Introduction
The Shelf and IMA are not a like-for-like choice, because only one of them is trading. IMA is a brand that no longer trades. MediaMonks, part of S4 Capital, merged with it in August 2019. The evidence is straightforward: the agency's own domain forwards to Monks and no IMA-branded page survives anywhere on it. The rest of this page sets out the position on IMA and on The Shelf.
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The Shelf vs IMA at a glance
The quick read on an independent performance agency against a group-owned global one, with Flinque shown for contrast.
| Feature | The Shelf | IMA | Flinque |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Performance agency | Full-service agency | Self-serve software |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, until the 2019 merger | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Remote, serving 25+ countries |
| Ownership | Independent | Media.Monks, part of S4 Capital | Independent |
| Stated approach | Full-funnel influencer marketing | Global influencer campaigns | Discovery and vetting |
| Reported clients | Heineken, Diesel and Booking.com, named 2019 | Diesel and Beiersdorf, named 2019 | Self-serve, no client gate |
| Evidence quality | Own-site clients only, verified | Named on public record | Published pricing |
| Pricing | None, nor any at Monks | Quote per campaign | Free $0, Starter $49/mo, Enterprise $150/mo |
What The Shelf is
The Shelf is a performance agency in Atlanta working on what it calls full-funnel influencer marketing. The phrase is worth unpacking. Most influencer work is bought and measured at the top of the funnel on reach and engagement. A full-funnel framing commits the agency to tracking further down toward consideration and purchase, which is harder to do and harder to hide behind.
Reported clients on its own site include Nordstrom, Savers Value Village, ROAR Organic and Peelz Citrus. That is a retail and beverage mix at mid-market scale rather than a list of global giants. One point deserves stating openly: Neutrogena appears in third-party directories but not on the agency's own site, so it has been left out here, while Hulu does sit on The Shelf's own homepage logo bar. That is the kind of gap worth raising directly rather than assuming, because directory listings are frequently stale or aspirational.
What IMA was
MediaMonks, part of S4 Capital, merged with it in August 2019. A reader arriving on this name should know IMA is not something a brand can contract with. The evidence is straightforward: the old domain now lands on Monks, while monks.com/ima is a 404.
Pricing was looked for on the Monks influencer solution page and was not found there. Founded in Amsterdam in 2010 by Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts, it gained Anneke Schogt as chief executive six years later. The only sourced scale figures are S4 Capital's: 40,000 influencers in network and 85 digital experts.
Monks is where the work went. Anything attached to this name beyond the 2019 announcement comes from directories rather than the company.
What IMA was known for
- Amsterdam base until the 2019 merger
- Fashion and beauty campaign work
- Founded 2010 by Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts
- Full-service influencer campaigns out of Amsterdam
Why it is not a live option
- Nothing first-party survives at the old domain
- Every figure on record is dated 2019
- The brand no longer exists to hire
- monks.com/ima returns a 404
Head to head
This pairing needs a caveat before the detail. The merger with S4 Capital's MediaMonks was announced in August 2019. IMA is a closed chapter now. The evidence is straightforward: following imagency.com lands on Monks and the Monks page carries no IMA reference at all. That makes The Shelf the only side of this pairing a brand can actually engage, so the useful question is not which is better but what happened to IMA and where the work went.
Where each one leaves a gap
Where The Shelf leaves a gap
- The verified client list is short at four names on the agency's own site. Two further names circulate in directories without first-party confirmation.
- Full-funnel measurement requires your own tracking to be in order. Without it the agency cannot prove the part that distinguishes it.
- No published pricing. Cost cannot be judged before a scoping conversation.
Where IMA leaves a gap
- Two layers of group ownership above the agency add process. A smaller brand should ask what the minimum viable engagement is.
- The global positioning is built for multi-market work. A single-market campaign may not need what you are paying for.
- Pricing is quote-based, so comparison against another agency requires both to scope the same brief first.
Where Flinque fits
Flinque is software rather than an agency and does not compete with either on delivery. It covers discovery and vetting, indexing 10M+ verified creators across 4 platforms with 200 data points per creator reported on each profile, which lets you check audience location and authenticity independently.
For a full-funnel brief that check is not cosmetic. Conversion depends on whether a creator's audience actually matches your buyer. Reach figures say nothing about that. Running the filter yourself before either agency proposes a roster means you can ask why a specific creator is on the list rather than accepting it. Flinque is self-serve with no demo and no annual lock-in. The Free Plan is $0, Starter is $49 a month and Enterprise is $150 a month, so the check costs less than the time spent preparing a brief.