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The Merging Path of Media: How to Integrate New Trends into the Mix

Written on

May 26th 2006

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by Scott Hagedorn  |

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Everyone’s talking about emerging media, new technologies and personal devices. Traditional agencies put television spots on iPods, and everyone says they “get new media.” IPG opens an Emerging Media Lab with Al Gore to make the point that they “get it.” The irony of this pairing notwithstanding, the central point that everyone is missing is that these channels are direct response channels.

They are addressable to the individual and trackable—the hallmark of direct marketing media. Emerging media channels are also measurable, which means their success can be analyzed and optimized like every other direct channel. Finally, these new channels are consumer-driven, which makes them ripe for direct response marketers. Unlike traditional marketers who have historically controlled the way content is delivered and consumed, direct marketers are used to responding to the needs and behaviors of consumers.

But let’s face it. Emerging media causes integration challenges: How do you determine which channels to try? How do you ensure the right messages are going to the right customers? How do you track the consumption of these channels? And lastly, how to do you know what success looks like?

Today’s new media environment requires a fundamentally different marketing model—one that leverages the accountability and deep customer knowledge of direct marketing but integrates emerging media and personal devices into a decision-making platform that can create dynamic messaging across channels.

We call that model “dynamic marketing”. It’s grounded in the fundamentals of direct marketing, but it leverages behavioral profiles and dynamically rendered communications to create intelligent messaging that evolves with the customer. In other words, the marketing engine is capable of referencing past purchases, attitudinal data and customer preferences before selecting the content and the channel.

It may sound like something from “Minority Report”—remember Tom Cruise running past a Gap and getting advice on what to buy from a hologram? While we aren’t suggesting that, we are creating dynamic marketing packages for some of the top marketers in America—and it’s working. We’re finding that it dramatically increases the success of customer acquisition, retention and optimization programs.

Here’s what’s required to make dynamic marketing work:

A Marketing Memory

The first step is to have a database platform that integrates self-reported, demographic and attitudinal data with observed behavioral data, including promotional and transactional history at the record level. You need a marketing memory that allows you to see a customer across the entire lifecycle—pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase—and “remember” his content and channel preferences.

Most companies have customer data pooled in various departments, which makes it hard to use for marketing purposes. It’s also not uncommon for customer data to be housed separately from prospect data, creating a disjointed experience for the customer because it’s clear the company doesn’t remember him from one stage to the next.

This is especially true in categories like automotive where corporate and dealer communications are often independent or overlapping. In that case, you could create a data-driven contact management system based on key points in the buying and owning experience. The resulting program would be operated from a centralized database of hand-raisers and customers, which allows the client to capture both corporate and dealer contact and promotion history.