Interested in reaching moms as they chauffeur their kids around town? New York-based consumer products marketing agency RadioTag might just be able to help. While the company provides full-service marketing across most media outlets, it has really earned its chops pursuing nontraditional media exposure and carving new paths in traditional media spaces such as radio by trading custom content for airtime.

So when you hear music stars introducing their latest singles or see big-name actors on the sliver screen asking the audience to turn off their cell phones prior to the film’s start, it’s likely RadioTag that got them there. ‘The value of the service is you’re doing something that stands out,’ says RadioTag co-founder Pete Rosenblum. ‘People will stay tuned to a station or a screen if they see/hear someone they know. Something supported by a celebrity is 100 times more valuable than a generic voiceover spot.’

Interestingly, it doesn’t take the big bucks associated with a traditional mass-market campaign to get one of these promos off the ground. Typically, RadioTag approaches targeted media outlets and offers the tag content (i.e. ‘Hi, this is Lionel Ritchie, and you’re listening to K99 EZ Rock’) and samples of the product for prizing, in exchange for airtime. Usually, says Rosenblum, the content promoting the product is given to the outlet for a set period of time, and then the media partner gets to air it sans promo information for as long as it wants.

RadioTag doesn’t limit itself to working with the latest in adult-skewing entertainment and has carried out campaigns for the likes of Nickelodeon, Disney and several major movie studios to promote kid-targeted projects. For example, Miranda Cosgrove of iCarly fame recorded a series of audio tags for radio audiences, as well as video spots promoting the series’ CD that launched last fall. And Emma Roberts was recruited to record spots for her 2007 film Nancy Drew.

As for the amount of time it takes to put a campaign together, Rosenblum says six weeks prior to the launch date is ideal, and RadioTag usually charges on a per-service basis, covering as many key US markets as the client specifies.