Brands

We’re Media Strategists, Not Media Buyers

True Media provides brands with the partnerships and capabilities of a big agency and the nimble, entrepreneurial spirit, and deep relationships of a small startup. By working seamlessly with internal and external partners, we strive to make media budgets work harder by providing the necessary research and data to direct the client’s advertising dollars to the right place at the right time.

Of course, we realize we are just one partner in a much larger agency landscape. That’s why we are built to collaborate and are proud to serve as exclusive media partners to other agencies who leverage our research and manpower and consider us to be on their team.

As one of the largest independent media agencies in North America, our unique combination of tools, research, technology, and entrepreneurial spirit gives us the strength that few agencies can claim. We provide deeper insights, unique media opportunities, and understanding of what strategies work for local, regional, national, and global markets.

True Media provides brands with the partnerships and capabilities of a big agency and the nimble, entrepreneurial spirit, and deep relationships of a small startup. By working seamlessly with internal and external partners, we strive to make media budgets work harder by providing the necessary research and data to direct the client’s advertising dollars to the right place at the right time.

Of course, we realize we are just one partner in a much larger agency landscape. That’s why we are built to collaborate and are proud to serve as exclusive media partners to other agencies who leverage our research and manpower and consider us to be on their team.

As one of the largest independent media agencies in North America, our unique combination of tools, research, technology, and entrepreneurial spirit gives us the strength that few agencies can claim. We provide deeper insights, unique media opportunities, and understanding of what strategies work for local, regional, national, and global markets.

Agencies

The Strategic Media Partner for Your Agency

Built for collaboration, we are proud to serve as exclusive media partners to numerous creative and brand agencies who leverage our research, buying power and bench-strength.

These agencies consider our team as part of their team. We actively participate in all phases of campaign development from RFP collaboration, research and strategy development, client service, and campaign activation.

  • A larger, more holistic media team that allows you to seize opportunities, optimize relentlessly, and turn on a dime
  • Shared resources cut down overhead
  • Access to more research and tools
  • A wider range of expertise and experience creating strategic media plans in a larger variety of verticals
Partnering with True Media leads to increased profits and more robust results.
We offer three types of agency partnership models.
Explore Minnesota has worked with True Media for several years, and we are very pleased with their work. True Media is very forward-looking, innovative, and always gives us some great new ideas for consideration. Their monitoring and measuring are very impactful and we have been very impressed with their ability to adapt and quickly respond to our needs.
— John Edman,EMT, Director
Paradowski has successfully partnered with True Media on many occasions over the past nine years. We've worked closely together on both consumer-facing and B2B efforts in categories like Agriculture, Education, Distribution and Recreation. Their participation in bringing our media strategy to life ranges from strong vendor negotiation to providing guidance on KPI alignment with business objectives. We consider them a smart and dependable asset in helping achieve our Clients’ goals.
— Pat Rosner,Paradowski Creative, Director of Insights
Cargo and True Media have been working closely together for the past 5 years. When we tell the global brands we work with that we have a sensational Media Partner, we mean it in every sense of the word. Sensational Media strategy, thinking, service, execution, and reporting. And we could not ask for a better partner. The level of collaboration and teamwork we get from the True team is rare in Agency / Media relationships. Too often, one is trying to outdo or drive the other. But working with True feels like we have a dedicated, in-house team of Media Pros inside our own walls. All of us, working together, for same outcome—to make our clients look like rock stars.
— Rocky French,Cargo, Creative Lead
True Media has been Runnings' Media and Communications Partner since 2014 and has helped us transform the way we market our company, brand and products. TM’s dedicated account team works closely with us in leveraging critical industry and consumer insight to effectively set up and execute each campaign to be the best it can be in meeting overall budget and business goals. They treat me as a partner, not just another client and care very much about the success of our company.
— Dennis Jensen,Runnings, Director, Marketing & eCommerce
True Media has truly become a strategic partner for our organization. They not only assist in developing our media buying strategy, they play an integral role in the development of our overall campaign strategy by providing market research on our target audience. Once the campaign is implemented, True assists in monitoring the effectiveness through their robust analytics. As an added benefit, True provides education for our team through their annual conferences as well as one-on-one presentations to improve our understanding of different media, helping us stay aware of the most current trends.
— Marty McCormick,MU Health Care, Director, Strategic Planning & Marketing Business & Network Development
I was at a weekly status meeting with my media vendor (True Media) the other night and something occurred to me during that meeting - they aren't just a vendor, they are a strategic partner and an extension of my team.
— Josh Redel,Central Bank, VP, Director of Marketing
Explore Minnesota has worked with True Media for several years, and we are very pleased with their work. True Media is very forward looking, innovative and always gives us some great new ideas for consideration. Their monitoring and measuring is very impactful and we have been very impressed with their ability to adapt and quickly respond to our needs.
— John Edman,Explore MN Tourism, Director
We love working with True Media. Not only do they offer great reporting they are quick to offer up insights and suggestions to make our campaigns better. We view True Media not as a vendor but as a valued partner.
— Jason Miller,Cal Ranch, VP Marketing
I have really appreciated the thoroughness and transparency of True Media. I love having the dashboard at my fingertips to check in on the performance of the campaign whenever it is convenient. Not being forced to wait until month’s end or constantly reconciling has been awesome. That said, the True Media team has proven to be well-prepared and ready to listen when we do have regular check ins. Ultimately, it’s a results business and I have been pleased to this point with what the team has been able to do with our modest budget!
— Eric Blair,William Jewell, VP of Enrollment and Marketing
Working with True Media has been fantastic. They respond quickly to market needs and come up with innovative solutions for changing budget requirements. They have been especially accommodating given the impacts of Covid-19 and go out of their way to adapt.
— Clint Ostler,Landline, Marketing
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Project Work

We work with agencies on a project basis, providing media expertise when you need it most, filling any gaps or resource strains. Agency partners regularly rely on their True Media team to support media needs including projects in specialty categories or channels outside their typical offerings.

Full Media Department Support

We are proud to serve as media partners to agencies that leverage our research and manpower and consider our team, their team. These agencies receive a dedicated True Media team that works seamlessly with your account management, strategy and/or in-house media experts to develop integrated channel and media strategies.

Integrated True Media Team

In true collaboration, a designated True Media team is embedded within your agency, working on site side-by-side with your team, in your space. This allows for a gateway to True Media's resources, tools and research, right within your walls.

Drive Requests for
Online Quotes &
Policy Purchases

We worked with a national insurance provider to drive requests for online quotes and policy purchases in the Chicago and Denver target markets. We used our research tools to identify those with high insurance scores seeking non-commercial automotive insurance and mapped a customer journey to drive online conversions.
Plus 412% policies sold after launch

Target

  • Those with high insurance scores seeking non-commercial automotive insurance

Strategy

  • A pay-per-click campaign using general automotive insurance terms to drive awareness and purchase intent
  • During the Chicago Cubs World Series games, infield signage media placed at the playoff games, and after the Cubs won, there was TV coverage that ran during the celebration parade
  • Geofence display advertising and retargeting methods that helped catapult the brand into the Chicago market

Outcome

  • >45M paid impressions in first 90 days
  • 72K website sessions in first 90 days
  • +412% policies sold in 30 days after Denver launch

Create & Target Unique
Audience Segment
With Digital Tactics

We implemented a campaign for a rural credit union customer in order to increase awareness, consideration and account signups. Our programmatic team leveraged our exclusive relationship with Farm Market ID to produce a unique audience that we targeted using full-funnel, automated digital media tactics.
15% increase in signups

Target

  • Custom audience segment of the highest value for potential production farmer customers

Strategy

  • Programmatically target large production farmers across five states using video, native, display and online audio digital media tactics
  • Place emphasis on mobile and in-app delivery following research that showed the high number of times farmers interact with smartphones during the workday
  • Use CRM data and site retargeting to further amplify the most engaged audience

Outcome

  • 15% increase in account signups year-over-year
  • The programmatic audio campaign delivered to 90% of the target audience with an average frequency of five

Drive Online
Conversions for
Mortgage Applications

Using SpotRight custom audience technology to effectively scale beyond first-party and retargeting audiences, we drove online conversions and mortgage application consideration, while maintaining comparable ROAS/CPA metric audiences for a major financial holding company. Typical targeting for these consumers had been third-party in-market segments and demographic targeting.
200x outperformed in-market audience segments

Target

  • Custom SpotRight audiences that model the characteristics of people looking for mortgage rates and information

Strategy

  • Create custom audiences with SpotRight technology that model the characteristics of people looking for mortgage rates and information
  • Use this model to cross-reference the social media followers of the client brand and their main competitors
  • Run these targeting segments alongside standard targeting in order to deliver the best CPA outside of retargeting and look-alike targeting

Outcome

  • While the CTR was the lowest of any targeting segment, the average CPM was more efficient than any other tactic outside of retargeting
  • Outperformed demographic targeting almost 2x
  • Outperformed in-market audience segments more than 200x

Use Paid Digital Media
to Maximize In-Store Purchases
for CPG Brand

True Media Canada worked with a national consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand to help them meet their holiday goal to maximize in-store purchases across Canadian markets and prove a positive correlation between paid digital media and in-store purchases at the retail stores selling their products.

While the brand has an e-commerce offering, shipping costs for consumers often outweigh the price of one product. Therefore, retailer purchases drive the main portion of revenue. Maximizing on in-store purchases is a conundrum many CPG brands face and we needed to prove success of digital media efforts despite the inability of attribution to brick and mortar retailers to be directly linked in DSPs.

Cost-per-store visit $0.25

Target

  • Millennial moms and college consumers doing holiday shopping

Strategy

  • Drive in-store traffic using display and video campaigns with store-branded creative
  • Utilize holiday shopping audiences to maximize on the time of year and custom, location and behavioural audiences to target high-intent visitors
  • Increase campaign, increase performance and bid factor top performing retail locations with more store-branded creative
  • Prove positive correlation by conducting a foot traffic study to track users in the audiences that saw the ads and subsequently went into the retail stores

Outcome

  • The campaign achieved an overall cost-per-store visit of $.25 across all media among the retailers
  • Q4 retail sales reports that showed top revenue numbers were directly tied with efficient cost per visit metrics achieved by paid media

Lift Millennial Sales
With Unique Media Partnership
and OOH Solution

We worked with a craft brewery to develop a unique media partnership that helped the brand reignite passion and stand out among the onslaught of beer sameness in the Toronto area.

Our audience research showed that 74% of millennials enjoy a subtle, inspiring or creative approach to advertising, spend twice as much as boomers on self-care essentials, feel the beer they drink says a lot about them, and like to experience new tastes.

OOH options were limited in the key target neighborhoods, as outdoor inventory was scarce, booked, or nonexistent and laws prohibited the use of city-owned wall space.

3254% increase in web traffic

Target

  • Influential millennial men who live or work in key Toronto neighbourhoods

Strategy

  • We got creative and found our Trojan horse into the target areas by forming unique partnerships with local barbershops
  • We created ad space where there wasn’t any by painting murals on barbershop storefront windows in our target areas
  • Radio reads were used to invite people to attend the live painting that was captured in a time-lapse video and shared across social platforms
  • To gain efficient scale, large posters strategically placed at street-level in key areas and inside 25 barbershops close to beer stores and LCBO locations
  • Sampling tours were held four Saturdays during the flight, reaching men at barbershops as they freshen up for their night out

Outcome

  • Sales for one of the brand’s canned beer products saw a 67% increase while the campaign was in market
  • Drove 74% incremental added media value by leveraged OOH to create interesting branded content
  • During the campaign, there was a 3,254% increase in new Toronto-based visitors to the brand’s website
  • Search interest for the brand heightened during the campaign flight and matched macro competitors

Omni-Channel Media Strategy
to Drive Grand Opening
Foot Traffic

We worked with a North American home builder to drive registrations to the grand opening of their new community. The builder was experiencing several challenges including a consumer crisis of confidence in the greater Toronto area (GTA) due to lending and interest rates policy changes and a seasonal change to winter, when home sales are typically already low. In short, homebuyers were afraid to buy a house that may lose its value less than two months from its purchase.
60% increase online conversion

Target

  • Those looking to purchase a family home in new build communities

Strategy

  • High frequency to drive foot traffic through OOH, mobile, digital and audio
  • Tightly aligned media, creative and messaging that took a phased approach to increase brand interest and grand opening registrations, ensuring maximized results
  • Utilized location-based digital media to geofence competitor sales centers with Mobile/SMS conquesting and drive foot traffic to the sales center opening

Outcome

  • Click-through rates up to 20x higher than benchmarks
  • Online conversions up 60% compared to the pre-campaign period
  • Homes sold out within six weeks of the campaign launch