Integration and Blending

Unlike "integrated media" or "integrated marketing", blended media isn't about simply creating a website and banners that look like your print brochures and business cards. The concept of having ‘matching luggage’ is where integrated marketing leaves off and blended media starts.

The foundation for creating a powerful identity, blended media spans all layers of an organization and effects everything from clip art to culture. While many people have reduced the use of classic media like print ads, television and magazines, the media mix should still be evaluated as part of an overall strategy. Message delivery doesn't mean shouting it out repeatedly in every form, marketing has moved on, even if many marketeers have not.

Smart marketers are blending channels, relationships and mediums together to exploit the unique communication powers of each platform in a powerrful mix.

Replacing the monologue approach that dominated marketing in the past with dialogue is one of the key strategies being effectively employed in today's communications arena. Marketeers harness the opinions and voices of their customers to endorse brands, rather than simply presenting it and letting the chips fall where they may. They look through a virtual 360 degree lens that appreciates the transparency and democratization of the digital society, creating communications in tune with the culture of a landscape rich in blogs and newsfeeds. Along the way they are building a new model of how marketing works.

How can I develop a more blended, connected approach that includes digital marketing?

Bold marketers might seize the grand broom of change and sweep away all current thinking in their organizations, but most people take life in slightly smaller steps. So here are five simple things to try in your next campaigns to help take steps to a more blended, connected marketing strategy:

1. Try placing the web at the heart of the mix, using it as an engine to process and advance the brand activation created through other media channels.

2. Extend the depth and richness of information on your site, by letting its content reach out into the high traffic digital media properties your target audiences now log on to.

3. Try using the web as a return path to connect customers back to the brand.

4. Try harnessing established technologies like podcasts and videocasts routinely to present and discuss products at a time convenient to the viewer.

5. Try taking part in conversations with your customers - listen and respond.

It’s about cultural frameworks

What holds many firms back from doing this is the cultural framework within the organization. The culture at most organizations acts as a barrier to change. Without first acknowledging the existence of barriers and then tackling them, the organization's ability to innovate will be highly constrained.

From discussions with many firms that have the right cultural framework or "context" for sustaining innovation, I’ve observed five characteristics they often share. Here they’ve been turned into some approaches you can try:

1. Open your mind through your browser; explore the new networked spaces and build your understanding of how they work. This type of experiential learning will change the discussion about strategy to become more purposeful, focused and informed.

2. Free up time for your best people; let them lead and give them the space they need to lead effectively.

3. Be prepared to change; uncover ways to listen effectively to market signals, and create ways to be responsive and adaptive.

4. Learn; build digital marketing learning into the fabric of your business.

5. Experiment; unless you continue exploring the diversity of media channels you won't see beyond the first layer.

As the old style interruptive tactics of marketing are replaced by engagement, participation, new relationships and experiences, organizations that nurture these principles in their communications will uncover a new type of brand relationship and a new reason to get into the mix!

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