When I was asked by iMediaConnection to share my definition of integrated marketing with its readers, I questioned the need to tell you what integrated marketing really is. After all, it's all of us in the interactive field who have championed integrated marketing for years. I've been running an interactive agency for more than seven years, with a cadre of traditional marketer clients, so I've seen some classic examples of successful integrated marketing in my time (as I'm sure many of you readers have). However, I am taking this opportunity to get on the integrated marketing soapbox because it allows me to get the word out about mobile marketing, my latest pet project and an emerging area where I think all great marketing minds should be.
Defining integrated marketing
Let's agree to define integrated marketing as the practice of leveraging different advertising channels (e.g. print, TV, web, outdoor and mobile) to deliver and reinforce a consistent message and achieve a singular result (i.e. brand awareness or conversions). Cross-channel marketing is another interchangeable term. Savvy marketers have long understood the necessity of consistent marketing messaging across channels like print, TV and later the web.
What about mobile marketing?
You know it's popular over in Europe and Japan and that it's emerging here in the States as well. But are you using it as a "must-have" component in your integrated marketing campaigns yet? You should be seriously considering it because the mobile channel is helping truly close the loop on cross-cross channel marketing. It is the most pervasive media out there because it's always at the fingertips of your target audience.
What is mobile marketing exactly? It can be many things, ranging from having a mobile website to creating and serving mobile ad banners for other mobile websites, sending text message information and/or offers and coupons to loyal customers, as well as providing mobile applications like store locaters.
Leverage mobile marketing with an integrated campaign
Let's say you're in the hospitality business and you want to send offers or confirmations to your customers who inherently tend to be the traveling, mobile sort. Maybe you're a casino and you want to soften the blow to last night's blackjack losers with coupons for a free buffet. What better way to reach them than on their cell phones? You're not sure they're on email but you can bet they're on their phones. Or you can insert mobile short codes -- several digits like a shorter telephone number -- to your local outdoor advertising. This entices consumers to punch in the short code on their mobile phones, download a coupon, and cash in at your casino (and maybe stay a while). This is just one more way to engage consumers in your brand, and to gain recognition as a forward-thinking marketer.
Hey, you already knew that very few young, educated, affluent demos are lounging around, thumbing through magazines and absorbing your ads. So you made a point of targeting them on the web as well, like every other smart advertiser. Today, the modern-day, digitized consumer is on the go constantly, and they're no longer tethered to their PCs either. Fortunately for you marketers, consumers still expect to be always connected via phone, blackberry et cetera, so mobile marketing is a strategy not to be missed.
Mobile marketing closes the loop on pervasive, "always-on" marketing from the perspective of the marketer, and fills the "truly connected" emotional need from the perspective of the consumer, not to mention offers simple convenience for an increasingly mobile population. Pretty soon, if a marketer is not in the mobile scene, if they don't have a short code to advertise, it will be like not having a URL back in the day.
Some nay-sayers might point out that there are several challenges inherent in mobile marketing: people aren't used to it yet, it's too intrusive to target personal handhelds, or simply, the real estate on a mobile screen is simply not big enough to convey marketing messages in the same way as in more traditional formats. I disagree on all counts.
Advertising is becoming more pervasive, yes, but consumers are conditioned to accept it on many levels. Responsible mobile marketers follow Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines and use opt-in permissions from loyal customers, or interested prospects responding to short codes, as their filter. Finally, what better way to own marketing real estate than with a small, limited screen size? Imagine all the ad banner clutter on any given web page; that branding obstacle just doesn't exist on a small, mobile screen.
So back to integrated marketing and what it means today. It means not only having consistent messages across channels, but actually taking advantage of all available channels to ensure that your message is always on in today's dizzying media mix. You might want to give mobile a try-- who knows, your customers might actually thank you for it.
Adam Kaufman is president of PinPoint Interactive Media.
