Media Buying Briefing: Mile Marker forms out of the union of two shops with similar goals but different skill sets

Backed by private equity firm Lightview Capital, the elements that go into Mile Marker bring together Cage Point’s expertise in analytical insights and transparent approach to investing in performance channels for its clients, with PlusMedia’s abilities in audience segmentation through direct mail and other lesser-used channels. Clients include Fresh Pet — which has been with Cage Point since the brand first launched — DoorDash, multi-OTC brand firm Arcadia Consumer Healthcare and a raft of non-profit and other CPG clients, all totaling some $500 million in media investment. 

Mile Marker’s CEO Scott Shamberg, who had run PlusMedia for the last year but is a veteran of holding company shops including Performics, was charged by LightView to find another agency to merge with. Ultimately he found Cage Point, a 30-person agency in New York which was run by chief media officer Shattuck Groome.

“We’re specifically developed for the needs of those clients who are ready to go from spending $5 million on media to $35-$50 million in their next stage,” said Shamberg. “Those are the folks we want to be talking to. We’ve got founder experience and entrepreneurial experience now on our executive team, along with large global holding company expertise. When you mesh all that together, you get a very ‘tell it like it is’ kind of approach and a frankness to it.”

Shamberg and Shattuck share a conscious desire to avoid non-transparent media channels, or black-box investment — it’s a sort of rallying cry for both — while seeking out opportunities for their clients in what Shamberg described as “forgotten channels,” including direct mail and print. That includes negotiating directly with video sellers vs. going through DSPs.

Mile Marker also has been tapped by clients to consult before they purchase another brand, explained Shattuck. Arcadia (formerly Kramer Laboratories), which owns several health and beauty aid clients like Fungi Nail and dandruff shampoo Nizoral, was looking to acquire brands from Purdue Pharma to add to its portfolio, and asked Cage Point to analyze those brands’ media plan. Shattuck went back, told Arcadia the plan could be executed for a fraction of the cost, Arcadia bought the brands and put Shattuck’s plan into action. 

“We told them right off the bat that their $10 million media plan was more like a $1 million media plan,” said Shattuck. “They believed me and ended up buying those brands. The second we turned on real media — not some of these interesting [channels/platforms] that a lot of the agencies are now using that don’t have complete transparency — they saw immediate growth on those brands for a fraction of the cost.”

But the measurement and analytics part of Mile Marker plays just as important a role, said Shattuck, who eschews “soft KPIs” like CAC or CPC. “When you add complete transparency and deep knowledge of how to target the media appropriately, and most importantly how to measure that media, (that’s where the magic happens), regardless of the form of media, we can attribute it,” said Shattuck. “Whether it’s retail sales, like we do with Fresh Pet, or if it’s e-commerce with other clients.”

Fresh Pet founder and CEO Scott Morris attributes a good portion of the brand’s success to then-Cage Point’s careful use of limited dollars at the outset to help the brand grow — it’s now north of $100 million in ad spend, he said. 

“I would say 70 to 80% of the growth every single year is driven by the media spending, by the marketing,” said Morris. “It’s been unbelievably consistent and productive over a decade. But we’re also testing today the things that we’re adding in late 2025 and into 26. And by keeping that incredible level of analytics and data — and also no bullshit, no meetings where everyone’s waving wands and showing cool charts — that performance level that we have in our spend is exactly what we have to have each and every day. Or this entire company does not work.”

Color by numbers

After the great TikTok blackout of 2025 (which lasted less than a day but could come back), consumers gave some thought to technology they might want to cut back on this year. According to a survey from Secure Data Recovery, which surveyed people in the U.S., Ireland and England, social media was the tech they most would like to reduce. Here are the stats: 

• Social media: U.S. 63%, England/Ireland: 70%
• Streaming and videos: U.S. 29%, England/Ireland: 25%
• Gaming: U.S. 22%, England/Ireland: 18%  

Takeoff & landing

• S4 Capital, owner of Monks, gave a preview of its Q4 and 2024 results, which will be announced toward the end of March. The company said it expects net revenue will drop 11%, and it expects to deliver an operational EBITDA margin of 11-12%. S4 chairman Sir Martin Sorrell blamed some of the revenue issues on tech companies that “continued to invest significantly in capital expenditure to build AI capacity rather than marketing operating expenditure.” 
• Google made its open source marketing mix model Meridian available to all marketers and data scientists. 
• Account moves: Dentsu consolidated its global media work for audio streamer Pandora, a relationship that started in 2016 … QSR chain Subway has put its U.S. media and creative into review, currently being handled by Dentsu … PMG landed media and creative AOR duties for publishing firm Hearst.  
• Personnel moves: Jill Kelly, until last year the CEO of EssenceMediacom, was named CEO for Stagwell’s Assembly North America, replacing Val Davis, who left the company … Novus hired agency and client-side veteran Alison LaRoque to be its new vp and director of integrated client strategy. 

Direct quote

“They ignore that there’s controversy, or that Elon Musk brings controversy. Or even that the discourse on the platform, in a lot of ways, is not one that advertisers want to be in and around. They ignore that completely. It’s all just sunshine and rainbows.”

— The chief investment officer at a major media agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity, about X’s approach to courting marketers

Speed reading

• Sam Bradley tackled the tough topic of brand safety, ultimately concluding it’s becoming more of a myth as social giants like Meta move away from traditional brand safety tools. Despite all that, brands continue to spend.
• Julia Tabisz reports that a survey of marketers show half expect to increase their ad spending this year. 
• Sam Bradley also looked into the long-tail effects one year later of Amazon Prime’s move to become ad-supported.