Integrated marketing

One of the most important things to remember when marketing across multiple platforms of advertising is keeping the whole campaign integrated throughout all platforms. From billboards to Tv to Facebook ads, keeping the campaign integrated can become quite difficult. 

The marketing charts staff at marketingcharts.com conducted a survey stating the following. 'The survey asked senior marketers to choose their top three issues from a comprehensive list and then rank them in order of importance, from one to three. Of the 157 respondents, more marketers indicated a greater concern about integrated marketing communications than any other issue' (http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/traditional/integrated-marketing-top-issue-on-sr-marketers-minds-4141/). 

The following is the list of the top 10 issues, ranked in order of importance:

1. Integrated marketing communications
2. Marketing accountability
3. Aligning marketing organisation with innovation
4. Brand building
5. Media proliferation
6. Advertising creative that achieves business results
7. Consumer control over what and how they view advertising
8. Attracting and retaining top talent
9. Globalisation of marketing efforts
10. Multicultural marketing

(Sourced from http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/traditional/integrated-marketing-top-issue-on-sr-marketers-minds-4141/)

“The rapidly evolving marketing landscape demands an integrated approach,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “The survey findings confirm that integrated marketing is one of the foundational pillars the ANA believes are critical to create a transformed marketing environment.” (http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/traditional/integrated-marketing-top-issue-on-sr-marketers-minds-4141/)

This can be further proven by the work of one of the best marketing teams in the world, Apple. Apple are able to create such a campaign that thousands of people line up over night out side of stores around the world to get a new phone each year. No matter what platform they are advertising on or product they are trying to sell they their campaign integrated is flawless.

(Image sourced from http://www.bphones.ca/blog/2012/09/21/bell-apple-iphone-5-now-available/)

(Image sourced from http://necalling.com/apple-samsung-phone-war-heats-up/)

(Image sourced from http://my.genieo.com/magazines/bendesidad/2013-04-23)

(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBfPS8vwTzE)

Whether its a billboard, to web images to the introduction video for the phone, they keep the same font, they have the same white background, they keep it simple, fresh, product brand and name always showing. Its completely integrated throughout the digital and traditional advertisements. This is supported by Laura Lake's statement 'Over communicating with potential prospects, customers and even event attendees can unfortunately result in your message being lost, confusion and even the loss of your audience' (http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/Marketing-Communication-How-Much-Is-Too-Much.htm)

Internet, a mass marketing tool ?

Now that the internet has made millions of people readily contactable the web is now a marketers playground. Traditional media platforms where once the major advertising platform though with the move into technology and the accessibility of any and all information being unlimited, marketers and advertisers have moved into a digital era of marketing.

Gian Fulgoni states that in 2013.

• Today’s smartphone would have been the most powerful computer in the world in 1985
• 120 million people in the U.S. now own smartphones, up 30 million in just the past year
• For $600 you can buy a disk that can store all of the world’s music
• 30+ billion pieces of data are added to Facebook every month
• 72 hours of video are added to YouTube every minute
• By the end of 2012, comScore was capturing 1.4 trillion digital interactions per month
• 92% of the world’s data was created in just the past two years

These figures clearly show the temptations that marketers have to mass market there information/product to many thousands of people. Though we are being to filter through the ads depending on their relevance or become completely oblivious to the ads.

Amy Gesenhues from MarketingLand.com conducted a survey showing that 'data provider Adroit Digital found 56 percent of all its survey participants are likely to skip online video ads, while 46 percent said a video ad should be no more than 15 seconds in length...At 64 percent, Adroit Digital said 18 to 24 year olds are most likely to skip online video content, while respondents age 35 to 44 year olds are least likely to skip an online video ad. Of all the respondents, 56 percent said they skip online video ads most of the time.' (http://marketingland.com/study-56-viewers-skip-online-video-ads-46-think-ad-15-seconds-long-88299). 

What Is the Optimal Length for a Video Ad?

(image sourced from http://marketingland.com/study-56-viewers-skip-online-video-ads-46-think-ad-15-seconds-long-88299)

Do You Skip Online Video Ads?

(image sourced from http://marketingland.com/study-56-viewers-skip-online-video-ads-46-think-ad-15-seconds-long-88299)

How Do You Consume Video Content?

(image sourced from http://marketingland.com/study-56-viewers-skip-online-video-ads-46-think-ad-15-seconds-long-88299)

As you can clearly see by the last graph the increase in ads being view through web platforms, instead of traditional media and/or broadcast. Watching the same ad before every youtube clip can get quite repetitive and can become very annoying to the consumers, which could in turn reflect badly on the company.

Laura Lake from about.com further mentions that 'Technology has made us more efficient with our marketing, but perhaps it's time to consider that maybe it's made us less effective' (http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/Marketing-Communication-How-Much-Is-Too-Much.htm). Which asks the old question, Quantity vs Quality ? Are we being exposed to too many adverts through the web that don't effectively communicate with the ideal target audience. Mass marketing can become very easy through the use internet and social media and become very tempting to do, though might be more of a negative then positive, and can become far less effective than a targeted quality based digital marketing campaign.

Social Media and Digital Marketing

Through the significant expansion of the web and the constant increase of users and future technologies, digital marketing has become more and more important to business' due to the scope of communication available around the world. Social media has had a huge part in this instantaneous communication between B2B and/or B2C consumers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on, have had major roles in the digital marketing world. Gian Fulgoni from comscore.com stated that 'social media has just eclipsed portals in share of time spent on the Internet. In November Facebook attracted 150 million unique visitors in the U.S. alone while accounting for 10% of total minutes spent online. But it’s not just Facebook that comprises social: In the same month in the U.S., LinkedIn attracted 41 million monthly unique visitors, Twitter saw 40 million, Google+ attracted 29 million, while Pinterest and Instagram each received more than 25 million visitors' (http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The-Top-Ten-Burning-Issues-in-Digital#socialmedia). This further reiterates the the potential success that digital marketing can have through social media. With the explosion in consumers’ use of social networks, marketers are wrestling with the challenge of how to best utilise these channels to communicate with consumers. In many cases, social holds the promise of word of mouth persuasion achieved at scale (http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The-Top-Ten-Burning-Issues-in-Digital#socialmedia)

(Sourced from http://weblanguageseo.wordpress.com/)

Though in saying that some question whether we are being further bombarded with marketing and advertising. We have been so exposed to marketing and advertising that we don't recollect what billboards we have seen or the many bus advertisements have drove past. Now due to the technology of the internet we are consistently being marketed to whilst at home, indoors, on the internet and/or Facebook. Now to the point where we are becoming oblivious to online marketing too. Laura Lake from about.com mentions that 'I was following this company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS Feed. I was receiving close to 5 to 7 communications daily about upcoming events. Perhaps that doesn't seem like a lot but take that times 5 times a week and you'll see my point - that's approximately 25 to 35 emails weekly...I wanted information on the events and I was even interested in attending them, but I was turned off by all of the communication. Over communicating with potential prospects, customers and even event attendees can unfortunately result in your message being lost, confusion and even the loss of your audience. This is not an area where "more" works. It's actually the opposite - less is more' (http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/Marketing-Communication-How-Much-Is-Too-Much.htm)

In essence is social media now being used as a mass marketing tool ? Instead of being utilised more effectively as a platform to a more quality based targeted marketing tool ?