Readers of this blog know that last week we announced that the name of our agency was changing from Inprint to Mikula|Harris. In preparation for that announcement I wrote several press releases, blog posts, letters and a landing page in which I explained that one reason for the name change was that we do so much more than print media creative work, which was our main focus 20 years ago. In all of my writings I used the term "integrated campaigns." I did so for one very important reason: I am a big believer that success is found when campaigns make use of multiple media.
One identifying characteristic an integrated campaign is that it utilizes several media to get the message out. There is no minimum number of media required to meet the threshold. It can be whatever media is appropriate to reach your target audience — newspaper, magazine, billboard, online, radio, television, etc. The important thing is that you don't have all of your marketing eggs in one basket. The very definition of integrated is, "combine with another so they become a whole."
There is, however, one other very important consideration that makes a campaign integrated. The answer: consistency. Some marketers actually think that working across multiple media is a good opportunity to spread multiple messages, to possibly appeal to more people in varied ways. Bad idea. Don't send mixed messages. The power of an integrated campaign comes from the fact that potential customers receive your message through numerous media. Don’t be schizophrenic. Send a message via online that reinforces the magazine ad that is consistent with the billboard. Anything less is wasteful, and certainly not integrated.
