• by February 16, 2004

One thing that's abundantly clear to me -- all media is undergoing tremendous change right now. Change owing to a variety of factors including the proliferation of media options, media fragmentation, emerging technologies, and the 24/7 nature of the Internet. All of these factors have led to perhaps the most salient fact of all - increased consumer control. There's no avoiding it. Agencies and marketers must adapt now or risk being left in the dust.

These trends, and the urgency with which they are evolving, were expressed loud and clear at last week's American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference in Orlando. Participants also called for sharper, more sophisticated analytics, modeling, and media measurement tools to track return on investment.

And something else became clear to me too. While each form of media has its idiosyncrasies, distinctive features, benefits, and rules of engagement, it is increasingly the case that media integration is the name of the game. Online media cannot go it alone any more than TV, while continuing to attract the lion's share of marketer dollars, can continue to claim it is the most effective driver for brand awareness, sales, or any other criteria. Plus, the TV advertising model is broken, as was pointed out repeatedly at the conference and in other venues recently.

And here, I believe online media buyers, planners, strategists, and especially creatives, can contribute a lot to educating and working with their offline media brethren. Media integration is where media is going. Silos within agencies, marketers, and other media organizations are impediments to change and creativity. Marketers need to be more willing to engage in cross-media and media optimization research, and online strategists can be key advocates for these initiatives. Let's hear from some of the most visionary souls out there about how media integration can be achieved. Online should be leading the way.