• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 5, 2006

Integrated campaigns that bounce consumers from television to the Internet are a booming marketing tactic, according to a top marketer in a highly competitive field.

Sprint Vice President of Marketing Anita Bajaj Newton said the telecom company has seen traffic at some Web addresses jump by up to 30 percent after direct promotion in high-profile broadcasts, including NFL halftime shows on NBC and CBS. And Sprint's internal metrics and analysis show those traffic bumps lead to a considerable pop in sales.

"The sweet spot is to integrate online and offline," Newton said Wednesday at an IRTS event in New York.

In search of that target, Newton said Sprint allots up to 15 percent of its marketing dollars for the Internet. Additional dollars are designated for experimentation in other "new media" avenues, such as mobile--an area where Sprint presumably has considerable in-house knowledge. The other "new media" bucket accounts for an additional 3 percent to 5 percent of the budget, she said, "will continue to grow over time."

At the panel discussion of high-profile media executives, including Newton and several top buyers, the question arose: How aggressively should companies shift spending into emerging media areas?

Although it depends on the category, PHD USA CEO Steve Grubbs said that clients in fields such as retail, automotive and financial services are apportioning 10 percent to 15 percent of budgets for the Internet--and additional dollars for VOD, mobile and other areas. Grubbs said the day has passed when it's easy to determine where new media dollars are coming from--be it television, print or other traditional outlets.

"You can't say it's coming out of any one source," he said. "It's baked into the overall media plan."

Unlike Newton and Grubbs, Starcom USA CEO John Muszynski declined to place a ballpark percentage on his clients' new media spending. "You can't guess-timate; it's so different from one client to another (and hinges on objectives and business goals)," he said.

Muszynski said Starcom advised one client looking to make a major play in TV to shift dollars entirely to the Internet. In contrast, the agency has instructed other clients to spend virtually their entire budgets on TV--providing one indication that the medium often said to be in demise still has a major role to play.

Grubbs concurred, noting that TV is still the linchpin in a campaign seeking to drive awareness--although he suggested that the interactivity and accountability opportunities on the Web might be more efficient at pumping revenues. "It all goes back to the business. If you're trying to drive awareness, the 'one-way' model works great," he said. "If you're trying to drive sales, the 'two-way' model works."

Joining the TV-is-still-key testimonials was MindShare President of Local Broadcast Kathy Crawford, who said the cry from Wall Street to cut ad budgets in order to boost share prices has a false premise. "There's no question when you pull out of TV, there's a drop in sales," she said.

Muszynski added that the drive for accountability and ROI is giving agencies leverage with clients' procurement executives, who may want to slash ad budgets. The new metrics are helping agencies show "what our work is actually delivering," he said.