This online media director says the company's most successful campaigns involve creative integration in the content of sites.

Cheni Vega is Online Media Director for CoolSavings, Inc., an interactive marketing company with one of the most visited Web properties on the Internet. Since 1999, Vega has worked with the industry's largest publishers, portals and lifestyle sites, using an analytic, ROI-driven approach to media buying to help profitably build CoolSavings' database of more than 36 million registered consumers.

iMedia: How has the media mix changed for you over the last few years? Is online still "an afterthought" or are campaigns, for the most part, conceived of in an integrated fashion from the get go? Or are you somewhere in between?

Vega: At CoolSavings, we do 100 percent online advertising.

iMedia: What was your most successful online or integrated campaign recently and what made it successful? 

Vega: Our most successful campaigns involve creative integration in the content of the sites. It's not limited to any type of advertising medium because it can creatively be done with any partner that has the resources.

iMedia: What is the greatest benefit of online advertising?  The ability to measure? Precisely target? Gather data? Something else?

Vega: For our company it is a combination of the pricing, targeting and because it allows for an immediate response.

iMedia: Are you doing any behavioral targeting? If yes, please describe.

Vega: We've tested some but haven't necessarily found much success with it.

iMedia: 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?

Vega: Not yet.

iMedia: Have you found agencies to be able to handle your changing interactive/integrated needs? What could still be better? 

Vega: N/A we're not working with an agency -- all online advertising is done in house.

iMedia: Have you done much with wireless, iTV or other emerging mediums?

Vega: No.

iMedia: It's the beginning of a new year. What do you hope to accomplish this year?

Vega: We hope to find new creative breakthroughs to increase the performance of our advertising to keep up with increasing competition on the Internet.

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

Vega: Mediapost.com, ClickZnews, MediaDailyNews, SearchEngineStrategies