by Irfan Mirza, Head of Digital

The baseline understanding of integrated marketing is in a flux in today’s complex media universe. There is a core challenge with getting integrated solutions right. One has to make all the communication tools work together as a composite, intertwined unit with a unified objective.

While the mounting dominance of digital marketing and the keenness of marketers towards data and technology-led solutions have given agencies a fantastic opportunity to integrate campaign results with analytics and CRM, a lot of brands forget to safeguard the basic marketing fundamentals while implementing a digital strategy.

The medium of marketing could be traditional or digital, but we still need to outline clear-cut objectives, define the target audience and set appropriate measurement metrics.

In my opinion, rather than spending marketing dollars on creating fancy elements like ’microsites’ or ‘social media communities’, the focus should be on identifying the real business challenge, which in turn would drive us to select only the most effective digital marketing platforms.

Here are a few instances which demonstrate the need to adopt an integrated approach:

• Do we focus more on pay-per-click than on social, as it gives a better conversion rate?
• Do we need to increase spends on email marketing and leverage the database generated through in-store promotions?
• Do we run a video sustenance campaign alongside the TV burst to achieve exponential reach?

As is evident, an integrated campaign backed by analytics will help us decode the right media at the right time. Hence ensuring that a unified brand message is heard loud and clear by the greatest possible number within the target audience.

Ways to create a successful integrated campaign:

• A clear understanding of your target audience: This will help in defining the key messaging and selecting the best communication channels.
• Pick relevant channels: Be ruthless in selecting (and rejecting) channels. It’s better to be visible on effective digital media channels rather than to be almost invisible everywhere.
• Maintain consistent communication: Brand identity should be consistent. A consumer should be able to establish a visual connection in a Facebook post, an emailer and an online banner easily.
• Multi-channel content: Master communication should be flexible enough to fit into a 30-second YouTube video, a LinkedIn post, a direct e-mailer or an online banner. This will prove to be extremely cost effective and should be planned well in advance.
• Define individual platform KPIs: Measure the digital media effectiveness of a platform and its role in achieving the desired objective.
• Never forget to track: The most important aspect of any campaign, especially digital integrated campaigns, is to ensure implementation of proper digital analytics tools and attribution models.

A successful and effective integrated campaign should be a great combination of technology and strong marketing fundamentals. Remember, in order to be future-proof, you must first become past perfect.