million I think we raised. Yeah. It was huge.

And Julie and I participated in both the walk. and we participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer.

[00:15:53] Julie King: We loved it. It was just exactly what we loved doing, and it was such a great cause, raised tons of money, and the [00:16:00] business grew. It started in Toronto only then eventually, across the country to major cities.

And every year they'd have the same walk and ride. Raise tons of money. So that's, that one was dearest to our heart. We just loved that one. But as Julie said, since then, all of our clients' campaigns are amazing.

[00:16:19] Julie McIlroy: You know, I'm a, you know, I'm a big, I'm a big Raptors fan. We, we just did something, we just did an amazing, campaign with Chris Boucher for Slim Jim.

Uh, we did, uh, one that comes to mind was, we did a promotion that we got 120,000, entries, entries for, Fleischmann's, um, east, and that was with Corus F ood Network and Anna Olson the famous baker.

[00:16:51] Julie King: They launched Curl Secret with Conair. That was fun. It was fun. And the sales flew off the shelves.

They kept telling us it was great. So we love anything. [00:17:00] Integrations, launches. Yeah, those

[00:17:01] Julie McIlroy: are really fun. We did a massive, stunning takeover for Branksome Hall down, at Billy Bishop, which was just unbelievably fabulous. It goes on and on and on and on. There's not one, there's many,

[00:17:20] Dave Forde: So running a company with one founder is difficult enough, but you now are two co-founders, two different personalities.

So I'm sure that's been fun conversations for a lot of people. Yeah. Um, you know, this week if you, if you look at the news, Salesforce. Mark Benioff. He has lost his Co-CEO for a second time. You look at, organizations like Starbucks, like Disney, the ups and downs of their CEOs. How have you two remained to be - it looks like friends. I've seen you in public. It's, it's a friendship. It's that bond. How have you two remained to. Friends, build this business but then still go through the challenges of [00:18:00] life for 21 years. How have you done this?

[00:18:02] Julie King: We were friends long before we started this. In fact, we both started our first agency together and on day one we bonded instantly cuz we had the same name

And uh, we've been fast buddies for years, so for a good 20 years before we started this. And uh, it's, our personalities just mesh well. I mean, it is like a marriage. You do have to. You know, be aware of the other person's nuances and what have you. But, we know our strengths and weaknesses and we're lucky we feed off each other that way.

So, yeah, you're right Dave. We're very, very lucky. It's worked out

[00:18:37] Julie McIlroy: in the beginning. We positioned ourselves when it was just the two of us as, a creative media boutique, and within that boutique there was a planner and a buyer, and it mirror. What the creatives in, you know, the year 2000 were doing, a lot of them were breaking away from main agencies and starting boutiques, and they have [00:19:00] an art director and a creative director, sorry, an art director and a copywriter.

So people really understood what we were doing. You know, one buys one plans, and. You know, subsequently we've sort of built the company around the planning group and the, and the buying group. But always integrated, always, you know, talking to one another. And in fact, as time went on, Julie started planning and I, you know, I started buying.

So we, um, you know, we became one.

[00:19:38] Julie King: The team's pretty well versed in both. Yeah. Which helps. But you need obviously both. For each client, but no, to your question, we are just . It works.

[00:19:49] Dave Forde: All right. My final question, so you're here. This is the magic year, 21 years. What is next?[00:20:00]

[00:20:00] Julie McIlroy: Well continue to grow, obviously, I, foresee a bigger digital future. 2 - julie and I want to be more mentors, more coaches than, you know, day to day in the future, and giving our, our staff more space to grow and succeed. And, and take on larger roles in running the business.

[00:20:38] Dave Forde: All right, well, there you go. Julie McIlroy, Julie King, M&K Media Success story. Two, phenomenal Canadian women. Ladies, appreciate your time today, and we'll talk to you very soon. Great.

[00:20:50] Julie McIlroy: Thanks so much, Dave. Thank you, Dave. Bye..