Don Epperson comes across as strangely aloof for a man in his position. He is the global boss of Media Contacts, the digital and direct media arm of Havas — a small fish in a pond of ever-larger communications supergroups. As such, he is faced with the unenviable task of growing a network that is dwarfed by the digital arsenals of WPP, Omnicom and Havas’ Gallic rival, Publicis Groupe. His job is toughest in Asia, where Media Contacts has only recently entered the market.
Add to that his role as COO of the newly-formed Havas Media, with responsibility for reorganising Media Contacts’ mother brand MPG, and Epperson’s detached demeanour is all the more surprising. A source who knows him tries to explain: “Don was an investment banker, you know.”
A time in the technology investment team at Advest, where he handled mergers and acquisitions, followed stints at HSBC and JP Morgan Chase. Then Epperson quit his highly-paid job merging technology firms to create one of his own. He founded HookMedia in 1998, which grew to 90 people in three offices in three years. He sold to Havas in 2001.
“After leaving banking, I spent a while in an agency to try to understand the business,” he recalls. “I came back after nine months with a business plan for an interactive agency, which is where I saw the future. We raised some money, then raised a heck of a lot more. We launched, followed the dotcom up, followed the dotcom down, sold the company (to Havas) and the rest is history,” he says. That simple.
Epperson remained in control of the agency, as MD of the US operation. Two years later the company was twice as big. And in 2003 he was asked to “run the world”.
Epperson was recently in Singapore, conducting meetings with his global strategy team (GST). “After the GST was created in 2004, we spent a month touring Asia on the back of relationships with Yahoo, MSN and Euro RSCG. They introduced us to major publishers, and from that we worked out where we wanted to be,” he says.
In 2006, Media Contacts opened for business in partnership with interactive agency Media Turf in India, and the online media measurement outfit E-Mitch in Australia. These markets are now key hubs for Media Contacts in Asia, with offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Sydney. Other recent additions include Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. A launch in Dubai is planned for this month, and Seoul is pencilled in for the end of the year. Dell and Reckit Benckiser are its key global clients.
But is it a question of too little, too late? While strong elsewhere, especially Europe, Media Contacts is something of a non-entity in Asia and hasn’t come into the market — perhaps intentionally — with much of a fuss. And the continent is hardly awash with viable acquisition targets on which to piggyback. “We do not acquire companies. We grow organically,” Epperson clarifies. “Media Contacts has been doubling in size every year for the past six years. We don’t expect that to change. There’s too much growth in the market, and lots of room for lots of players. All you need is a platform to build on.”
So what about scale? How can Media Contacts compete with the big hitters? “Yes, scale still matters in online,” says Epperson. “But less so than offline. If your $10 placement doesn’t work, you move it to somewhere it does. Digital is more about building content around communities, which may not require a lot of money. Insight and analytics are the key drivers of digital, which we have in abundance.”
Besides, he notes, Media Contacts has a structure that allows it to behave like a large global company, even though it lacks local brawn. Optimisation is done in India, analytics in Australia and creative production in Sao Paolo. Key to holding them all together is a data warehouse called Artemis, which Epperson raised the capital to buy while at HookMedia.
“Everyone’s on the same platform. So even though we only have three people in Singapore, they can call on the same resource as any other office.”
In Sao Paolo, for instance, Media Contacts has a team of 60 people who speak 10 languages, working in shifts to handle the global workload. But would a team in Brazil be any good at interpreting a brief from Singapore? “It’s interesting,” says Epperson. “Clients say, ‘Huh, that’s weird.’ Then, ‘Ok, let’s try it.’ Then, ‘Wow, we saved a lot of money. Then, ‘I don’t need to work with you guys, can I work directly with your centre of excellence?’”
Key to Media Contacts’ success, says Epperson, is “finding bright people who understand consumers, interaction and brands, then giving them the tools to get their business off the ground”. No easy task, especially in Asia, where digital talent is scarce. But Epperson is undaunted. “I’m happy with where we are,” he says. “We’re growing ahead of the market and we’ve got plans to put in place.”
Don Epperson’s CV
2006 Global COO, Havas Media
2003 Global CEO, Media Contacts
2001 MD, Media Contacts US
1998 Founder, HookMedia
