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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: 

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation with Philippe Bizot from MediaKeys

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (00:00):

Good morning. Thanks for joining us. I’m joined today with Philippe Bizot Bizo the Co-founder of Media Keys Group, one of the largest independent media agencies in the world and our partner on the Only Together Campaign that we ran earlier this year. Uh, good morning. Thanks for joining me.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (00:17):

Good morning, Daniel. And thank you for having me here. Absolutely. Um, um, let’s be modest. We are a nice independent, uh, company, but not as big as that anyway. Uh, thank you for having me here. What we are going to do is, um, I think there’s nothing concerning the campaign that we did for the UN thanks to you once again. Um, I think we’re going to show a little video, uh, that, uh, will particularly show the power and the impact of an outdoor campaign, even though that campaign was not only about outdoors, there was a lot of, of radio, uh, which will be showing, uh, later on. Um, I’d just like to, uh, just introduce, uh, the company for a, a few minutes. So as you said, my name is Philippe Bizot. I am French, not always proud. Um, uh, media keys is, uh, an international advert 360 advertising agency and media buying agency.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (01:22):

And our, we are specialized in the deployment of international campaigns worldwide. That goes with data survey, uh, ity tools that we’ve developed ourselves. And what, uh, differentiates us from our fellow and friendly competitors because we are not alone is mainly three things, to my opinion. Uh, the first one is that we’ve built more than 15 hubs, uh, overseas with our own people, trained by us with our own philosophy. Um, and then they’ve been sent in countries where there are potential clients. So these officers act as buying officers when we have a campaign, uh, to plan overseas. And they also act as selling officers because they deal with local clients. For example, in media keys, China media keys, Bangkok, uh, most of the clients are Chinese clients. And in fact, the funny thing is media keys. The people in China think that media keys front, which is a head office is a subsidiary of media keys, China. So that’s the first point. The second point is we have developed a fantastic relationship with the media owners, um, which allows us, uh, there are about 2,500 media owners and particularly in our door worldwide. So that allows us to buy the right campaign for the right clients at the right time, and to make sure that they have the impact that they want. And the third point, which is to me extremely important is that we do not speak English.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (03:04):

Uh, all, all our officers are, are we speak Chinese with Chinese clients. And, um, so this is, this is important concerning now the campaign that thanks to you, uh, we had, everybody knows that 2020 2021, uh, have been extremely difficult years for everybody, particularly in the media world where a lot of agencies like ours have lost a lot of business. And then we got a call from you, uh, saying, Hey guys, I’ve got a very nice campaign. So we’re all very excited, uh, to about this news. And you said, yeah, well, wait a minute, this, this is a pro bono campaign. So I must say that a few, four letter words came to my mind. And at the end, um, we realized that not only it was extremely important, it re-motivated and reactivated all our hubs overseas. That’s interesting, which took that as a, a, a fantastic challenge. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and, um, I hope the result is there, uh, the video show showing it. So, uh, we were extremely, extremely happy to do that. So, um, that’s

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (04:26):

Great. Well, thank you for sharing that. Um, you know, when I think about, I, I like, it was an interesting point that you made about how it reinvigorated the offices during this difficult time where a lot of clients were pulling back media budgets, they weren’t spending as much, and, and it was a way for the offices to sort of, um, stay motivated and to stay, uh, stay engaged, you know, is it, is it possible, is it possible to make a business case beyond the ethical and moral arguments that are obvious for media owners and companies like yourselves to increase the amount of resources and effort they put towards these types of social impact campaigns?

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (05:05):

I think it is possible. Uh, and as you perfectly well said, we do have a social role to play in, in, in, in this world that can only be possible. I think media agencies, uh, an advertising agency are really willing to do that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, the problem is, is not the agencies is the media owners, media owners, the media owners are here to sell sites or to sell a media. And, uh, and they have a financial issue, of course. So it’s, it’s, uh, sometimes difficult. But once again, if you have the good relationship with the media owners and by spending money with them, most of the time, there are moments where in fact for this UN campaign, they really played a certain number of media owners and some of the big ones not to mention them and some nice French ones. Uh, we know who, who they are.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (06:01):

We know who you are, did not respond, which I thought was a real pity. Yeah. Uh, and, and, and an example, I mean, we, years back, we won a campaign for the launch of the Euro mm-hmm <affirmative>. So it’s a, it’s sort of big national, uh, it’s not a private bank, you know, it’s governmental, uh, there was a governmental issue on putting the Euro, uh, in all of Europe, but the budget was a ridiculously slow budget. So we had to convince the media owners saying, look, listen, the Euro is going to come. So, uh, you need to help us putting in all the airports say it was an airport campaign more than an hour, da up one or two media owners said, well, I’m, I’m awfully sorry, because this is 2 million worth of sites. I can’t give that to you for 200,000. No problem. And the chairman of the European central bank said, well, if they don’t wanna play the game, forget it. So we called a couple of medias saying, well, you’re not gonna have this campaign, sorry, but I don’t have more than $200,000 to spend per airport. So, so we are not gonna do it. Sorry, five minutes later, they got a, they got a, a, an email from the European central bank say, thank you very much for your effort, but we are not gonna do Paris. Mm-hmm <affirmative> they came back say you have all the sides that you want. Yeah.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (07:30):

<laugh>, it’s funny how that one. So

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (07:32):

It was not really a social campaign. It’s uncomparable what we’ve done with the UN, but yes, it is possible, but you need a lot of energy to convince all these media owners to try and help us, uh, and help you guys in building these campaign. But I think it’s, it’s, the future will have more and more of these campaigns. I hope so. You know, COVID 19 can be a, can be a, a campaign of that kind. Yeah. There are a lot of, a lot of issues there, but in reality, when we concerning the campaign that we’ve done for you, the response of the media owners was absolutely great. That’s correct. Because they all went for it. Yeah. So, so once again, they’re okay with that. Yeah. And they’ll be more and more okay with

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (08:16):

That. And we saw a lot of that during, during COVID, um, you know, the word unprecedented gets used so often it was everything about it was unprecedented, but we were approached with a number of campaigns, some domestic, some, some international, and there was a lot more willingness I found on

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (08:33):

The absolutely. Yes, absolutely. On the

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (08:35):

Other sides, there’s also a lot more open space that they needed to fill. So was that’s

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (08:40):

That’s also true. That’s a, that’s a, that’s a reality. Yeah, absolutely.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (08:43):

That was the reality of it. Um, but one of the other things that we did see is towards, towards the end of it, uh, a lot of donor fatigue, there was a lot of fatigue, I think, from the local to the regional, to the national international level, they just kept getting calls. I think, because people knew that they weren’t selling as much space and there was a lot of opportunity to, to ask for pro bono. And, and I mean, even we

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (09:05):

Were pro bono is a word that they don’t like,

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (09:08):

No’s such a dirty word. We

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (09:09):

Need to, we need, we need to find it’s a dirty word. It is, even though it’s a, you know, it’s, it’s a nice, we

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (09:15):

Should, we should try to coin a, a new phrase that sort of, we all know what it means, but it’s, it’s, you know, sounds a little nicer. I mean, we’re in advertising. We should be able to come up

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (09:23):

With, I’ve got a campaign. <laugh> wow. It’s a pro bono. Yeah.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (09:29):

Um, but what’s interesting is, you know, I mean, I think when you work on a, a campaign with, with partners that take a pro bono campaign seriously, um, it helps a lot, you know, versus just, Hey, throw this, throw this thing up and they’re not considering the new. Absolutely. Yeah. They’re not considering the formats. There’s no real strategy to it. And I think that’s what public tries to do when we work with, with various causes and nonprofits is we try to say, okay, we can get behind you with a campaign, but how are we gonna be creative with it? How are we gonna think about it? And I think a, those are received a lot better by the media owners. Um, but they also perform better. They have a better, greater impact.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (10:10):

They have a greater impact. They get themselves a better image. There is a moral to it. Yeah. Uh, obviously, uh, you call a media owner saying, listen, I’ve got a really nice campaign. It’s a pro bono campaign, but it says still louder. No, that will not work, but there is a moral to it. And, and, uh, we’re gonna, I’m sure we’re gonna get more and more of this campaign. I mean, UN is a good cause you know, COVID is, is, is another one human rights, uh, for kids. Sure. Uh, you know, uh, humanitarian causes, we all know they don’t have any cash. Yeah. So if the media owners don’t, and it, if they don’t follow that, if, if certain media owners don’t follow us on these pro bono campaigns, it’s not a problem for the image of the client who wants a pro bono campaign. It’s gonna be a problem of the image of the media owner who doesn’t wanna participate. I agree. Which, which at the end of the day, they’re not gonna like, so they’re not gonna give you all the best sites mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, but at least they’ll participate. I think they will.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (11:14):

I agree. I agree. Well that, um, why don’t we go ahead and show the video? Yeah. For the campaign that we’ve been talking video,

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (11:27):

He’s not following.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (11:29):

No,

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (11:30):

You’re not following

Speaker 3 (11:32):

<laugh>.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (11:41):

So 23 countries over a hundred media owners. And so it ran on outdoor. I believe there was some

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (11:49):

And millions of people were reached

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (11:51):

Radio and then was there was any online,

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (11:53):

Was there some, there was a bit of online. I think there’s radio. And the majority of the campaign was, uh, was, was outdoor. What

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (12:00):

I thought was really cool was there was some, some non-traditional

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (12:03):

Yes. As well,

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (12:04):

Which was really cool because,

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (12:06):

Because there’s one important thing is when you, when you, for example, in France, the outdoor sites, uh, city, uh, size four meters by three is the standard outdoor mm-hmm <affirmative>. But in China, you have to do what the, what works in China. Doesn’t obviously works in another country, right? So you use the local medias, which are the, the powerful local medias. And, uh, so you have buses, you can have phone booths, uh, in New York, for example, phone booth is, is a fantastic media. Uh, in France, it will be a standard outdoor. So we have, this is why international is a word that I don’t particularly like, because it doesn’t mean a thing it’s multi local. So in China, you’ve gotta do like the Chinese in Frankfurt, like the, like the German, et cetera. And this is how we got this, uh, this nice campaign. Thanks to you. It was great.

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (12:59):

Appreciate your generosity and your help with it.

Philippe Bizot, Co-Founder, Media Keys Group (13:02):

And, uh, let’s wait for the next one. That’s

Daniel Wilkins, PVBLIC Foundation (13:05):

Right.