This Manager, Interactive Marketing says the company's online budget has doubled the past three years, and is growing.

Doug Simpson is Manager, Interactive Marketing for NissanUSA.com, a company that has embraced the internet to power vehicle launches and generate buzz.

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?

Simpson: The media mix for Nissan (both Nissan division and Infiniti) has changed dramatically over the last five years. While we’re certainly not leaders in the online space, the online portion of our overall spend has doubled the past three years and will continue to grow, especially in the areas of search and online branding.

Online is definitely becoming a mainstream media outlet for Nissan. The last four major vehicle launches (Nissan Pathfinder, Frontier and Xterra, as well as Infiniti M) have all been powered by online activities prior to launch to generate buzz and awareness leading up to the public release. While all our campaigns certainly aren’t as integrated as they possibly could be, we’re definitely improving both our ability to market online as well as our willingness to dedicate dollars to do so.

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

Simpson: Our pre-launch effort for the 2005 Frontier was our most successful integrated campaign that took advantage of multiple media outlets. The center of the campaign was an online contest that allowed prospective customers to come online, learn about the all new Frontier, and customize (a la Monster Garage) their own Frontier with the winner getting to take home a brand new Frontier customized as they like. The campaign integrated traditional media -- 15-second TV spots and print ads -- as well as online advertising (banners, message board seedings, search placements, etc.) to maximize our exposure across mediums.

The end result was a phenomenal response that was driven by our “mass” messaging across mediums and the appeal of the campaign to the audience.

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

Simpson: The benefits are many, as you’ve mentioned. The accountability of the medium is certainly a benefit as is the ability to target. Perhaps the best thing about online is the immediacy -- the results are instantaneous and can drive actions more quickly than traditional media. Additionally, it’s much more customer friendly for that reason because advertisers receive feedback, both good and bad, about campaigns in real time and can adjust on the fly instead of having to wait for feedback.

iMedia: What still frustrates you most about online advertising? What can be done to improve the situation?

Simpson: Measurement across the various online activities is challenging. Trying to combine the effects of banner advertising, paid search and other online campaigns is a challenge in the non-ecommerce world. Additionally, being able to track users outside of our web properties, while possible, is still very much an immature science.

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

Simpson: Yes. We track site visitor activity and surface messages based on the behavior of our visitors while within our websites. We’re also working to capture web behavior outside of our sites as our customers search the web and are exposed to our advertising/online campaigns on other sites.

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?

Simpson: Sure. We’re starting to focus more of our attention on these consumer-generated mediums, especially when launching products that require a mass awareness campaign. One of the challenges we face is the liability factor of sponsoring a blog, et cetera. that contains content that is not managed by the sponsor. While it’s a great way to generate interest and develop trust in consumers, the associated risk has to be considered.

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

Simpson: We’ve been lucky in that we’ve got a group of agencies that handle our needs very well. The combination of Sapient/OMD/Chiat-Day/Tequila/The Designory provides us with great ideas and delivers great results.

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

Simpson: We ventured into TiVo campaigns for the first time this year but have not experimented with wireless, or other emerging technologies much.

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

Simpson: Continue to fine tune our reporting to ensure we can accurately measure and adjust quickly. Also: integrate two or three emerging technologies into our portfolio.