Online marketing: getting with the mix

We are not used to positive press in this industry, but three separate pieces of research out this week are hard to ignore. Firstly, media planning and buying firm Optimedia - in revised figures from earlier this year - estimated a 20% increase this year to 120m, with a further 45% rise in 2002. This followed a survey by ISBA and Advertising Research Consortium which found that two thirds of the UK's major brands already advertise online, with 50% intending to increase their budgets next year.

In addition, a study by Ecom Interaction and Benchmark Research for DoubleClick claims that UK marketers use online more than their European counterparts, with 73% having conducted online marketing campaigns last year, marking a 4.23% increase as a percentage of total marketing budget in the past year.

While this is evidence that a growing number of brands advertise online, many feel the next step - one that will truly mark the acceptance of the medium - is the integration of online into the larger marketing mix. While the internet can work well alone, its true potential can only be realized when it is used as part of a wider strategy.

However, despite this widespread belief, the ISBA/ARC found that around half of respondents rarely integrate online and offline campaigns.

Whether this is through lack of desire or knowledge is unknown. Certainly marketers still complain about the lack of accountability and measurement for online - particularly when comparing it with offline.

Moves are being made in that direction though. The ISBA/ARC study showed that more than 60% of companies have used direct marketing and PR to drive traffic to websites. Also, in 42% of companies, the development costs for the main b2c website comes from the marketing budget while marketing staff are in charge of the site in nearly three-quarters of companies

This marks a change from the days when the web was very much the domain of the techies and is positive for several reasons. Firstly, it should mean that user data captured from the website will be available to marketers rather than get stuck in the technical department - a problem expressed by many companies in a year-long series of seminars conducted by NetGenesis. It should also mean marketing departments will have more involvement in the build and design of the site, allowing brand consistency and full integration with other media.

That's not to say there aren't some good examples of integrated marketing already out there. A number of which - from companies such as Carlsberg, Cussons, Pepsi and Nike - were shown at the Digital Marketing Cycle event held this week by MSN and netimperative.com. The second in a series of four around branding, interest, loyalty and purchase, it highlighted case studies that would silence those who feel FMCGs aren't taking the internet seriously.

Clearly integrated marketing goes a lot further than sticking a URL on a shopping bag (the lazy “cut and paste” method as described by Guy Wieynk at AKQA) and one such example is the Run London campaign for Nike.

With posters and print ads directing users to the microsite, a total of 8,000 runners registered for their 10 entrant form online. But it didn't stop there - the web was turned into a community site with training guides and information on a series of runs users could try out. Details were sent via SMS, while Holmes Place offered free showers. Finally, courtesy of a webcam positioned at the finish line, runners could enter in their finish time to the website and watch themselves completing the race.

Wieynk said that they had no idea the campaign would be so successful, but the web played an integral role in retaining interest and building brand loyalty. (MSN's Matt Whittingham, who ran the race, confessed to a visit to Nike Town the following week).

If it's a matter of getting the message out there to those who still aren't convinced then case studies like this should go some way to change that. Further still, the IAB is releasing a report in January which will show the effects of cross-media advertising - the results of which should provide interesting reading for marketers across all sectors.