Interactive Seven 2009 Supplement - Marketing Week

MWIB_260209_p047 19/2/09 17:56 Page 47
INTERACTIVE CONVERGENCE
The more the merrier
Web marketing is commonly seen as either a tag-on to a campaign or as an
independent force, but its true power lies in integration. By David Benady
Metrotwin: BA’s New York/London social site
At times, it looks as though brand
marketing will go completely digital,
and online will emerge supreme
as the only communications channel
worth considering. But for the time being, web
marketers feel marginalised by brand owners
when it comes to planning ad campaigns. They
see web marketing as hastily bolted on after the
TV ads, press campaigns, direct mail and sampling
strategies are worked out.
Moves by mobile phone and ISP brand
Orange to shift all its marketing into digital
media by 2012 are seen by some as an indication
that web marketing will eventually steamroller
all other forms of media. Orange’s brand
director Justin Billingsley told a digital conference
last year that digital advertising carries
“a lot less risk” than costly TV campaigns.
However, some reject the idea that successful
marketing strategies can be pursued through
any single medium. Antony Miller, Royal Mail
head of media business development, sees integration
becoming more important. “Marketers
are beginning to see that rather than competing,
online and offline messaging can support
each other, adding value to a campaign,” he says,
pointing to a recent Royal Mail study which
shows that integrating digital marketing with
direct mail can increase customer spend by 25%.
Almost 70% of respondents in the study felt
that email was more suitable for communicating
shorter messages, or clarifying a message
that has been received through the post. More
than half also said they would prefer a company
to approach them initially by post, then
through email. “The more personal nature of
direct mail creates a better initial impression,”
says Miller.
But there is a feeling that many brands have
a long way to go before they take on board the
full implications of the web for their wider marketing
strategies. “Web marketing tends to be
downstream, disconnected and peripheral to
the main aim of the brand,” says Jason Gonsalvez,
head of engagement planning at BBH.
Most campaigns either simply amplify a TV
idea or tack on the web campaign as an afterthought,
he says. But he points to work the
agency has done for BA in creating a social networking
website called Metrotwin for people
travelling between New York and London. It
aims to put BA ahead, in the struggle for customers
on the route, as competition heats up
following Open Skies deregulation.
The site offers reviews of restaurants, hotels,
clubs and place of interest in both cities, as
well as blogging and networking opportunities.
It is tangential, but additional to offline
marketing work. Gonsalvez sees this as an
example of how online can add value to a
brand’s marketing.
“Online marketing is about
recognising that consumers
have elected to engage with
you. From there you are
pushing at an open door”
Ben Langdon,
Digital Media Group
Recognition through content
Other brands which are considered to successfully
integrate their marketing across media
include Red Bull and Nike. According to Kevin
Allen, head of planning at Proximity London,
both the sportswear and energy drink brands
achieve strong recognition whichever medium
they use, even though they do not stamp a single
identity across all of their communications.
“They think about content, and what type
is best for a particular time and place that will
create maximum engagement with their audience.
If the answer is a TV ad then fine; but
increasingly the answer seems to be an event
or experience; it can happen primarily in the
physical world, such as Red Bull’s Flugtag (a
competition between home-made, human powered
flying machines) or the way O2 is using the
Millennium Dome,” he says.
For some brands, online is simply another
form of direct marketing using personalised
communications and direct response. Ben Langdon,
chief executive of Digital Media Group,
says: “People misunderstand digital marketing.
They think it is just about online video or websites,
but they haven’t understood what is going
on behind the scenes.”
DMG attempts to take information gathered
offline and apply it to web marketing. Langdon
gives the example of work done for Thomas
Cook Financial Services. People who have
booked a holiday and paid a deposit are ripe for
cross-selling and other promotions. One concept
uses a “holiday countdown” where customers
receive direct mail and emails before
their holiday, directing them to a microsite
where they can find out more about their destination
and access a personalised holiday
check-list. “Online marketing is about recognising
that consumers have elected to engage
with you. From there you are pushing at an open
door,” says Langdon.
The explosion of media channels has
brought a plethora of choice. But choosing the
most effective mix of media is still one of the
greatest challenges brands face. Creative agency
chiefs invariably argue that the key is to have
a “big idea” that can work across all media. But
if “the medium is the message”, as Marshall
MacLuhan claimed, then surely each medium
needs its own special bit of attention.
Over the next few years it will become clear
how traditional media will fare against the
onslaught of digital and other emerging forms
of brand building, such as experiential marketing.
But it is clear that marketing communications
will need to find new ways of
delivering integrated messages to an ever more
fragmented populus.
Marketing Week Interactive 47