Having more than 12 years of marketing experience in both the online and offline worlds, this national media director has informed opinions on weighty issues facing the industry. Plus, he shares the creative for a rich-media campaign he recently implemented.

A veteran of both online and traditional media, Middleton has over 12 years of marketing experience at several leading West Coast firms -- BBDO/West, Ketchum (now TBWA/Chiat-Day), Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and SFInteractive -- where he has developed campaigns for the California milk industry, Hewlett Packard, Bank of America, VISA and Cisco. His groundbreaking work on HP earned Online Campaign of the Year honors from AdWeek. Here the national media director talks about how advertisers and agencies aren't yet using the medium to its potential, what models he sees for the future, and other such topics.

iMedia Connection: What's one of the most successful campaigns you've executed this year?

Middleton: We have implemented a family of campaigns for Cisco that has been very successful. By family of campaigns, this means that we've been working across different product groups and departments at Cisco to accomplish multiple objectives. It has not been about simply running online advertising; it's about providing comprehensive online marketing programs.

For instance, for a recent trade show, we collaborated with the events, marketing department and PR departments to promote Cisco's involvement via Web cast coverage of the event. To develop this kind of program, it is critical to work closely with influential sites in the category for promotion. This kind of program will work on numerous levels to accomplish multiple communications' objectives for our clients.

Another successful campaign was the Quantum DLT campaign - which distributed a new kind of communication form, the InfoCast, and delivered phenomenal results in terms of learning and interactivity rates.

iMedia Connection: What measurements did you use in deeming these successful?

Middleton: We use different metrics for each campaign. I think we get into trouble when we try to define a universal metric for our space, such as CPA. For the Cisco program mentioned, the metrics include site traffic, actions taken, lead generation and time spent with the information.

iMedia Connection: What percent of total budget is online?

Middleton: We're seeing between 5% and 25% of the marketing budget dedicated to online, depending on the client and their products. But then again, we do a lot of B2B and technology marketing, which lends itself more readily to online marketing.

iMedia Connection: What's the best integrated campaign you've seen this year?

Middleton: BMW films campaign was the most memorable. I thought they could have done more with the online portion of it, however. They used TV to generate visibility and their whole goal for the campaign seemed to be to get five minutes of someone's time to look at their product. Their audience is online, wealthy and tech savvy. They felt their best chance at having a conversation was online.

It seems that traditional shops still don't have their heads completely wrapped around the possibilities of online. While there are good integrated campaigns, there hasn't been one that's really taken advantage of the Web yet. With BMW films for instance, there was no way to interact with the unit, or participate in it. You could watch the film - which is a sizeable accomplishment in itself -- but the Web has more potential to create a personal experience.

iMedia Connection: What sort of new models can we expect in the future?

Middleton: I think we will see Online Marketing finally begin to deliver on its promise of a new model for marketers. The debate over branding vs. DM will always fail to uncover the power of online marketing, since it fails to consider and evaluate the power of interactive communications. This may seem obvious, but there are fewer examples of it than one would think.

One piece that we developed for Quantum is an example of the interactive model that we believe is rapidly approaching. Quantum is a leader in Back-up Tape for computers - our challenge was to engage Technical users in a dialogue that explains the mission critical nature of their products.

The campaign only appears within relevant articles on the storage industry, but the ad itself is truly self-guided. Users are able to locate and find the most relevant information to them -- whether that be a video case study, a product demo, or a brochure - while being branded through the experience. The learning for the client was significant as we tracked each action taken within the unit, and the interactivity rate topped 7%.

This is an example of a very targeted ad to a niche market, but I think the principles would work for much broader consumer products as well.

Perhaps the reason so few companies have taken this approach is that it is incredibly difficult to implement and requires significant expertise.

iMedia Connection: What's your secret for convincing your clients to spend more of their budget online?

Middleton: Show effectiveness and offer more than what they are getting from their offline media. For instance, gather market research as you are advertising to give your client key learning about the consumers' needs, in addition to quantitative metrics.

A big part of engaging clients is education -- explaining how the program will work, what to expect and what the next phase should entail - of what makes a program deliver success over time. While it may be possible to sell in a quick tactical program, if it doesn't work right away, it will be that much more difficult next time around.

iMedia Connection: Why is it better for a traditional marketer to go with an interactive agency than to advertise-direct with publishers OR take the entire workload in-house?

Middleton: This business environment is about specialization, so it makes sense to outsource to an expert to save money, avoid costly mistakes, and get better returns.

iMedia Connection: What remains the industry's biggest stumbling block?

Middleton: The fact that we will do anything for a buck is the biggest problem. There's not a longer-term view of what we're trying to accomplish in the industry. It's all about short-term gain. We're willing to assault customers for short-term gain.

Agencies seem eager to use any technology to interrupt the users' experience, whether it's appropriate or not, such as pop-unders, take-overs, etc. These gimmicky tactics may work in the short term, but we are putting ourselves in a bad position and we're building resentment between the user and the advertiser.

Instead of getting closer to customers, we're scaring them off. We're constantly underselling the Web in terms of both cost and potential.

We need to get back in touch with why people are getting online in the first place and provide a service to help them, rather than force them to view a message. The Web is a utility vehicle, not just a viewing medium.

The biggest growth in advertising is classified ads-this says a lot about where we are. OK, rant over but it concerns me and makes me question the long-term viability of what we do.

iMedia Connection: What should agencies do to help clients overcome these stumbling blocks?

Middleton: Education is key as I mentioned before. Agencies can start to educate clients on how to get better results online. We need to help the client get into a pattern of sustainable marketing. We need to have business conversations, not gimmicky advertising conversations. That's what's been working for us at SFI. We talk about business/marketing solutions that take advantage of the Web's unique ability to communicate with users.

iMedia Connection: Is there enough branding research to satisfy clients? If not, what needs to be done?

Middleton: I think there's enough research now. Unfortunately, there's a whole perception problem that's more powerful than the branding research that's been done. The perception is that online advertising isn't as effective as other types of marketing. Some of this is residual from the dot-com implosion. Some is our own doing, offering overly aggressive promises to clients, raising the annoyance level of advertising, and overselling and overpricing a medium before it was ready.

I had a client say to me recently, "We tried online advertising two years ago and it didn't work." After sharing some of our work and learning from the last two years, he was open to reconsidering. Research alone won't fix the problem. We need to re-educate our clients.

iMedia Connection: What are your clients' reservations about spending more money for interactive media?

Middleton: Online is unfamiliar to a lot of clients and therefore is still a gamble. There's a perception that it doesn't have the same impact as other media. Often when we show clients how effective online can be with a test budget, we can grow the commitment. The key is not to spend too small of a budget. You need to do a decent test.

Also, by showing how clients can satisfy other marketing needs internally, such as product demos, collateral, event coverage, PR, etc., we can differentiate online marketing.

iMedia Connection: How can agencies encourage their clients to keep up with the reported increase in consumer media consumption?

Middleton: By selling it to them.

That was one piece of research I really liked. It showed that magazine and publication consumption has decreased in the tech and business world, while online consumption has increased. Advertising dollars have not followed this trend.

It is a really effective way to sell your clients on a missed opportunity.

After all, there are now 500 million people online - nearly 1/10 of the planet. How could that not be a good marketing opportunity?