Company History

International Media Consultants Associés (IMCA) was created in April 1994, at a time when media consulting was largely carried out by advertising executives. Such specialist consultancies existed in the United States, but not in France. Other consulting agencies have since been created, often by consultants who’ve worked at IMCA.

IMCA’s long standing expertise and teams of experts, many of whom have had prior experience in the media, have enabled the company to develop high added-value services. The key: continually anticipating technological, social, and editorial developments, which modify—imperceptibly or suddenly—media activity.

IMCA: a digital native company

IMCA was founded not so long ago in 1994, in the same year as the Internet appeared. The Internet revolution is continually affecting the way in which we think and what we do. Since its inception, the Web has always been at the heart of IMCA’s expertise. Five years later, digital technology led to the creation of reality TV, which takes viewers right to the heart of the action. Thanks to New On The Air (NOTA), the monitoring service created by IMCA and Médiamétrie/Eurodata TV in 1997, we were able to broadcast Big Brother to three hundred transfixed media professionals during a conference organized in the framework of the MIPTV Media Market in 1999. The digital revolution has changed the nature of the content and modes of transmission. When TNT arrived in France, IMCA provided assistance to many broadcasters and potential broadcasters. Back in 2002, an Alcatel engineer showed us how to connect a TV to a telephone socket. We were amazed to see various television channels appear on the screen! Caroline Mille, the group’s director of communications, told us: ‘We’d like your company to promote market awareness’. ADSL was on its way…

TV connected to Internet is now at the heart of our expertise. The merging—and certainly the synthesis—of broadcast and broadband are opening up a whole new era of possibilities. It’s probably the biggest media revolution since the creation of the Web.

IMCA: providing a service for all the market players

We’ve carried out many missions, which have enabled us to develop our expertise, databases, and processes, as part of the service we provide for all the market players: companies in the media sector, television, radio, the press, staunch players, regional authorities, sports federations, government services, and advertisers and promoters of new ideas.

Watching projects develop from the very beginning and come to fruition at IMCA gives us a great deal of pleasure. We’re very proud of our achievements, but we do also recognize that those who undertake the projects deserve most of the credit.

IMCA: a network of experts

Our activities take us to every continent, and IMCA has a strong network of permanent and specialist correspondents in many countries around the world. Their primary task is to update NOTA, which now comprises almost 28,000 programmes produced since 1997. They are also responsible for informing us about new technological applications and new habits.

Many young professionals who began their careers at the company and who have now left are also important at IMCA. Many of them regularly tell us about the progress they’re making in their careers; we sometimes come across them when we visit a client and some even become clients of IMCA—a testament to their rewarding experience in the company and the effectiveness of the support we provide for our employees.

This is a brief description of IMCA’s history and what lies behind our success. This site doesn’t just tell you about the company’s background—it also describes everything the company can do for you!