In a September 16th article on DMNews.com entitled “The path to marketing nirvana is paved with integration” Blaine Mathieu discusses the need to integrate the tools used to manage & execute e-mail marketing, Web, PPC & other digital media campaigns. On the surface, I agree with Blaine’s observation that executional nirvana (aka ease of management) can be achieved by bringing the analysis and execution components of these varied online media together so informed, timely decisions can be made and actions taken.
My only issue is whether he has gone far enough with the affected media landscape – shouldn’t non-digital response oriented media be included in the integration? Aren’t we just re-defining the silo’s here? But more importantly – is real marketing nirvana going to be reached by executing a disjointed strategy via integrated tools or is it simply adding efficiency?
In my experience, a solidly integrated strategy executed via disjointed tools is more effective than a disjointed strategy executed via integrated tools (assuming that the tools are fully integrated across digital and traditional media). To that end, while I agree with the intent of Blaine’s article; I would submit that we as marketers still need to work hard on fully integrating digital media into our strategic fabric and use all appropriate media to achieve campaign objectives – rather than bolting on digital tactics to a non-integrated strategy or supplanting strategy with executional technology.
How close are you to marketing nirvana?
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