Integrating Online into the Traditional Media Mix

Posted by Steve Hall · Monday July 11, 2005

By now, most marketers have moved beyond the question of Should I be marketing online? to ask more advanced questions, such as What are the latest and best ways to market online? and How do I build my online brand presence more efficiently?

Despite this evolution in thinking, the integration of online and offline marketing efforts remains an afterthought to most. The ad:tech panel Integrating Online Into the Traditional Media Mix takes a look at several tactics marketers can use to get these efforts in sync and by doing so, grow their business.

This is a favorite topic of mine, and the sometimes stale panel/moderator format actually turned out to be a great fit for this session, with Senior Analyst at Neilsen NetRatings Corey Jeffrey acting as stand-in moderator for Seana Mulcahy of Brand Truth. Other panelists included:

Gerard Broussard, Director of Media Analytics at mOne
Stephen Kim, Director of Ad Sales Research at MSN
Aimee Recker, VP of Interactive at Zentropy

Major Take-Aways:

Rules of Engagement: Integrating offline with online does more than keep your brand message and logos consistent. It also has a halo effect upon your entire marketing spend. Corey Jeffrey notes that the more activities you can engage a consumer in, the higher the likelihood of winning them over to your brand and/or making a purchase. Examples of engagements online might include entering a sweepstakes, creating a shopping list, or rating a product.

A Changing Landscape: Stephen Kim showed off his watch that gives real-time movie information and sports scores as well as a paperback-sized device that can hold up to 80 hours worth of Family Guy episodes. He was not trying to inspire gadget envy, he was more making the point that the media landscape is evolving and our advertising needs to keep up. Marketers need to continually integrate new technologies and consumer scenarios into their strategies. Bringing together offline and online is a first step, but we should not stop there.

Go Big. Go Small: Marketers should look at their interactive efforts from a macro as well as a micro level, says Gerrard Broussard. Ongoing ROI analysis is important as well as repeated testing to make sure what you are doing is working. The Internet is highly fragmented and getting more so by the day. Luckily, Aimee Recker sees more and more clients working toward integration than in days past. The ones that succeed are the ones that are not afraid to rely on partner expertise.

The panel closed with a question and answer session that saw many in the audience asking for advice on their own online ad efforts and sales personnel licking their chops.

This is one session I would like to see repeated next year, maybe a Part II that deals with how to effectively bring in feeds, blogs, podcasts, etc. Oh yea, I’d also like one of Stephen Kim’s little TV things.

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Integrating Online into the Traditional Media Mix

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