IM brand manager says spyware must be stopped and blogs are overrated.

Kip Edwardson is the interactive marketing brand manager for The Scotts Company. Edwardson manages Web sites and interactive marketing for Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Ortho and Roundup brands. He also manages the Scotts email newsletter and the Scotts Lawn Care Update, and provides strategy for search engine marketing for the brand sites. His background includes agency experience and work in media relations, marketing communications, advertising, direct mail, public relations and video production.

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

Edwardson: The biggest win isn't one single event, but many small wins"in the ongoing battles we face to educate brand managers concerning the value of interactive. We have created some momentum and that will carry over to some exciting changes to some of our bigger brands, such as Ortho and Scotts. It wasn't so much selling it, as a number of factors coming together to a point that made people take notice of online marketing.

iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year?

Edwardson: Last year we signed on with Exact Target to handle our email newsletter program -- we have a newsletter for lawn care and one for gardening. Using their technology, we are better positioned to customize the emails based on user preferences. Before, we would send the same message to a rather broad group. Now, it is much more personalized. For example, users in Ohio are likely to get a different email than their neighbors in Indiana. We have much more control over what is being sent and providing an end product that is customized for each individual.

So I find myself much more involved in email campaigns and "playing" with the tools at my disposal to try some things, do some testing and keep up with the email marketing world.

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

Edwardson: I'm surprised with Google. They clearly had the best search engine out there and were hardly a household name as little as four years ago. Then, suddenly they become kings of the mountain and they felt the need to tweak the product to the point that it is unrecognizable. I find myself migrating toward Yahoo! simply because I like the search results compared to the others. Granted, Google has nice features, but for pure search I'll stick with Yahoo!.

I'm also surprised by the attention spam receives by legislators -- if they would just give equal treatment to bigger issues. It goes to show how motivated they can become when their constituents complain. There's something to be said about that.

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

Edwardson: Not in the last year.

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

Edwardson: I wish we were more involved in the marketing mix. The role is changing though, and I'd be happy to answer this question a year from now to provide an update and talk about how things have changed. We finally got through that keyword purchasing should be a part of the overall media plan, and optimizing the site for search engines is gaining attention. We are making progress. I think online ads are just around the corner for some of our brands. 

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

Edwardson: It will never happen, but I'd love to see TV ads promoting our Web site. At the very least, five to 10 seconds of a 30-second spot devoted to the site. Just tell people what they can find there. We've spent so much time and money building a site with lots of good information. We don't just promote ourselves online, and that goes for all of our brand sites. Our category is very confusing to a lot of consumers, and it is also "information intensive," as we like to say. As a company, we recognize that consumer education leads to sales, yet we haven't made that strong link to interactive like we should. So, it is more than a set of TV ads, but an integrated advertising campaign where the Web site plays a key role in making the sale.

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

Edwardson: Yes and no. It is hard to measure for us, since there are limitations on the data available to measure that in our industry. Our biggest customers don't share that data with us and coupons are out of the question. We don't have Homescan and we can't do coupons with our major retailers. However, we recently ran a test with our email program that showed a lift in mid- to high-BDI markets (looking at POS data). That was just one test, and we are planning others, but it opened the door and showed that online marketing works. We've also conducted surveys and, granted, there is no clean data to back it up, but the evidence is there to suggest that we are stirring the pot.

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

Edwardson: Not specifically.

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

Edwardson: Higher billable rates? Like all industries, they will grow with the changing markets and climate. Do that, or risk losing clients. I think advertising is coming back to branding. You have to separate yourself from the competition. A funny commercial and a cool Web site are great, but what is your product about and why would I want to buy it? Why should I choose it over the other guy? Today, consumers know how to fight through the clutter.

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

Edwardson: Test, report...rinse, lather, repeat. Same ol' story. Eventually it will have to come straight from the consumers' mouths before some stand up and say, "Oh yeah, we should be doing more of that." You'd like to be there before it gets to that point. It is too easy to take the easy way out. Too many excuses exist, like "our consumers are not online" or "I can't afford to give up any of my media budget." We have seen consumers in focus groups say "I love your Web site" -- and that is during a focus group about another subject. Eventually, as more people accept online as a habit, it won't be ignored as much. The bottom line is the bottom line, and we have to show that it moves the needle. 

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?

Edwardson: We recently launched message boards on our site. We were very apprehensive in doing so for fear of lack of participation, or that it would simply become a destination for logging complaints. I'm happy to report that those fears have been put to rest, and the bad apples are handled by the community. For every complainer, there are 20 happy consumers telling that person they must be doing something wrong. It is a great way to get opinion-leaders to work for you.

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

Edwardson: As I mentioned previously, we have an email newsletter program for lawns and for gardening. The lawn email, Lawn Care Update, is based on the Scotts Annual Program, so it acts like a reminder of when to apply the next fertilizer application per the user's grass type and zip code. We also include tips and advice based on the user's profile. The gardening email is a monthly email based on the user's region. Last, we offer a weekly email that gives "what to do now" advice for that week and it too is based on geographical information. However, it is not as specific as the Lawn Care Update.

As a company though, we are still researching what works for us in the CRM arena.

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

Next year we have big plans for the Ortho brand online. We are also introducing several new products for the Scotts, Roundup and Miracle-Gro brands, so there will be online promotions for those products. In addition, we are ramping up efforts to expand the gardening email program to include even more localized information.

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

Edwardson: I wish effective spam-blocking technology existed. I know it isn't hard to hit the delete button, but it is an issue that bothers so many people that thousands of dollars are spent on software solutions and then we, as marketers, must spend time and money to ensure that our legitimate emails are sent (and received) legitimately. If we are fortunate, we can devote maybe 5 percent of our time to the issue. Meanwhile the spammers are spending 100 percent of their time to manipulate the system, so the battle swings heavily in their favor and they know it.

On a similar note, I really wish we could get rid of spyware. What a complete violation of privacy to put something on your computer without your consent. Things like that will keep those fringe users away -- people who are uneasy with computers are completely vulnerable. It is up to Microsoft to build a better browser to prevent that stuff from occurring. They wanted to win the lion's share of that market, and now that they have it the responsibility of protecting users comes with it. C'mon, build a better mousetrap already.

iMediaConnection: What blogs do you read?

Edwardson: None, and I really don't get the whole blogging phenomenon. I enjoy writing and I can be rather opinionated about a lot of issues, but I've never considered a blog or why someone would want to read my blog for that matter. I saw that there were bloggers given press passes to the Democratic National Convention and I was just blown away by that. As a former journalist, I just don't get it. If they want to write and have people listen, why not go through journalism school and become a writer? Maybe they are journalists? I don't know. Some sites are simply about blogging, and I don't see the point. Why not just build a site and put a lot of copy on it?  

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

Edwardson: I'm ashamed to admit that I'm horribly addicted to football and my Cleveland Browns. I can't stand a day going by without knowing what is going on with the team. It is sad, I know. I see Scotts.com on a daily basis for obvious reasons, too. "Must see" is pretty strong, though. There are lots of sites that I like, but I don't visit them on a daily basis and there are lots of sites that I use or browse on a daily basis but I wouldn't classify that as "must-see." 

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

Edwardson: I just finished "Plan of Attack" by Bob Woodward, and now I'll get back to finishing "Charlie Wilson's War," which was loaned to me by a friend who thought I'd enjoy it. Woodward's book I picked up at the library after seeing him interviewed by Tim Russert, and some of the excerpts had me wanting to hear more. I think we all have a right to know exactly how and why this war with Iraq started. And I read to my daughter every night. I also love to read TIME magazine every week.

Related to the interactive world, I'll read ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, eMarketer (and some others I'm forgetting) when I have the time.