Heavyweights swap sides

Tuesday, 28 November, 2000 - 21:00
THE Shorter Group has revealed a expansion of its media buying operation, with its Media Specialists division bolstered by two former employees of market heavyweight Media Decisions.

Ex-Media Decisions chief Sharon Van Manen will be joined by Louise Evers, a former Media Decisions staffer who most recently worked at MediaCom on the east coast. They will lead the media buying team which is affiliated with national media buying company Mitchell.

Mitchell’s group annual billings are more than $1.5 billion.

Both left Media Decisions, a division of WA’s biggest advertising agency Marketforce, some time ago.

Media Specialists, an independent division of The Shorter Group, competes with Media Decisions, Merchant & Partners and AIS Elliott Matthew.

Ms Van Manen brings experience gained from heading Media Decisions which manages the WA Government’s master media contract.

She said there was very little difference between the technical level of service the major media buying players offer in Perth.

To counter this, Ms Van Manen said Media Specialists would offer a more client focused and personalised service than the larger firms.