Media buying is still a zero sum game. There are only so many dollars to spread across the media for any given campaign or company. How can marketers (especially retailers), get truly relevant and beneficial multi-channel media opportunities from media companies? Not a normal breakout, not a completed case study, not another set of PowerPoint presentations, in iMedia's new "Marketing Interventions" we bring concrete marketing problems together with solutions. Each Intervention features brand judges onstage and a specific problem that "interventionists" pitch to solve, followed by a rough-and-tumble discussion among judges, interventionists and the audience.

Interventionists:
Sean O'Neal, CRO, Datran Media
Chris Tolles, CEO, Topix

Judges:
Doug Chavez, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Del Monte Foods
Gordon Paddison, Founder + Principal, Stradella

Moderator:
John Durham, CEO/Managing Partner, Catalyst: SF

Mistaken Marketing Belief: Online advertising is terrific for DR, but traditional media is still best for brand building. While it's OK for a :30 to include a URL, there's no worthwhile benefit from cross-channel coordination, online or offline, and it's just easier for everybody to keep separate media on separate P&Ls. Right?

Wrong! Customers don't segment themselves into convenient media buckets ("I'm a print consumer!") so why should brands? How one channel evolves affects how budget should be spent on other media, and when it comes to digital, a savvy integrated campaign needs more than a URL. But there are only so many dollars to spend on any given campaign. How can marketers find effective multi-channel opportunities? Does any media company have everything in place to be multi-channel, or is it up to the marketer and agency?

In this hour-long marketing intervention, we'll bring marketers and media specialists together to wrestle with these issues in an “American Idol” style session.

Two companies will each get 10 minutes to pitch a panel of marketers – and the iMedia audience – on how a brand should tackle integration, wrestling with issues that include:

• How precisely should marketers balance traditional media with digital?
• How does online help build an offline brand, not just sell product?
• What do digital marketers need to understand about offline trends and dynamics?
• What can we do to break down siloed marketing departments?
• How do we change the perspective that brands can only be built offline?

Our point of departure is a fictional case study, but our journey will take us deeper and wider – across different industry verticals, marketing objectives, and budgets.

Case study: Jay is a national chain of high-end, stand-alone (no malls) jewelry stores. Recently, Jay launched online ordering and is running a campaign to distinguish its quality in-store-service from online-only competitors like Ice.com. Originally, Jay planned to run three Super Bowl spots for Valentine’s Day, as it has for the last 15 years, but in light of its new online presence, the CMO is cancelling one of the spots and diverting the three million dollars to a multi-channel extension of the TV campaign to drive customers to visit the stores for great service with competitive prices. Where should these dollars go and why?

GET THE PRESENTATION

• [Presentation] Download it now

Presenter: Sean O'Neal, CRO, Datran Media; Chris Tolles, CEO, Topix

Format: PPT