Radio still sells HVAC. Direct mail still fills restaurants. A story in Columbus Business First still opens doors that no ad can. Most agencies dropped these because they are harder to measure, not because they stopped working.
Somewhere around 2015 most agencies quietly stopped offering traditional media, and rebranded the gap as focus. The real reason is that buying a radio schedule or negotiating a billboard requires relationships and a media buyer, and it does not scale the way a Google Ads dashboard does.
Meanwhile the channels kept working, particularly for local consumer businesses. Central Ohio radio still reaches an enormous commuting audience. Direct mail response rates have gone up as inboxes got worse. Connected TV has made television affordable for businesses that could never buy a broadcast schedule.
Earned media is the other half of this. A feature in the Dispatch or Columbus Monthly does something no paid placement does: a third party vouches for you. It also produces the kind of link that actually moves search rankings, which is why we treat PR and SEO as one conversation rather than two.
Scope is set during the audit. Not every client needs every line, and we will tell you which ones you can skip.
Order matters here. Doing these out of sequence is the most common reason this work underperforms.
Traditional media rewards businesses with broad local audiences and a real budget. It punishes narrow B2B targets and small budgets. This is the first thing we assess, and often the answer is no.
Where your audience actually is, what reach costs in this market, and how offline and digital should split. We plan them together because offline drives branded search, and branded search is where you see it working.
Rate cards are opening positions. We negotiate placement, frequency, and added value, and we are buying with your money rather than marking it up.
Story angles that a Columbus editor would actually run, pitched to named reporters who cover your category. Not a press release blasted to a purchased list.
Matched-market tests, branded search lift, unique numbers and landing pages by channel. Offline attribution is directional rather than exact, and we are honest about which is which.
Radio and connected TV can be live within 2 to 4 weeks. Out of home and print run on inventory and publication calendars, often 6 to 10 weeks out. Earned media is unpredictable by nature, though most sustained PR programs land their first meaningful placement within 60 to 90 days.
We never charge a percentage of ad spend. Recommending you cut a channel costs us nothing, so the advice stays honest.
No minimum, 30 days notice. You stay because it is working, not because of a termination clause.
Ad accounts, domain, CRM, analytics, creative files. During and after. You take all of it if we part ways.
On the pricing page, in public. No discovery call required to learn whether you can afford us.
The free marketing audit covers exactly this, benchmarked against three competitors you name. Written findings in 3 to 5 days, yours to keep either way.
Traditional Media & PR in Columbus, Ohio. Radio, TV, out of home, direct mail, and earned coverage in the Columbus press. An Arch engagement covers media plan across broadcast, digital, and print, radio buying and negotiation, central ohio market, and broadcast and connected tv placement, among other work. Radio and connected TV can be live within 2 to 4 weeks. Pick Your Channels starts at $500 per month, month to month, and every engagement begins with a free marketing audit.
