Stijn Gimbrère is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MFM, an independent media agency that helps creative agencies handle media planning and buying.
Who is your digital hero?
Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York City. His understanding of communication has fundamentally shifted what effective digital interaction looks like. Digital isn’t merely a distribution channel for him, it transforms the essence of communication.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
Mamdani reimagined political communication from the ground up. His campaign leveraged short-form video, humor, cultural references, and clear storytelling. While many messages might go viral, Mamdani’s success lay in his consistency. The core themes like housing, affordability, the intricate tapestry of New York life all remained intact across various formats. He recognized that attention must be converted into action. His campaign effectively connected digital content to real-world organizing and volunteering, highlighting a crucial distinction that many organizations overlook.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
Mamdani exemplifies what truly digital-native communication can achieve at scale. His administration launched *Talk With The People*, an interactive program across Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, aligning with where people are. Instead of creating communication behind closed doors and pushing it outward, Mamdani flipped the script. Starting with the audience, their environment, and their behavior leads to more authentic content. For brands, this serves as a direct lesson: distribution can’t salvage communication that lacks relevance or resonance. True media excellence begins with understanding why people choose to pay attention.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
For the last two decades, digital has excelled in solving distribution. The next challenge is quality. We can reach nearly anyone and target audiences with remarkable precision. With AI, we can produce content at scale. However, human attention is finite, creating a troubling imbalance. Algorithms prioritize engagement, performance systems focus on conversion, and AI emphasizes quantity, yet none inherently promote originality or genuine value.
The next digital hero will be the one who constructs an economic model where high-quality creativity, effective media, and commercial success harmonize instead of competing. Address this, and digital can improve for advertisers, publishers, and audiences alike.
What is your most heroic personal achievement in digital so far?
Building MFM around a conviction in the industry’s critical need for change.
For decades, our sector compartmentalized media and creativity, complicating the landscape. We seized the opportunity to unify these elements, integrating creative agencies, specialized media expertise, and quality media partners into a cohesive model. This framework aligns with where the market is headed and most importantly: what clients need to be successful. Whether it qualifies as heroic is subjective, but we recognized the future direction early and chose to build for it.
