Equator Live

Quite a long time ago, a chap called Marshall McLuhan said a couple of very clever things. He was born in the early twentieth century and, I guess, by the sixties, he’d grasped the big changes that we’re feeling the culmination of today.

The first clever thing he said was; ‘the medium is the message’. This neat little phrase summed up his thinking that media rather than the content it carries is what affects society. An interesting thought, and one that marketers have been banging on about ever since.

The second clever thing he invented was the idea of the ‘Global Village’. I think that’s amazing that this chap put his finger on two big pulses that have shaped the world so hugely. Not to mention summing them both up so beautifully.

Ok, enough history. I mentioned this guy because his two phrases make neat bookends for what I wanted to write about. You see, the idea of the global village (it was about transport and communications when Marshall mentioned it) has really been made real by our good friend, the internet. With the massive growth of the internet has come a huge media challenge by pretty much doubling the number of channels a campaign must communicate though. If the medium is the message then surely these days, as marketers we’re peddling more messages than ever before.

Just look at this list (I’m sure you could think of a few I’ve missed too!):

• search engine optimization (SEO),
• pay-per-click,
• affiliate,
• email,
• banner
• latest web related channels for
• webinar,
• blog,
• micro-blogging,
• RSS,
• podcast,
• Internet TV.
• Offline marketing channels
• newspaper,
• magazine
• mail order,
• public relations,
• industry relations,
• billboard,
• radio,
• television.
• + the next big thing! Twitter, etc

This proliferation is causing real issues in the marketing world. With more and more businesses springing up to cater for specific parts of this puzzle, ever more confused marketing managers and strategists struggling to understand what all these channels mean and how they interact. Not to mention, ever more incoherent branding and marketing messages being communicated to consumers.

In addition to all these media channels, customers are empowered by our global village to access real feedback and reviews of products and brands, whenever they like. If user review and corporate marketing do not marry-up, the result can be lost trust that no clever ad can easily regain.

Right, so what does this all mean. I know you’re reading this expecting me to dish up the panacea. Well, firstly, my own opinion is that it’s all rather exciting. I know that’s not really an answer, but as digital marketers, we’re breaking new ground every day, learning about new ways to use new marketing tools.

Within this excitement and challenge lies my answer. We are a full-service digital agency and as such we’ve made a commitment to offer all things digital. All things digital is continually changing. This has made us into an unusual beast. Much of what we do, from watercooler chat, to monthly lunchtime masterclass, is about how all these new marketing tools work together.

To accommodate this large and ever-changing suite of mediums, we have developed a really collaborative way of working that involves experts in each area being involved throughout a project because no one person is able to know every part of the big picture.

The fact is, that by talking and thinking about these things everyday and working collaboratively, we’ve noticed that we’ve stolen a march on many traditional agencies. Agencies who know their media very well but, perhaps because it’s really mature, are not used to having it challenged.

I say this because, in the studio at the moment, we’re working on our third fully integrated campaign (online and offline as one). I know three campaigns is not that much, but it’s interesting because all three clients have come to us with the challenge rather than us going to them. In fact we initially turned one of them down, in the interests of remaining digital specialists.

And it’s not just us experiencing this. More and more brands are letting digital lead their communications development. More and digital agencies are developing integrated campaigns. And more popular brands like Lynx, Cadbury’s and Mini owe much of their campaign success to really good online and offline synergy.

I will apologise now if what I’m saying sounds like I think that we can do the job of a traditional agency better than they can. I don’t mean that at all. I’m saying that, to maintain effectiveness, it’s vital involve digital experts during the planning of any thorough branding or marketing campaign.

In the digital sector, we are faced with the effects of the global village and the proliferation of media everyday. We are therefore really well placed to create properly integrated branding and marketing campaigns.

It occurs to me that there are 4 areas were this is particularly easy to see.

1. The big idea – An idea that works well across offline channels is one thing, but one that also makes a good banner widget, game, PPC ad etc. is a whole ‘nother ball game. We’re used to creating ideas that work in a large number of different environments, translating these to offline is much easier than going the other way.
2. Measurability – Everyone knows that online is completely measurable. It’s had the effect that clients now demand a much higher level of measurement and, by association, accountability from their agencies. This accountability is not new to digital; it is at the foundation of everything we do.
3. Customer relationship management – The global village is not a friendly place for brands that lie or products that over-promise. Much of online marketing effectiveness comes not from advertising to consumers but involving them. Recruiting brand advocates can spread a much more convincing message than any ad can – but to do this well you need to know the territory, which sites your consumers hang out on etc.
4. Technical challenges – The digital space, probably because it’s young, has huge technical restrictions that mean developing a campaign without some understanding of them will get you into hot water later.

With more channels to integrate and more specialist knowledge to corral, it’s more and more important that marketers focus their efforts on creating a strong team of expert suppliers and creating the environment for them all to work together without competing against each other.

One way to do this is to recruit a lead agency that places the idea at the centre and employs relevant experts for certain channels. I for one think that you could worse than make that lead agency a full-service digital one. That way, you know that your lead agency has a strong grasp of creating coherent campaigns across the most challenging mediums, is used to working collaboratively and accountably; and lives at the coalface of changing attitudes to advertising in a world where word gets around really fast; a Global Village, you might say (thanks for that one Marshall!).

Some more reading (to prove that I didn’t just make all that up!). But really, there’s some really good stuff in them there links…

Does the world need digital strategists, a response – http://www.barbariangroup.com/posts/3428-does_the_world_need_digital_strategists_a_response

Authentic branding and New Media Transparency – http://writingkillercontent.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/authentic-branding-and-new-media-transparency/

Integrated marketing communications defined – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Marketing_Communications

What is Integrated marketing communications – http://www.multimediamarketing.com/mkc/marketingcommunications/

The Online Offline Synergy of Search – http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/016393.html

The rise and rise of social media – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8