What the hell is 'integrated' anyway?

Not long ago, one of my clients let me into a nice insight about what he was really searching for in a marketing agency. He described to me a Venn diagram consisting of three overlapping circles. The first circle represented paid media, so advertising in its traditional form, even if it’s online. The second circle was earned media, like PR, and whatever PR is evolving into in these days of online communities and social sharing. And the last circle was owned media, which is a pretty broad list of things that ranges from websites to extreme sporting events.

My client said that the sweet spot was right in the middle, where the three circles overlapped. To him, that was the elusive ‘integrated marketing’ that every agency in the world claims to be in their mission statement but can never really describe in a meaningful way. He felt that was the strategy through which his budgets were going to be most effective for his business and his audiences. But more than that, he also knew that this approach would allow him to use as much media and technology as he could, where he could, without betting the farm. And he’d get to try all these things together in a way that they could help each other - ads feeding events, events feeding communities, communities building advocacy which in turn helped build the brand and increase sales.

It was a nice moment of clarity for me. Even if the three circles aren’t particularly neat or tidy like he described them, I think it’s pretty easy to define that sweet spot. You start to strike a balance between paid, earned and owned while building a strategy that takes all your efforts into consideration.

I realized that’s really where my head’s been for the last couple years. I don’t really see myself as a digital guy, even though I’ve been knee-deep in digital from the beginning. I’m not really a traditional guy either, though I love a great ad, love making great ads and I know how effective a great campaign can be. And by no means am I a PR guy. If anything, I’d call myself a brand guy. Because I think ultimately, it’s the brand that’s built out of this alphabet soup of activities. Three bowls of soup, I guess.

Where it gets really interesting for me is how to fit these things together. Even wrapping my head around what actually goes inside the three circles shows me how effing much there is to know. On top of that technology moves so fast it’s almost impossible to keep up. So it puts me in a place that I find really interesting – constantly listening and learning, constantly trying new things, experimenting and always trying to do something better than the last time. There’s always a new problem to be solved, and even if you nailed it the last time, even if you really think you learned something, next time you’re still making it up as you go along.

But that’s the stuff that I find most exciting. That’s how I describe “integrated”.