THE INTEGRATION AGE -
HOW TO COMBINE TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL MARKETING

by Barbara Fischer, Director Trendhaus

As the media landscape changes and media consumption becomes increasingly fragmented, marketers are taking a closer look at when and where to spend their budgets. Historically, television, radio and print provided key channels from which to reach our target market. However, the developments in digital media have catapulted us into an arena where businesses must integrate their communication strategy in order to remain competitive.

The online environment is growing at an extraordinary pace ($348 Mio in 2007 in Australia*) and having a significant impact upon distribution of media budgets across all industries. We are no longer seeing a trend towards aggressive "push" or traditional ATL strategies. Instead, as media habits of consumers become more diverse and businesses demand more cost-effective, measurable marketing tools, there is now a rapid shift towards "personalized pull" campaigns such as Search Engine Marketing, campaigns on social networking platforms such as Facebook and MySpace, viral marketing, etc.

Traditional mediums such as TV, print and radio have in the past provided a simple targeted avenue to reach your audience. However, with consumers becoming increasingly savvy and more informed than ever before it is clear that a cross-media marketing strategy is a crucial element to your overall communications plan.

* Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2007

Through the use of an integrated media approach, businesses can leverage increased online awareness and generate greater traffic to their websites. An example of such success was the Cadbury Gorilla Ad that launched alongside Big Brother last year. Following the ad airing, the Cadbury website experienced a record number of visitors and Youtube received 5vmillion hits.

The trend in consumer media consumption shows that audiences are multitasking whilst being exposed to a variety of media channels (surfing the web whilst watching TV) providing advertisers with a highly targeted, more captive audience and the opportunity to drive the viewer to the brand online instantaneously.

This integrated strategy further provides the opportunity to develop a cost effective communications solution with increased measurability. Media spend is allocated more effectively and delivers a greater ROI whilst avoiding exhausting media spend in one channel. Further, by developing a partnership between TV, radio or print and online spend, a more accurate measure of the effectiveness of your advertising dollars can be achieved alongside a more detailed profile of your audience.

An integrated marketing communication strategy that combines both traditional and online media is the most effective solution for marketers given today’s saturated media market and the nature of consumer media behaviour in the 21st century. It not only provides a cost effective outcome, but guarantees increased brand awareness both online and offline delivering a more targeted, captive audience and a greater ROI.

To find out how Trendhaus can help you integrate your online and offline activities, contact us today on (02) 9357 3973 or email Barbara at barbara@trendhaus.com.au.

* Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2007