• June 15, 2006

A mantra among elite marketing executives for decades, integrated marketing communications apparently is leaving the nation's biggest advertisers wanting. While two-thirds (67 percent) of marketers said they develop integrate marketing programs across most or all of their brands, only a third (33 percent) said they are very happy with those efforts, the Association of National Advertisers disclosed Wednesday during the opening session of its Masters of Integrated Marketing Conference in New York. In a potentially alarming finding, less than a third (30 percent) said general advertising ads the most value to their company's marketing communications program, a stat that is down from 51 percent in 2003, the last time the ANA asked the question. The survey, conducted in collaboration with Blueprint Communications, also found that supposedly hot areas of new media such as videogame advertising and mobile marketing are viewed as the least significant in the marketing mix.