This VP/Media Account Director sees the role of the agency as that of an educator, an innovator and a confidant/consultant for the brand.

Rick Corteville is VP/Media Account Director for Optimedia. Corteville started his career in radio at a rep firm named Interep, in addition to, working in the promotions department of a local radio station in Detroit, MI. He moved to the online space in 1997 with Beyond Interactive when it was 12 people in a basement of a town-house.

In 1999, Grey Global Group purchased Beyond Interactive, which sparked a move for Corteville to San Francisco to head up the Oracle Corporation account. In 2002, he moved again, to Singapore, to start the online department of Grey Asia Pacific. While there, he managed all of Oracle Corporation's efforts in China, Korea, India and Australia.

Corteville came back to San Francisco after a year and a half to work on such accounts as Adobe, Veritas, Gateway and Nokia before leaving in August 2004 for Optimedia.

iMedia: What has been the biggest change you have experienced in the online advertising industry over the past year?

Corteville: Three of the biggest changes that Optimedia and I have experienced have all been positive:

1. The use of GRP metrics to determine media mix allocation between the traditional and online mediums
2. Implementing campaigns through a central rich media tracking tool, like DART Motif and Atlas DMT’s Rich Media, rather than through point solutions like PointRoll and EyeBlaster
3. The movement of the online medium into a more integral role within clients’ marketing budgets

iMedia: What do you hope to accomplish or try this year?

Corteville: Making online a larger percentage of our clients’ media mix; the right mix, not just a large mix. Working on better integration for planning and reporting with our print counterparts. Continuing the discussion around dialog management with our clients and showcasing the need for loyalty building programs.

iMedia: How do you evaluate media placements?

Corteville: This depends largely on the goal of the campaign. However, some common criteria are:

• Relevance to target audience
• Price competitiveness
• Strong past performance on campaign goals
• Competitor presence
• Innovation/first-mover status

iMedia: What needs to be done internally as well as in partnership with the clients to better coordinate integrated marketing efforts?

Corteville: This is a journey and not a quick solution for several agencies. Besides a central P&L between the media planning groups, other aspects that help are simultaneous briefing of campaign objectives, standardization of planning tools/metrics in determining media mix, and a higher level staff with a media agnostic approach.

iMedia: Behavioral targeting is a hot topic. Are you using it for any of your clients? How and what have the results been like?

Corteville: We have used behavioral targeting for many of our clients and have found various levels of success. The behavioral targeting models that have been built with companies like TACODA and Revenue Science have performed well but we are constantly examining results within direct response campaigns so see if the increased CPM vs. normal Run of Site campaigns is offset, and thus worth the investment.

Contextual targeting with companies like Vibrant Media and eZula have also been great supplements to our clients’ search strategies in driving results.

iMedia: Are any of your clients being affected by any consumer-generated marketing (CGM) -- blogs, user groups, etc.? Are they using any blogs or other social networking tools to market?

Corteville: Yes, our main clients have specific blogs dedicated to them within niche user group sites, in addition to, larger multi-channel editorial publications. Additionally, they have started writing blogs on their own sites to help their visitors gain additional/technical information.

The sponsorship of external blogs for marketing purposes is currently being examined.

iMedia: Are analytics getting any easier? Where do you see this aspect of online marketing going?

Corteville: I think that Analytics are easy if you have the right infrastructure to support it. Within online, there is never a lack of data regardless of whether your campaign goal is awareness or sales. The key is providing your client with the most relevant data from which to optimize/determine success and taking the time before the launch to set up tests that will result in statistical significance and not a ‘gut feeling’.

If a client is truly dedicated to improving their campaigns, working with them on setting up cross-medium testing models will be the next stage. The ability to identify the right mediums for their marketing budgets (plus having a back-end dialog management strategy in place for follow-up) is crucial to improving efficiency over time.

iMedia: We recently asked Brands what they thought the future of advertising agencies is. Want to weigh in on the topic? What do you think agencies' greatest role will be moving forward?

Corteville: The role of the agency is that of an educator, an innovator and a confidant/consultant for the brand. If the client knows more than their agency about the marketing mediums and their products, then it is time to switch. 

The greatest role of the agency is to consistently present new, relevant ideas that range from big to small, creative to media-focused, within and outside the planning cycles. Not all of the agency’s ideas will be implemented, but it is comforting to know that there are other people dedicated to growing your business (and that understand it).

iMedia: What are brands still not getting about interactive marketing?

Corteville: That it is not just about driving volume of traffic, leads, sales, etc. but a medium that can greatly shift awareness and build long-term customer loyalty.

iMedia: What marketing or business books do you most recommend?

Corteville: The Influentials by Jon Berry and Ed Keller; Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras; and Permission Marketing by Seth Godin