When I was at school we were still using chalk and blackboards to communicate so typing has never been my strong point. I’ve never understood how some folks are so talented that they manage to blog live from conferences and not manage to sound discombobulated. I prefer to have a think about what’s been said and place the words on the page in an orderly fashion.
With that in mind the next few posts may be out of order as I sit here thinking about SMX London this week and reflecting on the wide variety of sessions I attended.
In the Integrating Search & Display Marketing Campaigns track, our own Nick Drew who recently revealed his Search & Display Research on this blog was speaking about that very same research with a number of other well qualified speakers.
Sara Andersson from Search Integration in Sweden asked some probing questions about the practical elements of making integrated campaigns a reality: How do your internal team integrate? What are your KPIs? Do you have enough internal know how? Do your different channels measure ROI differently? Do your different teams measurements differ?
She said advertisers need to adapt to what’s happening in the market and take advantage of all situations where quick wins can be found. The diagram below shows that Sara feels search should be at the centre of any marketing thought process.
Julian Lynch, Interactive Return’s commercial director said people don’t integrate very often. He talked about how crucial it was to think about the key touch points in the purchase funnel and to consider the difference between them. He encouraged delegates to test, test and test again, citing advertising themes, site positions and creative formats as ways to enhance integrated campaigns through trial and error.
I loved his final tip which was to test and learn through the optimisation process and then optimise against each stage of the customer journey.
There’s no doubt that integrated campaigns give brands an uplift in awareness and engagement but from this session it appears advertisers and agencies have some way to go before the technique is part of their DNA.
Getting different teams around the table when discussing a new campaign is the first step in embracing this new thinking.
The facts and advantages are clear to see and given economic climate, I’m sure it won’t be long before the practice becomes second nature to most marketers.
PS: Check out our adCenter Community Facebook Page for photos of the event and become a fan!