Marketing Chiefs: Boost Internet Spending, Continue Media Integration
- by Kate Kaye , June 16, 2004
Pepsi-Cola aims to shift dollars away from TV advertising toward Internet, print, and outdoor advertising, according to panelist Dave Burwick, SVP chief marketing officer, Pepsi-Cola North America. In fact, the soda purveyor plans on increasing its online budget as well as placing more emphasis on branding efforts such as its new prime-time live music show Pepsi Smash, set to run this summer on The WB.
In addition to spending more money on localized, grassroots efforts, commented Carter Cast, SVP Marketing and Merchandising, Walmart.com, Wal-Mart, "we will continue to play around with new ideas on the Internet."
It came as no surprise to hear Yahoo!'s CMO, Carrie Dunaway, stress the increasing significance of search, considering the portal's commitment to search engine marketing through its acquisition of Overture last year. Search marketing and optimization, she declared, "will continue to get an increasing share of our budgets." Yahoo! will continue to put dollars toward television and online advertising as well as grassroots efforts, she added.
Marketing gurus on the panel expounded on innovative branding initiatives and the importance of pushing profitability and sticking to strategy, as well as the growing need to combine marketing's creative components with the hard science that drives it.
Both dot-com chiefs, Walmart.com's Cast and Yahoo!'s Dunaway, pointed to profitability as a major element of marketing. Upon her move to Silicon Valley, recalled Dunaway, she found it necessary to encapsulate just what is meant by "marketing" for the company. The definition rolled off her tongue with ease: "Marketing is an engine for profitable growth through a relentless focus on consumer needs."
She noted "actionable insights" in her explanation of the firm's overall strategy, asserting the need to disregard efforts that stray from the mission at hand. In Yahoo!'s case, taking action on an insight might entail tracking behavior to facilitate cross-merchandising and broadening content usage in order to establish a spirit of membership among the site's 276 million users.
Cast and Dunaway highlighted the benefits of interactive rich media advertising which, as Dunaway put it, enables an active dialog with consumers. Cast alluded to ads that present multiple product comparisons, and can be targeted when users express interest in specific merchandise. "The interaction point is more effective," he suggested. "You can get to a more granular level."
Cast mentioned the discount retailer's interest in branded interactive games as well as its focus on gift registry sites, referring to a recent alignment with BabyCenter, an online resource for expectant parents. Under the agreement, BabyCenter will provide Wal-Mart with articles on pregnancy, babies, and toddlers that will complement merchandise descriptions on the discount retailer's BabyConnection.com site.
Centering all marketing efforts on a common goal--from cross-media ad campaign integration to the combination of marketing art with technology--was a dominant panel theme. Although "the idea" still reigns supreme, panelists concluded that database and analytical skills are playing a stronger role in marketing. But when it comes to integrated media programs, said Pepsi's Burwick, development is the role of the marketing department, not an ad agency. "Few agencies really understand our business," he explained.
Yahoo!'s Dunaway crystallized the constant transformation of marketing by stating: "CMOs have to be people who thrive on change and thrive on learning."
