This VP of Online Media says online advertising is growing with optimism and lively events, but reminds industry players to tell their success stories to offline marketers, too.

Zentropy Partners creates “digital solutions for the real world,” by tapping the interactive potential of a client’s business objective through Websites, Intranets, e-commerce initiatives, online marketing and brand-building. The full-service interactive marketing agency focuses on relationship marketing, Web development and media planning/buying.

Vice President of Online Media Mark Redetzke is involved in strategy development and oversees planning and buying. With a background in traditional and online media, interactive business has been Redetzke’s focus since 1996. He has a strong online presence as a featured columnist for ClickZ. And he has been a guest lecturer at industry conferences and in graduate classes, discussing advertising strategy.

Here, Redetzke tells iMedia Connection that the closely knit online advertising industry can sometimes resemble a “great big pep rally.” But instead of shouting, “We’re going to win! Our stuff works!” to each other, we need to bring offline vets into the mix to see for themselves.

iMedia Connection: What has been the biggest change you have experienced in the online advertising industry over the past year?

Redetzke: Overall, there’s a general sense of optimism that was lacking over the previous two or so years. Not that it really has changed anything, but people have a little more hope. They see clients being a little more interested; they see their agency counterparts on the traditional side recognizing the shifts in consumer behavior and media consumption. There’s still a long, long way to go, mind you.

iMedia Connection: How do you evaluate media placements?

Redetzke: That depends. In terms of the upfront evaluation -- i.e. should we buy this? -- it most often revolves around target audience composition, reach potential, creative opportunity and, of course, efficiency – the basics. In terms of the in-campaign or post-buy evaluation, it’s whether or not it contributed to meeting our overall goals -- in some cases, it is about driving sales or acquisitions, and in many others it is specific to qualitative metrics, awareness, purchase intent and so forth.

iMedia Connection: How have you integrated rich media into your campaigns and what kind of a response have you received from clients?

Redetzke: It is a standard component of every plan – and I do not mean Flash. I don’t think our mindset is “let’s use rich media.” It’s more like, if you have to dig a hole, do you grab a spoon, a shovel or a backhoe? We try to use the right tool for the job. Rich media simply works better.

iMedia Connection: What is coming up in 2004? What will be the challenges, and what challenges will be resolved?

Redetzke: Hold on while I consult my Magic 8-Ball.

There are so many challenges. In no particular order:

• Figuring out reach/frequency (we have three different systems that show us three completely different outputs for the same schedule).
• Integrating with offline planning teams – or even getting some mindshare with offline teams.
• Continuing to convert folks on the client side who have decades of data that says they don’t need the Internet in their mix.
• Getting standards across any number of areas of the industry -- ads, rich media, position on spam, you name it.
• Continuing to streamline the way we do business so more money can be made or, better yet, figuring out a way for traditional agencies to begin to do this kind of work so the real budgets start getting tapped.
• Continuing to get people into the industry that have a broader marketing view rather than a singular focus on what we do with no grasp of the bigger picture; and so on.

What will be resolved? I really don’t know. I think the talent issue will address itself because smart people can see what is happening and will react accordingly. The traditional agency side stuff has begun to change and will continue – if only for the sake of their own survival. I hold out little hope in the other areas for immediate change.

iMedia Connection: Do you expect clients to make interactive spending more or less of a priority in 2004?

Redetzke: More, but in many companies and industries – CPG for example – I believe we are several years away from it being where it should be.

iMedia Connection: What are you, as an agency, doing to help move traditional advertisers online?

Redetzke: We work with the agency team and the client team. We try to give them the information they need to make informed decisions. For example, a traditional planner may know he should plan some weight online, but he has no idea how much to allocate because he has no idea what it costs or what he’ll get. We try to make that a simple decision for him that compares easily across his other options.

For clients, we try to educate them as well. Many are not aware that their target audience spends an inordinate amount of time online. Many do not realize the efficiency and accuracy with which we can reach them. Many find it difficult to grasp the notion of pure segment-based marketing, i.e. showing your ads only to those who fit your target and weeding out those who appear to be low-value prospects. Once that light goes on, we have an engaged audience.

iMedia Connection: What should we be doing as an industry?

Redetzke: Lately there’s been no shortage of supportive research, events, conferences and so forth. But I always get the sense it’s a great big pep rally. Like the most brainwashed of us all are in front of the rest of us who are only slightly-less brainwashed and the chant is something like, “We’re going to win! Our stuff works!” The thing is, our stuff does work and to some extent we should win something, but we need to shout it in different directions. That’s really just a long way of saying we need to start getting offline folks – the real vets – into our mix so they get exposed to all the stuff we have been doing. I really don’t think many outside of our tightly knit community know what we are doing.

iMedia Connection: What is the most effective component in interactive marketing and have we fully maximized its potential?

Redetzke: That depends on how you define ‘effective.’ I can say with a fair amount of certainty that we have not maximized the potential of anything yet. We see a lot of power in customer segmentation and how actionable it is on the Internet versus other channels. Being able to target on an individual basis rather than a site basis is moving us to a place we need to go.

iMedia Connection: What recent campaign really proves the effectiveness of the interactive medium? Give an example and explain why.

Redetzke: We’ve done some segment-based work for H&R Block that has effectively driven sales, supporting the medium’s strength as a powerful direct and relationship marketing tool. We had another plan for a packaged goods product designed for working women to eat for lunch. We had the majority of the plan demo’d and day-part targeted with customized coupon values depending on how they interacted with an ad. I thought that was smart and it has been effective.

I like how the auto manufacturers are beginning to dominate portal home pages. There is clear creative and media strategy integration there and the online component plays a nice role of moving people closer to a dealer visit. Movie studios are doing a nice job of trying to shift purchase decision prior to a movie opening or weekend through in-ad functionality like streaming trailers, ‘search for show times in your area functionality,’ and the ability to buy tickets.

iMedia Connection: What is your priority for the next year, and what will you and your company be doing about it?

Redetzke: Taking all of my vacation for the first time ever. Hopefully, we’ll be hiring more people!