INTEGRATED MARKETING AGENCY · SAN DIEGO
One Idea, Landing Everywhere at Once
Campaign strategy and creative built to run across paid, social, email, PR, print and the site as a single moment — instead of six channels each doing their own thing in the same month.
WHY THIS PAGE EXISTS
“Integrated” Usually Means Everyone Invoices Separately
The common setup is a paid agency, a social freelancer, a PR firm, an email tool somebody in-house owns and a designer who gets asked for assets on Friday. Every one of them is competent. None of them is running the same idea, and the customer meets all of them.
What that costs is not obvious on any single invoice. It shows up as a launch where the press lands a week before the ads, a promotion the email list never hears about, and a landing page that says something slightly different from the ad that sent people to it.
HOW A CAMPAIGN IS BUILT
The Idea Has to Survive Six Formats
A campaign idea that only works as a hero film is not a campaign idea. The test we apply is whether the same thought still lands as a six-second vertical, an email subject line, a press angle, a poster and a landing page headline — without needing to be explained.
Most ideas fail that test, which is a useful thing to find out in week two rather than after production. The ones that survive tend to be simpler and less clever than the ones that do not.
Then it is a sequencing problem: what runs first, what has to be live before the press lands, when paid scales, and what the site has to be ready for. Half of campaign performance is timing that nobody owned.
WHAT WE DO
Integrated Campaign Services
Six parts. We will also run a campaign where you keep some channels in-house — the sequencing matters more than who executes each piece.
Campaign Strategy
The objective, the audience, the single idea and the measure of success — agreed before anybody designs anything or books media.
Concept & Creative
The idea, the line, the art direction and the asset system, built to be cut down for every placement. Produced with our production team.
Sequencing & Launch
A dated plan showing what goes live when and what depends on what. The part that usually lives in somebody's head and falls over at the worst moment.
Landing & Conversion
The page the campaign points at, saying the same thing the ad said. Built by the web team in the same sprint rather than requested afterwards.
Measurement & Debrief
One view across every channel, plus an honest debrief on what worked, what did not, and what we would not repeat. Written down so the next campaign starts further along.
HOW A CAMPAIGN RUNS
The Formula for Integrated Campaigns
Four stages. Six to ten weeks from brief to launch for a campaign with original production.
01. Define
Objective, audience, budget, timing and the single number the campaign is accountable for. Written on one page.
02. Concept
Two or three routes, pressure-tested against every format they have to survive. You pick before production spend starts.
03. Produce & Sequence
All assets from one production, and a dated launch plan with dependencies made explicit.
04. Run & Debrief
Live optimisation across channels, then a written debrief including what we got wrong.
WHEN NOT TO RUN A CAMPAIGN
Three Situations Where We Say No
A campaign amplifies whatever is already there, including the problems.
The offer is the problem. If the product, price or proposition is not landing, a campaign buys you more people discovering that faster. Fix the offer, then amplify it.
The basics are not running. If your site converts badly, your search presence is weak or nobody is following up on enquiries, always-on work will return more per dollar than a burst. Campaigns are for moments — a launch, a season, an opening. They are a poor substitute for a functioning marketing programme.
There is no real moment. A campaign needs a reason to exist that a customer would recognise. “We need to do something this quarter” is not one, and it produces the kind of work everybody forgets by Friday.
EVERYTHING UNDER ONE ROOF
The Integration Is the Product
This is the one service where being a full-service agency genuinely matters. Strategy, creative, production, paid, social, email, PR, print and the site are all in the same building at 770 First Avenue — so sequencing is a conversation rather than a negotiation between four vendors with different incentives.
It also means one number to be accountable for. Nobody gets to point at the channel next door when the campaign underperforms, which concentrates the mind considerably.
For San Diego businesses the moments that justify a campaign are usually local and seasonal — an opening, a season, a relaunch, an anniversary — and for hospitality clients they run through our hospitality practice.
The studio also handles branding and identity, photo and video production, print and collateral, content marketing and web design — most engagements use two or three of them together.
We work with businesses across Downtown, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido and Coronado — the full list is on our service areas page.
Grow Your Brand With Our Marketing Formula
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What our Clients are saying
By far the best marketing company in San Diego! They are on top of it- the social posts are on time and the website updates and SEO are effective. They built a WordPress website for us and we couldn’t have been happier- highly recommended
Formula Marketing has been a phenomenal company to work with. The entire team is professional and very talented. They are clearly passionate about the work they do and have helped our business create an amazing social media presence, which has ultimately increased our sales tremendously. I highly recommend working with Formula Marketing!
Best marketing company in San Diego. They helped take my business to the next level. With Formula Marketing SD I truly feel like I have an amazing team on my side helping me every step of the way.
QUESTIONS
Integrated Marketing FAQs
What is an integrated marketing campaign?
One idea, one objective and one measure, executed across several channels at once so they reinforce each other rather than compete. The difference from ordinary multi-channel marketing is not the number of channels — it is that the timing, message and creative are decided together.
How much does a campaign cost?
Strategy and creative development typically runs $8,000 to $25,000 depending on how much original production is involved. Media is separate and depends entirely on the goal. Small seasonal campaigns using existing assets can run considerably less.
How long does it take to launch?
Six to ten weeks from brief to launch when there is original photography or video involved. Three to four if we are working from an existing asset library. Press lead times are usually the binding constraint, not production.
Do we have to use you for every channel?
No. We regularly run campaigns where the client keeps paid or email in-house. What we do insist on is one owner for the sequencing and one shared calendar — otherwise it is not integrated, it is simultaneous.
How is this different from just running ads?
Ads are a channel; a campaign is a plan. Always-on paid media is the right tool for steady demand capture and we run plenty of it. A campaign is for a moment that needs several things to happen in a particular order, where the press, the creative, the site and the media buy have to arrive together.
Can you work with our existing brand and assets?
Yes, and that is the cheaper path. We will tell you if the existing assets genuinely cannot carry the idea, but we would rather adapt what you have than default to a new production. If the brand itself is the blocker, that is a branding conversation first.
How do you measure a campaign?
Against the single number agreed at brief stage — bookings, leads, covers, sign-ups, attendance, sales. Channel metrics sit underneath that as diagnostics, not as the headline. Reach and impressions are reported because they explain the result, not because they are the result.
What if the campaign underperforms?
You get a written debrief saying so, with what we think went wrong and what we would do differently. Campaigns are bets, and an agency that has never shown a client a disappointing debrief is an agency that is hiding them.
Do you handle print and out-of-home?
Yes — print, signage, direct mail and collateral through our print team, plus out-of-home, radio and streaming audio through media planning. Physical placements often carry the local moments digital cannot.
Can you run seasonal or recurring campaigns?
Yes, and they get cheaper each cycle because the assets, the plan and the learnings carry forward. Restaurant Week, holiday season, back-to-school, summer — the second year of a recurring campaign is usually where the return shows up.
What Is the Moment?
A campaign needs a reason a customer would recognise. Tell us what is happening and when, and we will tell you whether it is worth building a campaign around or whether your money is better spent on the always-on work.