“I have an agency I work with. They’re great. They help me develop ad campaigns, decide on strategies, work with vendors, and think about how I invest my advertising dollars.”
At some point, everybody with a growing business and a healthy relationship with a marketing company says something like this. It’s a signal that the partnership is working. But what if it could be better and more powerful because the marketing agency is seamlessly integrated into a highly respected Ohio media company? It can.
Source Brand Solutions (SBS) is part of a larger team, that includes Source Media Properties (SMP). SMP is an award winning local news organization that reaches a highly engaged and organic audience of nearly 300K central Ohioans every month. That’s powerful reach, especially when it is combined with an integrated, multi-platform digital strategy. Here’s a few ways that Source Brand Solutions helps clients execute massively successful campaigns when we integrate your content into our local news platforms and initiatives.
- OhioHealth wanted to move the needle on wellness in the Source Media Properties coverage area. They realized that traditional advertising might bring awareness, but it was hardly immersive. To solve that, Source Brand Solutions worked with our colleagues in news to create Thrive, a complete content vertical that has delivered hundreds of thousands of visitors to high quality content sponsored by the client. The partnership has included content, advertising, social media, in-person meetups and comprehensive wellness initiatives.
- Highlighting the free wi-fi in their 13 stores was a priority for an Ohio McDonalds franchisee. The goal was to raise awareness of McDonalds as a legitimate “third place”. Source Brand Solutions worked with our news team to host “Pop Up Newsrooms” during a month-long “Lovin’ It Local” campaign. Reporters set up shop and worked from the store. They sourced stories from guests, did reporting and filed their stories from the restaurant.
These sort of pervasive brand activations happen all the time because the SBS and SMP groups are one team. We know how critical it is to maintain an independent and trusted news product, which we fiercely protect.
At the same time, we also know how incredibly effective and valuable it can be for local and national brands to be associated with that journalism in fun and innovative ways. Under the right circumstances, this combination is positively catalytic.