Four agency professionals describe what makes a cross-media campaign work and provide examples of those that are done right.

When asked what makes a campaign "integrated," most people will tell you that all elements have a similar look and carry the same message. This is certainly true, but there's more to creating a successful, well-integrated, cross-media campaign than that.

Four in-the-trenches agency folks described for iMedia what a well-integrated campaign needs to consist of and what it takes to make it happen, and gave their opinions on recently executed campaigns that met the mark.

Dawn Anfuso: Describe the anatomy of an integrated media campaign. What are its key elements?

Jinenne Sutherland, media director, Fathom Online
The key elements of any well-integrated campaign are audience, media and message.

Jinenne Sutherland is media director for Fathom Online

From a media standpoint, the best channels to leverage vary depending on the audience characteristics and the message for the campaign. That being said, there are a few channels that almost always rise to the top as "must haves" in an integrated campaign (disclaimer: my company specializes in search, but I would recommend SEO and paid search regardless).

SEO: Almost every cross-media campaign includes a micro site or presence on a corporate site. It's important for marketers to include SEO best practices in the site build. Top listing in organic search is vital in building credibility for the campaign.

Paid search: An expected result for integrated campaigns is usually an increased buzz in the market. It has been proven that buzz equals increased searches for words associated with the campaign. Unlike with SEO, marketers can have a presence on a much larger list of keywords and it provides more options for messaging. A paid presence on brand terms can direct searchers to the campaign pages, whereas the top organic listing directs to a corporate site. In addition, presence on buzz words picks up traffic while SEO is still kicking in. For example, if you searched "Got Milk?" and it didn't appear in organic listings, would you know what URL to go to?

Customer communication: Every marketer should continually cultivate their customer communication channels including snail mail, email and mobile lists as well as blogs and RSS feeds. If these channels are well maintained, they can be strong components in an integrated campaign. A company's current customers are the best evangelists for the brand. They also are fuel for viral distribution, especially if they are given an "early peek" as part of the marketing effort.

Craig Walmsley, director of strategy, AKQA
What people say in answer to this question is that your campaign should be "idea-driven" and "media-neutral." All too often, however, this response is really only a way to side-step the issue.

What people say is media-neutral, but what they do is "matching luggage," with the print tagline on the banner, or the 30-second spot as the Flash intro to the website.

Such thinking fails to grasp the changes that digital has brought to the communications industry, that all media are digital, that all marketing is interactive, that the brand is the sum of all customer experiences, and that all customer communications have to be integrated across media and time.

Digital gives people significant control over their media environment, and provides them with myriad choices of content, products, services and brands that they choose to engage with.

Advertising is now a choice; something that people can easily filter out and will only choose to engage with if it helps them out, makes them laugh or turns them on.

Brands need to create great stories that tell a product truth, resonate with the target audience and give the audience something to talk about and engage with.

At AKQA, we believe that the most effective integrated marketing will be driven from a core narrative and will play across media.

More importantly, a truly integrated campaign "sets the story free" across these media.

A properly integrated campaign should free the brand narrative from the confines of traditional media and convey the message in the manner most suited to the medium in which it is conveyed.

Paul Santello, EVP, regional managing director, West, Carat
A well-integrated, cross-media campaign must have several key components:

Paul Santello is the regional managing director of the West for Carat Fusion encompassing the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

• It needs to be centered around one clear, focused, big idea for the brand;
• It has to have a single communication voice;
• It must have a consistent look and feel among all components;
• Media types need to work naturally together in concert to create a "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" effect;
• Media types must have a clear and distinct role in the overall communication that leverages the particular strength of that medium.

Drew Neisser, CEO, Renegade

You need a big idea; an idea that is bigger than any individual media or execution.

Armed with a big idea, the integrated team then needs to create a contact strategy that capitalizes on the optimal points of contact AND aligns these with the overall campaign goals.

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