Become a member

Become a member

Why

The Association of Communication Companies has the ambition to highlight the added value of the communication agencies, so that you can grow your business in full respect of your competitors, colleagues, clients and customers. We offer a platform for agencies of all disciplines to share experiences and best practices and we stimulate our members to collaborate within our Expert Centers in order to upgrade, promote and defend the profession of marketing communication towards your (future) employees, advertisers, authorities and press & public. Being a member of ACC is a professional recognition for a communication company in Belgium. The ACC membership fee also covers the RvR/JEP membership fee.

How

I. Accession procedure new members

Application for membership is open to creative agencies of all communication disciplines.

   1. Applicants need to submit the following documents:

• A signed copy of the ACC charter: rights & duties of ACC members.
• A signed copy of the Income Declaration sheet and/or last year’s balance sheet
• A CV of the ceo including two references of clients, suppliers or ceo’s of other agencies

   2.  ACC will do a "peer check":

New members will be presented by mail to the ceo’s of the peer agencies within the discipline the candidate fits most. If there are no objections, the candidacy will be accepted. If there are certain issues, these will be presented to an Ethical Committee (by mail or in a meeting) that will decide majority against minority (of the members present in case of a meeting).

   3. New members present themselves at the next Quarterly Meeting or General Assembly

New members will be invited to present themselves briefly to other ACC members during the next quarterly Expert Center meeting or the General Assembly. This is not an obligation, but ACC will insist on presence at this session or the General Assembly for new members.

II. Extra Conditions for new CUSTO members

In order to call oneself a Content Marketing agency; carry the label of content-expertise and become an active member of the Expert Center Content Marketing aka CUSTO, the candidate agency:

• Should be a standalone entity (not a sales house or a printing company)
• Should derive the largest part of its income from content
• Should handle creation & execution of content strategies
• Should have multi channel expertise
• Should have minimum three clients
• Should either exist 3 years or be lead by a manager with +5 years expertise
• Should present a strategic and creative content case

III. Extra Conditions for new EC Event Marketing members

In order to be accepted as active members of the Event Marketing Expert Center:

• They should derive >50% of their income from events
• They should have a valid BA Insurance
• They should exist at least 1,5 year or be created by a manager with +5 years’ experience
• They should be endorsed by an existing EC EM member
• They should present themselves at the next Quarterly meeting
• To stay member of the EC EM, a senior partner should attend at least 1 Quarterly Meeting/year.

IV. Measures for disloyal members

The Ethical Committee has created an anonymous ‘RED LINE’ for agency people, suppliers or even advertisers on which they can post complaints, issues or irregularities concerning any ACC  member. Potential issues will be handled by the Ethical Committee in a constructive spirit (i.e.:concerned agencies will be asked to correct their behaviour).

V. Miscellaneous

Active members Expert Centers:

Everybody can apply for an active role in all Expert Centers; the Presidents of the EC’s decide on the composition of their teams and therefore on the acceptance of new active members.

New members within media sales houses:

The Ethical Committee allows agencies that are owned by media sales houses or editors to become acc member as long as they have separate P&L’s and dedicated management teams.

Membership contribution fee

Members pay a membership contribution linked to their size, defined by their Fee income*.
See grid for more details.

Young agencies (less than 2 years) can join for a trial membership of  1000 €.

* Definition Fee Income:

• ACC Charter (FR)
• ACC Charter (NL)