The story
Beginnings in sports and business
In 1993, Harald Zulauf established Media Consulta in Cologne after previously working as a journalist and a PR consultant. "Media Consulta Deutschland GmbH" was listed in the Commercial Register on September 17 of the same year. As sports became an increasingly vital sector for the advertising industry, sports marketing developed into a key area of focus for Media Consulta. Example of this include the communication management of major tennis tournaments, including the ATP World Tour, Davis Cup and Fed Cup as well as projects for Formula One. The company also placed electrical appliance manufacturer Braun in the global spotlight during the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Campaigns for politics
By the end of the 1990s, Media Consulta had established itself as one of Germany's leading communication service providers, measured in terms of revenue. In 1998, the German Bundestag became Media Consulta's first political client. In 1999, Media Consulta signed a million-Euro campaign from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry and the United Nations to enhance the country's image in Germany. Political communication increasingly became the focus of the agency, along with public relations for large international companies and top industry associations. Following the move of the German Bundestag from Bonn to Berlin, Media Consulta established a base in Germany's capital. It set up its office in a historically-preserved former shoe factory at Köllnischer Park in Berlin's first and most central "Mitte" district, whilst at the same time continuing to expand its Cologne location.
Internationalization
After the turn of the millennium, "Media Consulta" became the "mc Group", expanded into other member states of the European Union and subsequently received dedicated budgets from the European Commission. For example, mc Group launched the "Feel Free to Say No" anti-smoking campaign for the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. In the years to follow, the group built a network of specialized agencies, including traditional advertising, film and television production, launching its first offices outside of the EU, in New York City and Moscow in 2005. Additional offices followed in Brazil, China and India. Reflecting the group's international focus, "Media Consulta International Holding AG" was established in 2006, which is as a holding company for the corporate group. In its home market Germany and Europe, the mc Group also enlisted additional key clients, e.g. the German Office of the Federal President and the Lidl discount supermarket chain in Germany and Spain.
Market leadership
By 2008, mc Group ranked among the leading service providers in the area of public relations on an international scale. For several years, the company was the second largest communication agency in Germany, after Ketchum Pleon. In 2011, mc Group overtook the competition for the first time and has successfully defended its market leadership to this day. On a European and global scale, mc Group became one of the key players in communication and advertising industry. The largest campaigns of recent years include communication for the "Deutschlandjahr 2013/2014" in Brazil, along with the international "Make it in Germany" campaign launched by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor. The mc Group was also involved in a project for the Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mc Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4