Media by Mother launched cannabis-infused beer Ceria in California but had to be clever to navigate restrictions that prevented the agency from using terms such as “weed” and “beer” in the same ad.
Media by Mother’s revenue jumped from $200,000 in 2021 to an astonishing $7 million last year as it worked to simplify the messy media landscape and get back to the fundamentals of ad buying.
The agency is born from renowned creative indie Mother, but maintains a separate P&L. As such, the media agency achieved its five-year growth goals in 24 months.
The shop says it did so by prioritizing transparency, putting the power back into the hands of clients.
In its own words: “We are the hands-on keyboard buyers, but their money flows through their pipes, not ours. Because we can't manipulate the way client money is invested, we can't make money from trading income.”
The agency has automated every aspect of the media buying process where it made sense (“repeatable tasks,” as the agency calls them in its entry), giving its people back more time and creating a more efficient workflow. With the money saved, it invested in additional training for its employees so they can stay on top of the evolving technologies and trends in media.
Transparency leads to trust, and Media by Mother’s clients have entrusted the agency with big tasks.
Premier Bankcard tasked the agency with growing its awareness and application volume by 124% in one year.
Media by Mother started by identifying subprime credit cardholders who could become customers using search and social data, which then informed the awareness campaign.
The agency found people who had fallen on hard times and used Premier Bankcard to pick themselves back up, sharing those stories across social and on Montel Williams’ daytime show, “The Balancing Act.”
Using that insight, Media by Mother overdelivered on its goals by the end of 2022, with a 135% year-over-year boost in application volume and a 5% lift in brand awareness.
For cannabis-infused beer Ceria, the agency was tasked with launching the brand in California, but because of strict regulations, the brand couldn’t use the words “beer” and “weed” in the same ad.
On a budget of $50,000, Media by Mother got around those restrictions with a campaign that incorporated a Spotify playlist with song titles that, when read in order, “said explicitly what our ad could not,” the agency said. The campaign led to the highest-ever search volume for Ceria.
