Integration: marketing’s new holy grail

Technology has changed marketing. Forever.

The scale, scope and sheer onslaught of the technology that marketers need to work with and understand have exploded. Since the last decade, there’s been massive growth in the marketing technology that underpins every aspect of managing a brand.

From the tools used by advertising agencies to execute creative ideas, to how media is bought and sold, to the software that underpins the web, to everything and anything to do with mobile, to consumer data and how to manage it, to loyalty, gamification, consumer communication and beyond.

Outside of agencies, at the client or company, marketers are using tools for Business Intelligence, data mining, digital asset management and market resource management to plan and run their operations. Then there are a plethora of services, infrastructures (think Big Data), backbones (think CRM) and middleware that link up management, sales, marketing, suppliers and customers.

This boom in technology means that for the very first time advertisers can create virtuous information loops that enable brands to know exactly how effective their marketing is; and to create feedback that enables marketing to do the only thing that matters – to better serve the customer. My belief is that this will create a unique selling proposition that truly matters: customer service.

But this will only happen if the disparate technology that serves marketing is integrated. Marketers will only be able to achieve this marketing holy grail – let’s call it intelligent marketing – if the agencies they work at are integrated.

Agencies that reinvent themselves to integrate technology across the board will be able to deliver synergistic cross-channel messages that engage consumers on all levels. In execution this will look like television campaigns with a call to action through social media that is supported by every brand touch point. This cross-channel, cross-media marketing—when done well—will deliver marketing holy grail. In an age of customer attention deficit and at a time when advertising inflation is eating into marketing efficacy, it will yield a media multiplying effect.

Each media channel has its strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, but when technology meets a brilliant, creative campaign that’s backed by a brand that lives and breathes for the customer… true magic can be made.

What exactly do I mean by integration? For agencies, integration means cross-channel, cross-medium marketing that harmoniously plays to the strengths of each channel. It means using marketing technologies that speak to each other, and which are harnessed to create a virtuous learning loop.

For brands, integration means ensuring that all aspects of technology, and the brand operation, become customer-centric, communicate well internally, and co-operate for the ultimate benefit of the customer.

But how close are marketers to realising this Holy Grail for brands? How transformed are agencies? Sadly there is lots of talk, but few who are really walking the walk.

The Altimeter 2014 State of Digital Transformation study shows that there is a huge disconnect between how company leaders think digital transformation is happening, and what’s actually going down, on the ground. This study is all about the realignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively engage digital customers at every touch point in the customer experience lifecycle.

The study showed that 88% of companies surveyed reported to be undergoing digital transformation, but only 25% could point to changes that indicated they were actually transforming. What this means is that loads of companies were talking about conversion, but only a quarter were actually taking any steps towards change. .

Another layer of complexity is added to the challenge of marketing technology by the media, which is proliferating very quickly and is spawning new media channels as a matter of course.

TV and radio continue to have massive reach, but as it now stands they are outranked by mobile. Generations may have been one of the most watched shows on the SABC, but people don’t watch TV in isolation. It is all about a conversation continuum, as proved true from the storm that erupted on Twitter and Facebook when the Generations cast went on strike. People like to feel part of a ‘tribe’ – it makes them feel special and sharing opinions about the characters in a soapie (such as Generations) is the way in which such ‘tribes’ are formed. More examples of tribes can be found on: WeChat, MXit, Twitter, Facebook and more.

Tom Doctoroff, CEO of JWT Asia Pacific, has an interesting take on the cross-pollinating power of multiple media. “Marketers spend more than $250 billion a year on broadcast advertising,” observes Doctoroff, adding: “Now, our goal must be to align … ‘top-down’ (broadcast) and ‘bottom-up’ (interactive) platforms. When digital and traditional creative are conceived separately, brands lose focus, which confuses people. In addition, each achieves complementary objectives. Top-down shapes preference. Bottom-up deepens engagement—or time spent with an idea—that leads to loyalty.”

Today’s challenge lies in the fact that individual consumers use several devices and interact with several media channels in a day. A successful marketing campaign employs multiple strategies across multiple channels to ensure the message reaches the ideal consumer and mobilises behaviour. It should integrate technical tools and resources to support the needs of a specific marketing activity. Market segments influence how media is consumed – for example, youth will purchase content in the form of music, either downloaded or streamed, and games for their Xboxes and PS4s, while an older generation will still want to buy CDs and subscribe to DStv for their entertainment needs.

Millward Brown uses the term “Media Multiplier” to describe how, “where multiple channels are used to reach the same target audience at about the same time, surrounding the consumer with an integrated set of messages through different vehicles, the overall effect can be greater than what could be achieved through one medium alone. Specific messages can accumulate into broader ideas.” In short this means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

People’s attention spans are getting shorter. Nowadays our attention spans are significantly less than those of past generations and according to the US National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average consumer’s attention span is down, from 12 seconds in 2000, to 8 seconds in 2013.

This means that the technology that underpins marketing, needs to work harder than ever before and the only way to do this is through integration.

Integration is everything. It is the essential component for marketing to not only be able to deliver on technology’s promise of quicker, smarter, better but also to allow brands to effectively engage digital customers at every touch point throughout the customer experience.

Image: Alice Popkorn via Flickr.