It's Not About New Media, It's About New Marketing
I love this comment from Nick Brien, CEO of Universal McCann. It's not about new media. 
Trying to make every new medium a magic bullet will fail. It's about the way we interact with our customers and stakeholders. It is about new marketing.
Marketing has always been about communicating with our customers. But new tools and capabilities let us tell our stories in a richer and more relevant fashion than ever before. "In this new marketing model -- where media enhances personality -- brands have to become experiences and destinations and consumer insight has to be smarter."
In his keynote address at Ad Tech in New York, Mr. Brien further states, "A brand is ultimately a promise..." and this promise is not ownable by a corporation any more.
We need to integrate all of the ways we can interact with our customers and reinforce that promise. Sometimes that will be traditional advertising. Sometimes it will be an event. Other times it will be a PR or image campaign. More often it will be all of these.
And each of these activities has to be coordinated and carefully orchestrated to communicate our messages. And measured in their entirety.
Ads for celebrity fragrances that conjure up images of cool and hip and sexy fall flat when the news presents that same celebrity out-of-control and anything but cool. Ads portraying utility companies as environmentally friendly and green do more harm than good when the news exposes them as giant polluters.
Advertising and news and all of the ways our brands are communicated to our customers become equally valid in this new marketing. We need to take an integrated approach and follow Mr. Brien's advice. It's not about new media, it's about new marketing.
Brien's comments are on the mark, if perhaps a bit obvious. There is much "new" about marketing - much that was not part of the discussion even 4-5 years ago. As Getto states, measurement increasingly underlies it all. I'm struck by this "re-emphasis" on integrated marketing - a philosophy and discipline that has existed for many years. Clearly, media and marketing "disintegration" - read fragmentation - creates additional requirements for integration. And, consumer empowerment creates further requirements - to drive brand engagement with consumers through multiple channels, all pulling in harmony (even if the techniques mandated by one channel or another vary). If one subscribes to Fred Reichheld's Net Promoter Index - that that the strength of a brand can be boiled down to one simple question - think about the many influences on a consumer's inclination to recommend a brand/product to a friend or relative...or not. Advertising. News coverage. WOM. Consumer-generated ratings and commentary on Web sites. Loyalty efforts. Customer service. Etc. A multiplicity of touchpoints that all need to work together toward the end of setting and fulling expectations. Now that's integration.