Integrated Marketing – What does that really mean? by Lars Feely

Integrated Marketing – What does that really mean?:

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the keynote panel at the “Search Engine Strategies” conference recently held in New York City. I was joined by Brenda Fiala, VP of Strategy at Blast Radius; Mark Huffman, Integrated Production Manager, Procter & Gamble and Giovanni Rodriguez, Digital and Social Strategy, Deloitte Consulting LLP. We were moderated by Dana Todd, SVP, Marketing and Business Development at Performics and our topic was the real meaning behind “Integrated Marketing.”
As a team we addressed these four questions:

• What does integrated marketing mean to you?

• What comes first, the big idea or the big data?

• How should Search inform the planning cycle?

• What are the challenges in truly integrated marketing?

It was fascinating for me to watch my fellow panelists, all drawing from a vast career of amazing experiences, find a wide range of ways to answer these questions. I’ll try to summarize a few of the quotes that stuck with me below.
Sometimes the best answers can simply be short and simple and to the point as Giovanni put it so well when he said, “Integrated marketing is the rise of the connected consumer. Marketing has become more strategic, in large part because of the access to data.” I was also a fan of the way Mark gave a very precise visual when he remarked what integrated marketing isn’t, “It’s not just ‘matching luggage’ – the same visual everywhere.” I like this statement because it cuts to the heart of what our panel was there to discuss. Integrating marketing teams should be about performance, driving the best return for our clients and looking at the entire ecosystem of marketing that is happening for a client to meet goals.
As we moved the discussion towards either the big idea or the big data driving integrated marketing, I found that the panel hit a perfect balance of pros and cons. Mark started the discussion with an anecdote about two creative staff members coming up with a big idea on the back of a cocktail napkin, no data input at all, just two great minds coming up with an idea that now drives a campaign for Febreeze air freshener.
I responded with a concept we here at Neo@Ogilvy like to call “of the moment data.” “Of the moment data” is simply the data points we find that are relevant to a client’s business and drive executionable insights for our clients, sometimes it’s as simple as a deep dive into the Google insights platform and sometimes we find rich first and third party data from our demand side platform buying that can help to drive a client’s goals. My point in bringing up this “of the moment” data is simply to say that while those two creative minds were working in a bar one night, they were drawing from years of audience insights, a deep rooted knowledge of their client’s business and a foundation of solid marketing expertise. Just because you’re not sitting in front of MRI looking at doublebase from 2009 doesn’t mean you can’t draw a data point or an audience insight into your big idea.
Brenda had one of the best lines on this topic in my opinion when she stated that you had to inspire both the analytics teams and the creative teams to get into a room together and bubble up the best ideas backed by the best insights, “popcorn logic” is how she put it. Another great visual of so many ideas bubbling up until the top two or three spilled over the edge into fruition.
I feel I have a unique approach to the question around search affecting the planning cycle. I spoke about how typically a search campaign is seen as the harvest of interest, our campaigns become the end result instead of the starting point. I challenged everyone in the room to flip that concept on its head by launching a new product, and launching a paid search campaign with 10-15 branded words for a product that has no awareness. Counter intuitive I know, you wouldn’t see much traffic, but it becomes a central piece of a campaign to watch how the interest surges in your product over time. It is a very tactical way to insert your search team into the strategy of planning an entire campaign.
On this point Brenda made a very important observation, come to the table early, as you start to engage with a new client, a new campaign or even a new planning team. Insert yourself into those meetings, make sure you have a seat when it comes to driving strategy, search is a major force behind performance in any campaign. At Neo I struggle with driving the performance for my clients on a daily basis, at our heart we are a performance marketing company, being in all conversations with key stakeholders from the very start is of tantamount importance.
Giovanni made an excellent point when we moved to our final topic regarding trends in our marketplace that are forcing integration. The convergence of tools and channels is driving this forced integration, he mentioned that social media folks have started to see every company as a media company, and I agree with him, every company has a story to tell and now has a vast toolset in which to tell that story. If you have a client who isn’t leveraging a social conversation, a video platform or even a search campaign, you have a client who is missing out on integrated marketing. Our integrated lives, and the technology upon which we rely so heavily in today’s world, is driving that integration. It may be painful but I think Giovanni is right and it will be for the best.
Lars Feely is the Group Search Director for Neo@Ogilvy in New York.