[Interview] Stijn Gimbrère, Founder, Media Futures Market

Stijn Gimbrère is the Founder of Media Futures Market (MFM), an independent media agency built to cut through fragmentation in programmatic and bridge the gap between creative and media planning.

In this interview, Stijn shares his views on industry inefficiencies, the rise of AI-driven media buying, and why he believes independents are increasingly better placed to deliver smarter, more transparent results in a rapidly changing advertising landscape.

What gave you the conviction to start a business during global uncertainty?

I saw two clear problems in the market. First, brands were overspending on performance channels while underinvesting in quality media ¬– the kind of touchpoints that actually build brands.

Second, the programmatic ecosystem had become absurdly fragmented. You needed five different partners just to get from budget to activation. There was too much friction, and I believed that friction could be removed by bringing creatives and media closer together. That conviction came from working inside that broken system and knowing there had to be a simpler way.

How has your leadership approach evolved since 2020 from startup phase to international expansion?

In the early days, I was across the detail of everything, that's just startup life.

Now my role has shifted entirely toward leading our international expansion. The day-to-day business sits with our Managing Directors in London and Amsterdam, and with Dan, our CSO.

My direct reports are country leaders, not campaign managers. That shift happened as we grew quickly, and the business demanded a different kind of leadership.

Now, I focus on strategic direction and making sure we have the right people running each market.

What has been the most challenging aspect of expanding across different regions?

Honestly, expansion across regions has brought us more opportunities than challenges.

Having hubs in both London and Amsterdam means we can serve US, UK and continental European clients via purpose-built teams.

The biggest shift in mindset was when we moved to a managed-service agency. That meant hiring differently, bringing in people with agency experience who know how to service clients at a high level, and also share our vision.

We've seen waves of disruption—from programmatic to retail media. What's the next major shift you anticipate?

The next wave is efficiency, and it favours independents. Marketing companies are looking at how to do more with less. We've built MFM to be lean and agile from day one, which means we can embrace automation and AI in ways that the big HoldCos can’t.

The real shift will be what that efficiency unlocks. Because we automate what can be automated, our team has more time to invest in relationships and truly understand what our clients need, rather than drowning in process.

As I see it, some agencies might get smaller, but the good ones will be more effective and still commercially successful.

Is the industry over, or underestimating AI and automation in media buying, and why?

It's still too early to say, there's a lot that remains unknown. The answer depends entirely on which media channel and which vendor you're talking about. Some media owners are building MCPs that connect seamlessly with AI systems, making buying easier. But easier doesn't always mean more effective for the client. We've seen that trap before with Meta and Google. Just because something is simple to activate doesn't mean it's the right investment.

That's where a good media agency earns its value, advising on what to automate and what to buy directly. Sometimes a direct deal gets you better pricing or smarter tactical positioning.

We don't have pre-bought media sitting on a shelf. We start with the client brief, build a strategy, and then find the right partners, not the other way around. If you fully automate with a handful of partners, you'll inevitably skew budgets toward them, whether or not that's best for the client.

Where do you want MFM to be in five years in terms of impact, not just size?

In five years, I want MFM to have a third hub in New York alongside London and Amsterdam, though I expect we'll get there sooner than that. We'll continue working with mid-sized growth brands, ideally ones with international ambitions, because that's where our model delivers the most value.

On the wider industry impact, we want to help rebuild trust. Advertiser trust in media is at a low point. By proving that transparent, quality-first media buying actually works, we'll have done something meaningful beyond our own P&L.

We also want to demonstrate that when creative and media work hand in hand, the results are outsized. If other agencies start replicating that model, I'll take it as the highest compliment.

Additional thoughts?

The media landscape has shifted in a way that fundamentally benefits independents.

Take TV in the Netherlands. You used to get significant rebates if you were a major HoldCo. That's not happening anymore. We now get rates comparable to a WPP. Buying power has been diluted because no single channel dominates the way TV once did. A modern media plan might have six to ten channels, each with relatively small allocations, so scale in any one channel matters less than smart strategy across all of them.

That makes independent thinking and buying a genuinely better alternative for clients than it was even five years ago. It's a compelling time to be a small but growing independent agency that can deliver outsized results through an integrated creative and media approach.

www.mediafuturesmarket.com

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