Swell Media joins Meet the People, becoming group´s dedicated media planning & buying unit
Meet The People (MTP), the innovative alternative to the big advertising holding company model, announced mid-February the expansion of their newest agency brand, Swell Media. The independent media planning and buying unit joins a growing roster of MTP agencies that include VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail and Saltwater Collective, and is tasked with servicing both its own roster of clients and the other operating units within the agency group.
“We have a clear mandate here,” says Joseph McConellogue, the newly appointed CEO of Swell. “We’re creating the most effective, insights-driven media agency anywhere. And that requires us to not only overcome the media challenges our clients face today, but to also help them prepare for the challenges ahead. We believe that with our elevation to full roster status within the MTP agency group, we’re uniquely positioned to provide this clarity of vision and drive business growth for our clients.”
Swell established a reputation for measurable results and true accountability in media planning as an independent operating unit of Saltwater Collective, prior to that agency’s acquisition by MTP in 2023. During this time, they built an impressive client list primarily in the financial, ecommerce, healthcare and B2B sectors. Now elevated to its new network-wide role, the Swell team is eager to take their innovative media processes to the national stage.
Swell founder and COO, Allison Potter says, “We built this agency with an unwavering focus on humanizing media solutions. We always ask ourselves, does this placement enhance the clarity of our ad’s intent for people? Does it add relevance to the message? Does it achieve our desired results? Media is more than just a numbers game. It’s also a battle for meaningful and measurable attention — and we’re excited to showcase the difference this sort of thinking can make in media planning.”
From its inception, Swell Media was built and run as a full-funnel agency partner, offering media planning and buying for everything from digital display and television to pay-per-click and out-of-home. These wide-ranging capabilities, along with their robust systems and impressive track record with clients, made them a perfect fit for MTP’s own growth ambitions.
“The thing that resonated the most for all of us, though, was our shared focus on humanity and measurability,” adds MTP Group CEO, Tim Ringel. “Valuing the human side of the advertising equation is a foundational principle of Meet The People. And our mutual appreciation of measurement and accountability only served to solidify our decision to elevate the agency to meet the global media needs of the entire group. They’re truly something special.”
Meet The People is an international group of unified but independent agencies bringing together key marketing services under one umbrella, allowing for fully integrated but deeply specialized solutions, from Creative and Design to Activation and Measurement. Backed by Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC, Meet The People is deeply committed to the idea that people are at the core of any organization and drive success, and that advertising works best when clients have access to expertise and deep talent.