October 2007 Archives
Welcome to An Integrated Perspective, a forum for all aspects of integrated marketing and communications.
My personal focus has been on correlating the impact of news and editorial coverage on business outcomes. Since late 1999, I have been developing tools and metrics and the concept of Share of Discussion, which has shown significant relevance in correlating earned media / PR with business outcomes such as sales, preference, loyalty, awareness, etc. There are two white papers that do a good job of explaining most of these findings on the Institute for Public Relations website. They are also attached below.
We have been able to prove that news coverage drives outcomes, but we have had less success in demonstrating the same types of correlations for paid advertising. We believe an advertising effectiveness metric is needed and are actively working to incorporate one into our research and analysis.
While we have specific beliefs on what is needed, how paid and unpaid media intersect and support one another, or the impact of one form of communications over another, our core belief is that an integrated approach, combining all forms of media communications, is key.
A recent study of the fragrance industry demonstrates the value of viewing communications in an integrated fashion.
The fragrance market is highly seasonal with the majority of sales made at Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Paid advertising is clustered around these buying periods with the majority of ad spending in the pre-Xmas time period.
Celebrity brands, such as Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely or J-Lo's Love at First Glow, because of their significantly higher levels of news coverage, have generated higher ROIs and their sales have been somewhat less seasonal than non-celebrity brands.
News / Editorial coverage
Thought leaders around the country are relatively unanimous in their belief that integration is a key to effective communications with our customers and stakeholders.
A series of "Thought Leader Roundtables" was held around the country earlier this year, sponsored by VMS, PR News, and Media Industry Newsletter (min). Senior level participants from PR and advertising agencies, corporate communications, brand management, or other marketing functions discussed all aspects of integrated communications. There was near universal support for abandoning silos and looking at advertising and public relations from a unified perspective. PR News covered each roundtable. A compilation of their coverage is listed here.
One of the participants, Rose McKinney, president of Risdall McKinney, suggested that one way of integrating communications effectively is to remove the labels that organizations place on what PR does, what marketing does, etc. The focus, as she and the Roundtable participants agreed, should be on the goal of the particular campaign or initiative first and the communications tools second. Marketing, advertising, and PR - whether they're in-house or outsourced - need to be comfortable with a little ambiguity of roles and more fluidity in how internal departments and outside teams work and interact for the end goal.
