Integrated Marketing and Other Insider Terms

Do job titles matter?  I work for WOWO radio and a few years ago, our parent company, Federated Media began calling their advertising salespeople: Integrated Marketing Managers or Integrated Marketing Specialists or some other variation.  The keywords are Integrated Marketing and it’s being used today to describe something that has been going on for a long time.

Integrated Marketing is simply the coordination of multiple marketing messages and outreaches that work together in harmony.  For years this was a role of Advertising Agencies.  Businesses would pay Ad Agencies to do all the advertising creative, buying advertising schedules and telling business owners what to do to be successful with their advertising.

Sometimes that works.  Often the folks in an ad agency have talents and skills that the coffee shop owner, or boat builder, or carpet cleaner lack.

Ad agencies create the ads that we see and hear on a national scale.  Some that come to mind are McDonalds, Home Depot, Google, car insurance ads, those are created by advertising agency professionals.

On a local level, most companies don’t have an advertising agency to do that work.  Instead they rely on someone at the advertising outlets, like the TV station, the newspaper, the radio station to do the creative work.  That might work out, but each of those individuals are only working in their advertising medium.

Or there are some advertising agencies that specialize in only one or two advertising mediums.  Online, especially social media marketing has been the kind of boutique agencies that have popped up in the past decade.  Some are pretty good, but most are pretty bad.  The online world is constantly changing and the changes that Google makes to their algorithm, or Facebook to their news-feed, are out of our control.

But let’s get back to the subject of Integrated Marketing and job titles. The reason the Integrated Marketing Specialist or Integrated Marketing Manager job title has been adopted by several of my co-workers at Federated Media is because we actually do have the ability to work with more than one advertising platform and build marketing campaigns that are integrated across multiple mediums.

Right now, this month, I am running a few campaigns for different advertising partners that I call a Hot Leads program.  I am using Email, Facebook, Text messaging, Radio ads on the air with WOWO and ads online. We gather names, contact information and a few specific questions for my advertising partners that will help them connect with people who want to be contacted by these specific advertising partners.  This is truly an Integrated Marketing campaign.

However, I don’t recommend this to everyone I meet with.  It’s not always appropriate, or the best  marketing approach for the objectives we need to accomplish.

So my business card does not say Integrated Marketing Manager or Specialist.  Instead I use terms that are very specific to what I do.   Advertising Sales and Marketing Consultant.

I took a deep dive into that last week and you can read or listen to what I said if you wish.

My approach is to simply work with you in the way and manner that is most appropriate.  I’ve been doing this since my youngest daughter was born and she’s now 32.  I can help you sort out the jargon and advertising insider terms that others use to try and convince you to buy their stuff.  And if you want an Integrated Marketing Specialist, I’m your dude too.