The Wall Street Journal Online, Forbes.com and Advertising Age join to present “The Integration Imperative”
New York, NY — November 7, 2002 Top-tier Chief Marketing Officers, advertising agency leaders and IAB member companies united today in New York City at the IAB Leadership Forum 2002. The purpose of this invitation-only conference was to give marketers and agencies access to research, case studies and each other, to learn more about cross media integration and optimization. The program was targeted to outlining the opportunity presented by cross media integration and how it will impact bottom-line results in 2003.
Understanding that while new platforms and advertiser innovations are creating incredible opportunities for marketers, the senior marketing executive must balance an increasingly complex choice of channels and platforms with more rigorous ROI discipline than ever. How this all plays into marketing plans for the coming year was a key point of the IAB Leadership Forum 2002.
“We are all aware of the power that interactive advertising can add when fully integrated into the media mix,” noted Forbes.com President & CEO James Spanfeller. “The program the IAB presented today, specifically for these traditional marketers, clearly demonstrated how marketers can optimize their online efforts and increase the efficiency of their efforts.”
In his opening remarks, Neil Budde, Publisher of The Wall Street Journal Online noted, “We clearly are at a turning point for the online publishing industry and interactive marketing. The challenges ahead are great, but the opportunities are even greater.” Touching upon the challenges ahead, Mr. Budde added, “Integrating online media and interactive marketing with other media and other channels is imperative to reaching the full potential of this medium. Taking full advantage of the targeting capabilities of online media as well as its unique contextual opportunities will help us all reach the right audience with the right message.”
Likening the challenges that The Wall Street Journal Online has faced with climbing Mt Everest, Mr. Budde concluded, “We’ve only reached the first base camp, I look out and see much higher peaks left to climb. Let’s not forget that we are only part way into this journey. The good news is that those of us who’ve made it this far are in it for the long haul. We have the supplies to undertake the next stage of the climb. More important, we have the will to push ahead. That’s why we’re here today working with the IAB to help prepare you to accompany us on the next stage of our climb.”
The importance of realizing the benefits of integrated media campaigns is evidenced by those companies who sent representatives, which included: American Express Travelers Cheques, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Cingular Wireless, Colgate-Palmolive, First
Nationwide Mortgage, Ford Motor Media, IBM, ING Americas, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, MasterCard International, New York Life Insurance Company, Pfizer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Volvo Cars of North America and Warner Brothers.
The keynote address presented by Randall Rothenberg, Director of Intellectual Capital at Booz-Allen Hamilton, Editor-In-Chief, strategy+business and Editor-At-Large and Columnist for Advertising Age challenged the assembly to alter its thinking about the industry. In an address titled “Advertising is Hell,” Mr. Rothenberg suggested the term “advertising” itself might very well be in decline and anathema to the marketer, connoting distrust. Suggesting that the industry shelve the “archaic” word “advertising” he said, “…I believe that the only media which will survive the shakeout that’s destined to occur are those that can prove a return on investment for marketers.”
General sessions included a look at the IAB’s groundbreaking Cross Media Optimization Study, “The Future of Advertising Online” examined the hows and whys of agencies’ approach to interactive, what the future of interactive means to their businesses, and their visions of how the industry – and marketers’ use of advertising media – will evolve along with the interactive channel. “Best Practices: Building Brand and Relationships with Interactive Media” saw MSN unveil recent research findings on Best Practices for the application interactive media across a range of industries. The General Sessions closed with a case study presentation, “Launch of the Volvo S60: Anatomy of a Multichannel Campaign” in which Volvo Cars of North America and its agency, Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners outlined how they built upon the Internet-only introduction of the Volvo S60 in 2001, to double the results for the 2002 campaign.
Breakout sessions covered a range of topics, all integral to the advancement of the business, and included: Justifying Interactive Spending, Multichannel Product Launch Strategies, Simplifying the Buying Process, Instilling a Culture of Marketer Responsibility, Restructuring Marketing Teams, Building Breakthrough Creative Online, Staying Current with Technology and Awareness to Loyalty
.
“Traditional marketers know that their future success is a function of a strong cross media strategy. The Cross Media Optimization Study demonstrates that not only does online contribute mightily to overall efforts when it comprises a larger portion of the total budget, but that is also impacts a large percentage of target demographics not reached or only marginally reached by more conventional media.” Said IAB President & CEO Greg Stuart. “We identify this as the ‘Integration Imperative’, the need for marketers to understand and utilize online media in proper combination with offline media, to maximize the results of their campaigns.”
About the IAB
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is the leading interactive advertising association and represents companies responsible for selling over 75% of online advertising in the United States, including; AOL, CNET, MSN, Overture Services, Walt Disney Internet Group, Yahoo, and over one hundred others. Its activities include evaluating and recommending standards and practices, fielding research to document the effectiveness of the interactive medium and educating the advertising industry about the use of interactive advertising. Membership includes companies that are actively engaged in, and support the sale of interactive advertising.
Contact:
Marla Nitke IAB