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There's a word in today's marketing vernacular that agencies and their clients have been obsessed with in recent years. Integration. For many, integration is the holy grail of communications efficacy. Look no further than the boilerplate paragraph that shows up in most every agency review brief these days. It reads something like this: The ideal agency will have a successful track record on developing highly integrated communications programs including direct marketing, interactive marketing, viral and grass roots marketing, DRTV marketing, event marketing, sales promotion and pr. Right. And while you're at it, make sure some fries come with that. “Integrate or else,” we are lectured. “Make sure our message is delivered above the line, below the line, through the line, around the line and in the line.” Fine. But what about that message? That thing that actually has the nerve to try to interfere with this integration obsession. Should we be at all concerned about what we say? Or how we say it? Or should we just keep our tunnel vision focused on how many different places it can be said? Could it possibly be that an idea can still be a great idea even if it is just suited for the radio. Or a point of sale piece. Or an online campaign. But not necessarily for all of them. This is not to suggest integration is a dirty word. Hardly. But finding a way to ensure a brand message extends across multiple media is not necessarily a revolutionary marketing concept that justifies this kind of misplaced obsession. There is, however, another far more deserving word that should be the real source of our obsessions; one with far more profound implications for business today. The word is inspiration. Whether sacred or mundane in its origins, an inspiration has the power to move the intellect and emotions. In a business context, an inspiration is the life source for any compelling brand platform. An inspiration has the power to change the velocity of a company.The power to motivate extraordinary performance and action among employees, among customer segments, and among agencies charged with executing it. Inspiration drives action across a company by generating a level of buy-in far greater than a well–integrated campaign could ever yield. Because while ads are fleeting and limited in effect, a brand inspiration is timeless and far-reaching. As a community of marketers, we have to admit that we love to chase the latest shiny object and evangelize the latest trend. This sheep mentality has manifest itself when we embraced online advertising, viral marketing, branded entertainment, and blogging as the latest and greatest marketing arrows to fit into our integration quill. But integration for integration's sake serves no real purpose other than to keep a good many media reps in a good many media channels very happy. If we were all being honest with ourselves, we’d start fessing up to the fact that we have all been blindly following the Pied Piper of Integration while not paying hardly enough attention to finding the inspiration that will truly move a business forward. So maybe we should all—clients and agencies alike—get back to the business of inspiring our consumer rather than inundating her. Leonard Bernstein once said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” It’s due time we wield that club more often and leave that club of integration back in the jargon closet already filled to capacity with other over-hyped and outdated notions like “non–traditional.” Unless we do so and begin to refocus on the business of inspiration, our brands run the risk of dis–integration. Wayne Buder is the Managing Director/President of San Francisco–based BuderEngel and Friends.  |
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