Just read an interesting article that is dear to my heart – integrated campaigns.

I am still shocked to see that there are such resistance and frankly ignorance on the part of some marketers in corporations and agencies about the benefit of multi-channel/integrated marketing.

In this article by Jon Lafayette 0f TV Week, he mentions:

• An IMMI study looked at the multitasking behavior of television viewers and found that TV watchers spent an average of 9.3% of their time online and simultaneously watching the tube.
• Among viewers watching broadcast TV, 11% also are surfing the Web
• The survey also found that women, who do the bulk of the shopping, do the most simultaneous viewing

Yet, Jon goes on to mention that a recent study by Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies “found that in addition to the lack of metrics, the biggest impediment to effectively adopting digital media was that key people at a company, including senior management, simply don’t have a deep understanding of digital media. They also are reluctant to move marketing dollars away from techniques that have worked in the past”

What is surprising and frankly hard to understand is that these marketers are ignoring consumer behavior – their customers’ behavior.

Consumer as we know are using many channels as Jon Lafayette of TV Week mentions above. In fact, a Carlson study showed that customers who use three or more channels of communication with a company feel 66% more committed to the company than consumers with just one touch point.

We are witnessing that the smart marketers and CMOs rely more and more on their digital agencies for integrated campaigns, since the traditional agencies don’t want and don’t have the skills to think digital and integrated “it” into other “proven” media.

What are the biggest impediment to integrating offline and online?

Please tell me what you are seeing within your organization (let it be corporation or an agency)