Relationship marketing head says online efforts have increased sales and brand health.

Robert DeSena joined Masterfoods USA in February 2002 as director of relationship marketing, combining over twenty years of marketing and management experience with unique expertise in direct and interactive marketing. In this role DeSena and his team manage direct-to consumer marketing efforts for all Masterfoods USA brands, which include M&M's Chocolate Candies, SNICKERS Bar, TWIX Cookie Bars and STARBURST Fruits Chews, as well as pet products marketed in the U.S. under PEDIGREE Brand and CESAR Brand (for dogs); WHISKAS Brand and SHEBA Brand (for cats); and WALTHAM Diets for both dogs and cats.

iMediaConnection: What was your biggest online "win" this year, and how did you sell it throughout the company?

DeSena: M&M's Great Color Quest campaign on AOL. We worked with AOL management to create a campaign that was as unique as removing the colors from M&M's, creating several industry "firsts." The seamless fit with brand strategy was a powerful selling tool.

iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year?

DeSena: We've expanded the marketing applications of all digital platforms by utilizing data and modeling techniques borrowed from the direct marketing industry. This has improved our insight and targeting not only online, but for our traditional media investment as well.

iMediaConnection: What surprised you in the online world this year?

DeSena: The speed with which ad sales recovered. This has led to a concern regarding renewed complacency in the marketing development of the Web.

iMediaConnection: Have you realigned internal structures and resources to simplify or increase integrated marketing?

DeSena: Yes, we've aligned along a consumer management organization in support of the traditional brand management organization, a "new matrix" organizational model. 

iMediaConnection: How do you determine your marketing mix -- and how has the role of online in it changed?

DeSena: We've consolidated our communications planning to flow through one resource and begin with a media-neutral point of view. It works as a function of our ability and desire to stay close to the consumer.

iMediaConnection: What haven't you brought into the marketing mix yet that you want to try?

DeSena: Marketing applications of video gaming platforms and SMS. It's less about not having tried each new platform and more about the depth of testing of digital platforms as they exist today. I'd like to see more understanding of the precision targeting capability of digital platforms, including addressable TV.

iMediaConnection: Have you seen specific evidence of online driving offline sales?

DeSena: Yes, on two of our major brands we've seen specific sales increases as well as positive impact on brand health measures.

iMediaConnection: Are you using consultants, software, agencies or other tools to help with search engine  marketing?

DeSena: Yes, we're working with individual consultants, as opposed to larger companies, to help develop our search engine marketing experience. It's always insightful to me to see how individuals, particularly entrepreneurs, adapt to and use new tools and technology to solve problems. Process follows discovery.

iMediaConnection: What do you believe is the future of ad agencies?

DeSena: Increased specialization and increased responsibility for specific business building results. Ad agencies, small or large, are both a function of their clients as well as the most nimble of all businesses once they get behind an idea. Clients bear a major responsibility to specify requirements in a changed marketplace. This includes changing traditional methods of evaluating our advertising agencies, i.e., not always asking for the TV reel first.

iMediaConnection: What do we need to be doing as an industry to help you make interactive marketing a bigger piece of your marketing pie?

DeSena: We need to better define the unique characteristics and attributes of various digital platforms, including the collection and use of data to more precisely target and communicate relevant messages to consumer segments. We also need to combine these unique characteristics with the core video competence of major marketing companies through, for example, a major emphasis on targeted television through broadband.

iMediaConnection: Are you being affected by any consumer-generated marketing (CGM) -- blogs, user groups, etc.? Are you using any blogs or other social networking tools to market?

DeSena: Nothing significant yet. The key issue related to blogs and similar communication forms, from a brand marketers viewpoint, is the loss of control relative to their traditional marketing training. You can't copy test a blog, and that represents a significant leap of faith for many major marketers at this point in time. It's interesting to observe this caution in light of the stated trend toward consumer-centric marketing.

iMediaConnection: How important is CRM in your marketing efforts? Give us an example of what's working.

DeSena: Relationship marketing is an important element of our communications plans today, and growing. One implication of this trend is the need to view consumers across a portfolio of brands to better understand and serve their needs, as well as maximize their lifetime value. This has significant organizational implications for a product and brand management structure that has lasted decades. We're making important progress in the pet care and confection segments.

iMediaConnection: What are you investing in now for next year's marketing program?

DeSena: We're making investments in the development and broad utilization of a consumer marketing database, in consumer care systems and in training.

iMediaConnection: Does anything still frustrate you about what online can or can't do?

DeSena: It's not what the platform can or can't do, it's our ability to leverage its uniqueness, i.e., to replace a frame of reference that stems from traditional media thinking with a new one.

iMediaConnection: What blogs do you read?

DeSena: boingboing.net, pirotcar.dudecheckthisout.com

iMediaConnection: What are your daily "must-see" Web sites and why?

DeSena: myyahoo.com, mms.com (my m&m's store), msnbc.com, pedigree.com

iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days, other than iMediaConnection.com, of course?

DeSena: 'Inside' by Joseph A. Califano Jr.; 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins; 'Time Out New York' -- the NY Yankees' home schedule.