Great Ideas Will Create Relevancy

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

A recent ANA survey highlighted that integrated marketing now tops the list as the issue that keeps senior marketers up at night. You have heard me say before that ANA members tell us that the best way to tackle this is to start with the idea and let the idea be the media channel integrator. That was emphasized at the recent 2007 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference. Bob Lachky, EVP, Global Industry Development & Chief Creative Officer, Anheuser - Busch Inc., talked about how the “Wassup” campaign (here are few of the ads along with some interesting consumer generated versions) began online then spread virally, eventually running on television.

Jeff Hicks, President, CEO and Partner, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, told a similar story for Coke Zero and its very funny campaign with Coke attorneys (again, thanks YouTube). Great ideas will create relevancy so the media should be an outgrowth of the idea, not the other way around. Both of those campaigns were extended into television once they were picked up in the conversations occurring online and it was the consumers who said these campaigns should also run on television. So once again, advertisers should be aware of and participate in the conversations happening around and about their products and services. Start with a terrific brand idea and let that determine which media channels you use. This is great learning from some very smart advertisers.

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Comments

[BBMIRQUE]

Max, thanks for your comments. I can always rely on you to shed some more insight on key marketing issues. Barbara

[maxkalehoff]

Barbara,
Building on your post, I think it's more than just great ideas creating relevancy. "Great" should be a prerequisite if you're actually in the business of marketing or advertising. Reading between the lines of your post, and especially the examples you just noted, it would seem the requirement for an idea is that it EARNS and attracts the attention of the intended stakeholder. The ability to earn and attract now is the scarcity, not the media channels. When media channels were scarce, and they had a hold on attention, companies could talk to themselves and still achieve some results. Today, an idea must be able to sustain on its own, foremost. Then, integration of media and marketing platforms is required to enable that idea to blossom and travel where it wants to and where it deserves.

I'll propose another example of great integration in a high-stakes marketing context famous for its blatant absence of integration: the Super Bowl. Defying the norm, The Kevin Federline campaign for Nationwide achieved amazing integration and results. Stuart Elliott summarized the phenomenon well here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/business/media/06adco.html?ex=1179460800&en=0673d9c02bdd9bc0&ei=5070
and here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/media/02adco.html?ex=1179460800&en=62424c7336206ee4&ei=5070

Cheers,
Max