Universal Music is the UK's biggest record company with artists such as Elton John, U2, Sheryl Crow, Daniel Bedingfield, Eminem, Sugababes and Busted. They are also the leading compilation company with vast selling albums such as Clubland, Cold Feet, Love Actually, Pop Party and the Number One Classical Album.
Ad spend is largely determined by the chart performance of each release with some of the spend being committed no more than two weeks before transmission. MediaCom have TV deals that are specifically tailor made for Universal. In all cases price and quality are never compromised.
Universal are in many ways a direct response advertiser: they test TV using regional upweights and on a weekly basis analyse the sales data. If incremental sales have been acquired at a profit then more money is released to continue the advertising. To buy quality airtime at short notice, you normally have to pay a premium. But MediaCom have educated the TV stations that if they invest in Universal by supplying quality airtime at short notice at the right price then they will benefit from greater spend levels. Every spot is hand picked as music artists have a highly specific target audience and buying the right programme is of paramount importance.
Working on Universal means that we have to be experts in 'Fast Marketing' - due to short shelf lives we have to get it right first time - and that is what we do.
In 1995 Universal Music spent 16m on media through MediaCom; in 2003 this figure exceeded 43m. Media Audits quoted 'In comparison with other clients in your sector, and taking into account the buying circumstance the real advantage to Universal is 7.5%. This is once again an excellent result'.
"We have had a fantastic relationship with MediaCom for many years now. We know the prices we pay for our media are extremely competitive as we are independently audited and MediaCom always deliver an excellent result year after year. We expect to be in the most efficient programmes for our target audience and that is what we get.
They also play a fundamental role in other areas of our business for example market research where we have access to their SCAM panel and econometrics where we know there is the facility to measure the effect of our advertising.
I certainly don't regard them as just a booking agency - they have a huge part to play in the growth of my business".
