Whether you call it integrated marketing, 360 communications or media-neutral planning, the need to systematically adopt processes that objectively and consistently reflect the media landscape and
how consumers interact with it has gone largely un-met.
Although we’ve talked of integrated marketing for more years than many Mediapost readers will have been in the business (or
been born for that matter!), the media and marketing industries remain heavily siloed. The media landscape may have changed, but many industry practices and characteristics have not kept
pace.
Individuals have whole careers centered around one marketing discipline; companies are structured around units defined by specific media and many facets of the industry’s
underlying infrastructure -– measurement, planning and buying systems -– are based on approaches that are past their sell-by date.
This is to say nothing of how the industry
rewards and remunerates those in different roles.
This is not to say there hasn't been progress. Measurement systems designed to inform cross-platform planning and buying have emerged. (I
should declare an interest here as USA TouchPoints was conceived in part for this purpose.) Planning software has evolved to keep pace with the emergence of new platforms and so on, but even as
vendors tackle the challenges of providing reliable data on new platforms and behaviors, the greater challenge is a human one.
Now, with the modern media ecosystem significantly more
diverse and multifaceted than ever before, there is a need to not only re-examine how different marketing functions should be aligned to establish an evolving model of best practice, but also to
assess exactly what kind of person is needed to deliver this more integrated approach.
In a cross-platform world of media-neutral consumers, the person that will rise to the top within
agencies, media owners and within advertisers themselves will be the hybrid thinkers. Those who intuitively cross the chasm between traditional media and digital media; paid, owned and earned media.
Those who can recognize how the strengths of different channels and disciplines can best be leveraged in tandem for maximum ROI against the brand objectives.
Whether selling or buying, this
approach is inevitably going to be the one that wins out as it boils down to simply making the most of the resources available. There will, of course, always be the need for operational specialists
who focus more in one area than in others. But the project leaders and senior management will increasingly be hybrids and organizational structures will morph to accommodate the fact.
In
the short term, the challenge will be finding this talent. Some of these skills already exist, and they’re probably most readily found among the planning and strategy communities. Some
creative will also fit the bill. But the rate at which more hybrids are being bred is almost certainly too slow to meet the growing need.
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Some might think that universities would
be a good source of such thinkers -- after all, students are already living the life of media disruptors (or so the mantra goes). But in reality, there are very few if any courses that teach an
applied approach to cross-platform media studies and most textbooks on media are hopelessly out of date.
The solution lies within the hands of the industry -- not only with regard to the
training and remuneration of people already in place, but also the structuring of organizations and the collaboration with the country’s top 10 communication schools to help shape the future of
curriculum.
We need to ensure that tomorrow’s graduates can deliver against the challenges of integration that continue to grow as each year passes.