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October 2006 - Strategy Magazine
Biz

Roundtable: The trouble with integration
Today's very integrated campaigns require more collaboration and more co-ordination. How do we achieve that?

by Lisa D'Innocenzo
page 11

The "I" word has existed for some time now, but marketers and agencies still haven't quite figured it out.

Consider a new survey from the U.S.-based Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which polled more than 85 major advertisers on the topic of integrated marketing communications (defined as "a strategic business process used to create measurable brand communications programs across multiple channels with one consistent message.") It revealed that 67% have developed integrated marketing programs, but only 33% are satisfied with their efforts. Most blame organizational issues, particularly the existence of "functional silos" within their own walls. But many marketers are also frustrated with their agency partners, who have not been able to assume a general contractor-type role.

To get at what other stumbling blocks remain, and to see if a resolution may be imminent, strategy brought together folks from both sides...

Moderator

Joan McArthur, instructor, advertising and writing, Ontario College of Art and Design

The Panel

Andrew Bridge, director, brand and communications, Virgin Mobile, Toronto

Megan Johnson, marketing manager, Sherway Gardens, Cadillac Fairview, Toronto

Brett Marchand, SVP, managing director, Cossette Communication-Marketing, Toronto

Rosalie McGovern, director, marketing strategy, RBC Royal Bank, Toronto

Steve Meraska, SVP, business development, Leo Burnett, Toronto

Bob Shropshire, president, Dentsu Canada, Toronto

McArthur: Every one of you comes from a different angle and you are involved with different businesses. So it would be interesting to talk about how you deal with an integrated project. How is the strategy decided, how is the creative content decided, how is the media decided and then who manages it?

Bridge: At Virgin, we [have what we call] the hub and spoke network of partner agencies. We have a lead equity agency, which is Zig, and they work lock-step with our other partner agencies.

Grace [Castaneda], who's our coach at Zig is responsible for orchestrating. Zig will come up with a few concepts and they'll socialize the idea. But I'll see builds from the other agencies that will change a brand idea from the equity agency. There has to be a behaviour that's non-preciousness. And the turf wars of who did what, you have to check that at the door, or else it's not going to work.

McArthur: Do any of the other marketers have a different way of working?

McGovern: We integrate internally. It starts with the consumer insight, and then it's making sure we're hitting with the right message at the right time. That's how we've been able to achieve pretty good integration, especially with our recent Avion campaign.

Once we have our plan, we bring in all the various players internally and go through it with them, and make sure they understand the overall objectives, what's important to the consumer and how their particular area plays a role.

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