This VP says industry should recognize detailed tracking of consumer-driven interactivity is the future.

Tom Lynch is VP of brand strategy and advertising for ING Americas. He manages all aspects of online advertising and marketing for ING Americas' Brand Development Group. Prior positions include VP of marketing for PlanetJam Media Group, founder and GM of New World Marketing and brand marketing manager for Glen Ellen Winery.

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

Lynch: Leveraging the XMOS study results to increase the percent of our media allocated to online.

iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year?

Lynch: I am now responsible for all advertising at ING USFS. I believe the analytical approach we took in executing the online advertising caught a lot of attention.

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

Lynch: The biggest surprise for me was the steadiness. There wasn't a lot of chaos -- neither good nor bad. Maybe the medium and the industry are maturing.

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

Lynch: Yes, dramatically, beginning with the change mentioned above. I believe all online advertising managers have an opportunity to really push the integration agenda. Many of us have been trying to get online integrated into the media mix for many years, and in doing so have become the "integration champions" in our organizations.

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

Lynch: We determine it in a very rational and analytical way. We're a financial services company, so it is in our nature to make decisions that way, and online has benefited from that mindset.

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

Lynch: We need to continue to make it easier for consumers to have access to financial knowledge and tools that make it easier for them to control their lives. Any new online technology, platform or idea that has a chance to accomplish this is something we want to test.

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

Lynch: Yes.

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

Lynch: We make extensive use of the best agency in the business, TribalDDB. Between them and OMD, I feel like I have a tremendous competitive advantage in everything we do.

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

Lynch: The same as the past -- the past many of them got away from: Be smart, strategic partners. Deliver value. Deliver impact. Any agency just "servicing accounts" or delivering "breakthrough creative" can not possibly justify charging enough to be profitable in the future.

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

Lynch: The entire industry continues to have a chip on our shoulder. By that I mean we need to realize that the foundation of our medium is the future of all media -- consumer-driven interactivity, tracked in detail. If we lose that edge, then we lose, and too many legacy ideas, people, media, systems, methodologies will be given the chance to live for far longer than they should.

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?

Lynch: I'm sure we are being affected by them in some way. It is still a small area, but we know that people like to talk about their money. Word of mouth is a big influencer in financial decisions.

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

Lynch: We are investing heavily in the systems that will make an impactful CRM strategy possible.

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

Lynch: Lots of research right now. As long as we continue to be driven by our audience's lives and needs, then we'll continue to be successful.

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

Lynch: Sure. Research is an area that needs improvement. When we can't even agree on the basic measure of our medium -- an impression -- every piece of data becomes somewhat questionable.

iMediaConnection: What blogs do you read?

Lynch: None.

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

Lynch: Yahoo! News because I can get the top stories from many major news outlets, then dig deeper immediately. CBSMarketWatch, CBSSportsline and ESPN are regulars for me, as well as CNN. I get a lot of news online, and a great majority of it via my Treo.

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

Lynch: Another Tom Robbins novel, "Still Life With Woodpecker." I read one a long time ago and didn't like it, "Even cowgirls Get The Blues." A friend pushed me to read his first novel, which was great, and I've been hooked ever since. I guess he had one bad novel, and it was the first one I read. I'm glad I went back to him.