Case Studies
We take pride in being the best at what we do and it’s our goal to set a new standard in media collections. We have many cases like the ones below each month, and a recent industry wide survey showed we often recover double the amount of placements over the long term vs. our competitors in the media collection world.
Famous Last Words
An addiction and recovery center in a top tier market ran about $180,000 worth of advertising with one of our clients. The advertiser called our client and said that they could not afford to pay the bill because they had expenses from moving into a new building and they needed the money to keep advertising with other media companies to generate business. They claimed they had no money to pay toward the debt and that the bill wasn't a priority. Then came the famous line from their CFO, "do what you have to do". Within a week of receiving the case, MMG's lawyers got a judge to order the advertiser to find an attorney and appear in court in the next 24 hours. The judge granted a "right to attach order" and the next day the sheriff emptied $52,000 from the advertiser's operating account.
The advertiser was unable to pay any bills, make payroll, or move forward as a business. This same CFO who had challenged our clients to "do what you have to do" couldn't even cut himself a paycheck. We then negotiated a deal whereas the advertiser could stay in business in exchange for a strict payment plan of about $30,000 a month for 5 months until the debt was paid. Our client is now the first priority to be paid by this debtor each month, just after payroll. As important, the debtor is also going to use our client for their next round of advertising because they will be the only media company who is paid in full and can clear advertising.
$1.00 vs. $0.50
A well known advertising agency in Los Angeles closed its doors recently and left a large amount of media debt unpaid. MMG collected in full for our first client who had sent the collection to us the moment the debtor had started to delay. We then issued a debtor warning and received several other cases and sued the agency within a week. Several other media creditors who saw our warning used other collection agencies who settled their balances for 50 cents on the dollar. We continued our legal pursuit with our attorneys and were granted a temporary protective order against the debtor's bank account. We were paid in full at 100 cents on the dollar for all of our clients within 30 days.
A Higher Level of Thoroughness
We received a collection against a large retail distributor in a major U.S. Metropolitan area. The case was very complicated because our client's salesperson was gone and the contact from the advertiser had been terminated. As a result, there was very little paperwork backing up a substantial amount of advertising and event promotions. The advertiser refused to pay the bill and hired an attorney to deal with the matter. Because of the circumstances and the possibility of future advertising, we did not want to file a suit against the advertiser. We reconstructed as much documentation as we could and enlisted an IT expert to go through old computers and gather email history from deleted files. We also spoke to traffic departments to obtain copies of various commercials that ran. We then interviewed promotions personnel from both sides. Finally, after extensive preparation, we arranged a face to face meeting with the advertiser and their attorney to present a solution and settlement on the outstanding debt. Our client was impressed with our expertise and with the amount of effort we put into making this settlement happen. This was a good example of how every media case may need to be handled differently. Both parties are looking forward to a future relationship, and most of all, our client was very pleased to receive an unexpected, large check for their year-end close.
Securing Future Revenue
We recently had a case involving an automotive group who had gotten over a year behind in payments. The debtor was a big spender in New York so none of the media companies wanted to send the matter to collections for fear of losing future revenue or damaging a key advertiser relationship. One of these creditors finally did send it to us for collections. We were able to have friendly, detailed conversations with the debtor's attorney about our legal process and our deadlines for payment. We worked with the debtor and their attorney for several months and got the large balance paid. This client of ours has also cleared the advertiser for future ad schedules, while many other media companies remain frustrated and unpaid.
Here Comes the Sheriff
A major amusement park would not pay a large advertising balance to one of our clients. The debtor claimed that they were having cash flow issues and simply could not pay the bill, and might have to declare bankruptcy. The debtor would not provide us with further information and simply stopped responding. We moved forward with our legal collection effort and surprised the debtor one day with a Sheriff's Department "keeper" who was placed at the amusement park entrance and began to seize all proceeds at the registers as the park patrons arrived. Our attorneys received an immediate call to please remove the Sheriff's Department keeper in exchange for payment in full via wire transfer that same day.