Online is now part of the media mix process for this car company, rather than being something "over there in the closet."

Robert Brown is interactive marketing manager for Hyundai Motor America. Schooled at Syracuse University (Newhouse) as well as Cal State (he's a year away from an international MBA), he has fought the Interactive Wars on all sides of the game through the early days of Avenue A (client strategist, new business), the erstwhile L90 (new business), Carat Interactive (account/media supervisor), and finally Hyundai.

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

Brown: Wins for me have been incremental -- ranging from simply being involved in key marketing strategy decisions to success in facilitating communication both within and among our agency partners and their traditional counterparts.

I spend a lot of time actively working to raise the profile of interactive within the organization through business cases that speak to the bottom line. We’ll see if I’ve been effective based on the resource allocation for ’05.

iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year?

Brown: I’m relatively new to the organization, so my job has literally changed from servicing the account from the agency side to assuming responsibility for the brand’s consumer experience online through our digital push marketing efforts and the Web site.

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

Brown: It has been a good year in the industry, but I suppose that has not been much of a surprise. Besides a decent economy, the volumes of research and inherent accountability of the medium is finally providing enough leverage to reach critical mass.

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

Brown: Optimal customer-centric alignment is more of a mindset than a formal org chart. We’re making progress.

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

Brown: Management has volume and profitability goals that require specific marketing communication mixes based on previous performance data, expected return and competitive benchmarking. My job is to be the interactive advocate in that process and make the case for my recommendations. The role of online has changed in that it's now part of the process and not “over there” in the closet.

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

Brown: We haven’t done as much with video-type applications as I’d like, though I don’t necessarily believe video on the Web is the “be all/end all” of Internet marketing.

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

Brown: We’ve seen very specific evidence based on match-back data to vehicle sales per program.

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

Brown: Carat Interactive handles our keyword optimization program.

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

Brown: Ad agencies, in some form, have a future as strategic partners/consultants with an objective eye and access/visibility across the marcom mix. Bringing relevant, fresh ideas to the table is the key to their continued value to the brand. The labor-intensive campaign set-up and management probably gets outsourced at some point. 

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

Brown: We’re already doing it. The reason that interactive isn’t a bigger part of the marketing mix has nothing to do with reason or logic and everything to do with the politics and the psychology of change. Time is on our side. The world is becoming more accountable -- not less so.

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?

Brown: There have always been active, vocal members of the community around our products and Brand -- blogs are just another form of electronic expression. We use these not as overt marketing opportunities to exploit -- something incredibly difficult to manage and impossible to control -- but rather as sounding boards and feedback mechanisms to keep our hand on the pulse of these current and potential customers. We’re not looking for individual opinions but rather broad trends that can be understood and classified.

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

Brown: The importance of CRM cannot be overstated. We see consistently stronger returns from appropriate messaging based on our knowledge of specific customers and their respective position in the sales funnel.

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

Brown: Web site, creative testing matrices, primary research.

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

Brown: Online is not the answer to all our prayers. It's just another powerful tool that, if properly used, can enhance awareness and the desired differentiation of our products and services from the competition. Let the rookies trip over the standard challenges associated with pulling off a complicated campaign. No need to get frustrated.

iMediaConnection: What blogs do you read?

Brown: I’m on FeedDemon’s trial version right now so I’ve just been jumping around like mad. There is just too much good stuff out there to settle.

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

Brown: I skim the following to find out what’s going on in the world, my industry, and/or sample great creative executions:

MSN homepage, Yahoo, Automotive News, FoxSports, ESPN, Nytimes, CNN, KBB, Edmunds, Slate

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

Brown: Books on tape for a long commute: “Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson.” Hard copies of The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, AdAge.