Joel Schlesinger © Postmedia Network Inc.
What’s in a name? Quite a bit if you’re a media planning and buying company like Mediology.
“The name of our firm — Mediology — really reflects what we do, and that is blending the science, technology and heart of media,” says Shannon Schafer, director of client strategy at Mediology.
“There’s the research side of understanding demographics and other metrics, those nerdy bits.” That is balanced with “the heart side — essentially having a feel and understanding for clients’ needs and their desired audience,” she adds.
In this respect, Mediology has a long track record of serving clients in Calgary and Western Canada. Previously known as DSA Media, Mediology has worked with small businesses, large corporations and government agencies for more than two decades.
“DSA is short for David Stanger and Associates, who founded the company in 1997,” Schafer explains. After Stanger’s retirement, the company changed its name last fall to Mediology to better reflect its work helping clients navigate an evolving landscape of multiple types of media.
“Twenty years ago, media really involved just print, radio, billboards and television, whereas today the focus is much more targeted toward digital, from banner ads on websites to Instagram feeds and more,” Schafer explains.
In short, businesses have many more ways to get their message out. What’s more, digital media is exceptionally powerful because it generates a tremendous amount of data, Schafer says. The challenge for organizations, however, is making sense of it all.
“These days, there is a sea of metrics available for any media campaign,” she says. “Yet, with all this digitized information at your fingertips, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important and whether a campaign is truly reaching the audience you want it to reach.”
That’s where Mediology helps. It deciphers the data — what’s notable and what’s not — while mapping out the media landscape for clients to build more targeted marketing campaigns for maximum impact.
“While you can get a million clicks on a banner ad, are you really generating new customers?” she says.
“A lot of what we do is helping clients avoid data pitfalls that can lead them down costly rabbit holes while ensuring they focus on metrics that are truly important.”
Mediology does not just build brand or marketing campaigns for clients, but instead helps them plan how best to use various media for their needs while assisting with the tracking of campaigns to evaluate effectiveness. It even assists small businesses on limited budgets teaching them, for example, how to create their own social media campaigns.
Big or small, Mediology’s goal is the same — making clients’ marketing dollars go further, Schafer says.
“We help them understand the media landscape, so together we can build a truly effective marketing strategy to fit their budget.”
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Calgary Economic Development.