True Independent Holdings and Subsidiaries Join the Meet The People Group of Agencies

Apr. 17, 2024

Meet The People (MTP), the innovative alternative to the big advertising holding company model, today announced that True Independent Holdings (TIH), parent company of True Media, True Media Canada, Coegi and RADaR, is joining the MTP group of agencies, taking over general media services for the growing agency group. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

With offices in both the US and Canada, along with capabilities that include media planning and buying, a programmatic trading desk, and a data and analytics unit, TIH represents a significant addition to the growing MTP roster. With the completion of the deal, the agency and its subsidiaries will join VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail, Saltwater Collective and Swell Media as a full partner in the MTP agency group.

MTP Founder and Group CEO, Tim Ringel said:

"Joining forces with TIH and its agencies is an important step in the evolution of Meet The People. It adds substantial scale, skill and technology access to our media offering representing our ambition of excellence for our clients, which will help all of our agency brands better serve our clients."

 

Founded in 2005, True Media quickly built a reputation for strong strategically-based planning and aggressive client advocacy in media negotiations. Their forward thinking also helped them to stay ahead of the curve in performance media, leading to their launch of Coegi, a digital media and programmatic advertising agency, and RADaR, an ad performance data and analytics firm.

Now, as part of MTP, the TIH family of companies will anchor a robust offering of media services to MTP agencies while continuing to work with other independent agencies and clients across North America. MTP’s existing media agency Swell Media, will maintain their specialty in ecommerce and B2B under this new structure.

Founder and CEO of True Independent Holdings, Jack Miller, said:

"This is an exciting time for all of us. Tim and the entire team at MTP have crafted an agency group that is both grounded in valuing the individual and focused on innovating the industry through independent agencies. It’s an approach that perfectly aligns with the ways we’ve always conducted business, and I’m eager to see what this new relationship will enable us to achieve."

 

Under MTP’s innovative new organizational approach, all of the roster agencies can work closely together as a community in a single ownership structure, while retaining independence as a core strength to establish their own identity and culture. By combining entrepreneurially minded firms into one fully integrated platform, MTP is able to bring specialized services to clients, while providing fully integrated agency-of-record solutions to these brands at the same time.

Ringel said:

"It’s an operating model that exceeds the expectations of clients in every way. It allows us to offer integrated thinking, better services, faster solutions, less friction and deep expertise, all in a collaborative and transparent manner. These are the things that make a real difference in the relationships between brands and their agencies."

 

With the addition of TIH’s 200 plus employees, the combined operations will boast headcount of over 750 employees in both the U.S. and Canada. It continues MTP’s steep growth trajectory over the past few years, achieved with strategic and financial support from Innovatus Capital Partners LLC, the New York-based portfolio management firm.

Innovatus CEO and founding partner David Schiff said:

"We’re thrilled to have TIH join the Meet The People agency group. Jack and his team have built some extraordinary companies, and we look forward to building something even more amazing out of these combined operations."

 

Miller added:

"MTP has the kind of scale, focus and drive we were looking for. We’ve always been aggressive about business growth. Now we have an equally ambitious partner who can help us realize even greater potential."

 

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to True Independent Holdings in this transaction.