Internet credibility depends on addressing gap between ad receptivity and media exposure.

Debi Treiman is director of online media for Touchstone and Disney films.  Prior to joining Disney, Treiman worked at Carat and on such accounts like Jenny Craig. At Dailey & Associates Treiman helped to launch WPP's MindShare and worked on the ABC Family Channel account. One of the highlights of Treiman's career was when she worked at TBWA Chiat/Day and helped Steve Jobs put Apple Computer back on the map with the famous "Genius, Think Different" campaign.

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

Treiman: I am new to my job as Director of Online media for Touchstone and Disney films. I consider the fact that this position was created to make sure we are best maximizing and integrating our campaigns online as a win. 
 
iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year? 

Treiman: As my job is just a few months old, it changes everyday. Presently we are spending our time applying "kitchen sink" research, incorporating post performance insights, creating benchmarks, and voraciously trending media usage to best apply learnings to our plans.  

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

Treiman: We know we can be doing things better. We have key people in various business units, TV buying, promotions and publicity, regularly meeting and sharing information to make our campaigns more effective and integrated.
 
iMediaConnection: How do you determine your marketing mix -- and how has the role of online in it changed?

Treiman:This is the very thing that is closest to my heart. Due to the 10-plus years I have spent as a traditional planner, I was hoping that a simple media usage allocation of total goal campaign impressions (e.g. 20 percent of my day is online, therefore 20 percent of the impressions go online) would do the trick. However, there is the debate that a :30 TV spot is more effective than a :30 rich media ad unit online due to the size, sound, etc. The gap of ad receptivity and media-type exposure effectiveness needs to be addressed to help make a relatively simple usage allocation a credible platform.
 
iMediaConnection: What haven't you brought into the marketing mix yet that you want to try? 

Treiman: Shift our priority from in market placements to behavorial targeted allocation, find movie goers outside of movie ticketing and review sites/channels.
 
iMediaConnection: Have you seen specific evidence of online driving offline sales? 

Treiman: I have not seen the loop closed to prove sales, however, while working on a diet center client, I saw a large incremental customer base registering online, raising their hands for more information. The diet center client did not have the infrastructure in place to convert these hot prospects to clients.
 
iMediaConnection: Are you using consultants, software, agencies or other tools to help with search engine marketing? 

Treiman: Yes, our agency partner provides valuable palnning insights to our business.

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

Treiman: As a person who has just come from being on the ad agency side, I’d like to see a realignment with regards to staffing proposals. Agencies continue to pitch new business for small fees or commission and over promise senior and full time employees. This ultimately sets up the agency to fail to meet the client’s expectations.

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

Treiman: Consolidate, aggregate and share best practices by industry as well as standardize metrics.
 
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? 

Treiman:  Yes, in the movie business, word of mouth or buzz can make or break an opening.

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

Treiman: As of now this is not applicable, however, as we experiment more with rich media as well as promotional mechanisms to build interest in a film, we may want to consider direct email as a reminder vehicle or core user group platform.
 
iMediaConnection: What are you investing in now for next year's marketing program? 

Treiman: Everyday we read, we review, we see what else is being done to make the next campaign (or year) that much better.
 
iMediaConnection: Does anything still frustrate you about what online can or can't do? 

Treiman: I am frustrated that we have to prove its effectiveness  while all other media types are accepted and budget allocation is fairly static.
 
iMediaConnection:  What blogs do you read?

Treiman: I seem to have been missing during this trend. I have not read nor discussed blogs with anyone yet. 
 
iMediaConnection: What are your daily "must-see" Web sites and why? 

Treiman: All portal movie sites, film sites, such as IMdb, online media sites, wsj.com and NYtimes.com.
 
iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days, other than iMediaConnection.com, of course? 

Treiman: That is plenty, I print at least 10 articles a day to help me fall asleep and have productive dreams.