So many companies who refer to themselves as advertising agencies are simply interested in the cost per point or cost per spot when buying media. In fact, they often judge a buy with one question—How many spots are there?

cue:creative utilizes a different methodology due to the holistic approach we take to each client’s business needs. The cost and number of spots in a radio or TV buy is not as important as the efficiency we obtain with the proper audience—an audience that is clearly defined through our creativity, intuition, and interaction with the client.

Reaching the proper audience often means making media buys that are highly selective and structured. The buys must also fit into the creative execution. To ensure that we obtain the desired audience, sometimes placements require that we purchase at a higher price point than shown on the rate card. Yet the price point isn’t the measure of the buy, nor is the number of spots. The true measure of the buy is the effectiveness of reaching the proper audience. The ability of cue:creative’s media team to understand the nuances of creativity is as important as the negotiating skills that could have used the same media dollars to obtain an obscene number of spots that wouldn’t produce as effective a reach.

By looking at media as creatively as we look at messages, we are able to make smarter buys, and avoid the pitfall of judging a buy only on the number of spots.

This approach has been successful with media budgets of every size. Local advertisers have seen tremendous growth, while regional advertisers are able to track both leads and revenue directly to our media buying expertise.

Tire Time is a prime example of what we achieved with a local advertiser. Without an increase in their overall marketing budget during our first year of involvement — in fact total marketing dollars spent decreased 15% — we achieved a net increase of 29% in sales revenue. Current year to date figures indicate a 10% increase in revenues, over the prior year’s outstanding return.

LeTourneau University by contrast, demonstrates the effectiveness of our methodology across markets. During our first year of work with LeTourneau, we were handed substantial yearlong contracts that provided very little room for change. Working within tight constraints, we developed a new personality for the University that more closely aligned with their primary culture clusters. Using this new personality we began to hone the delivery of messages to the targets. In year one we increased the number of calls to the Adult Education programs by 143%, and generated an increase in awareness for every area. During the second year, with more control over both the mix and placement of media, the cost per paid lead for a new student has become 78% more efficient. This has been accomplished without an increase in marketing dollars allocated to the Adult Education programs of LeTourneau University.