The Rise of Integrated Marketing Communication

As we have seen, public relations is potentially very useful but also unpredictable when it comes to getting a company, person, or product specific and favorable mass media coverage aimed at a particular audience. In contrast, advertising can provide quite predictable media coverage (as the advertiser pays for time or space), but it can be quite a bit more expensive than public relations work and may not be as persuasive as PR stories that appear as news.

During the past several years, the awareness that advertising and PR can complement each other has led executives to attempt to coordinate the two types of activities to get the best of both worlds. Some have dubbed this approach integrated marketing communications (IMC), or sometimes simply marketing communications. The goal is to blend (integrate) historically different ways to communicate to an organization’s various audiences and markets. Under the best of circumstances, integration means creating a campaign that sends different, yet consistent, messages around particular themes to present and potential consumers of a firm’s products as well as to its employees, to the companies that sell to it and buy from it, and to government regulators.

In addition to traditional advertising and public relations, IMC often brings three related activities into its mix: branded entertainment, direct marketing, and relation­ship marketing. Let’s take a look at each.

Branded Entertainment

integrated marketing communications (IMC) or marketing communications a type of PR, the goal of which is to blend (integrate) historically different ways to communicate to an organization’s various audiences and markets

branded entertainment associating a company or product with media activities in ways that are not as obviously intrusive as advertisements.

The word “branded” refers to linking the firm or product’s name (and personality) with am activity that the target audience enjoys. The three most common forms of branded entertainment are event marketing, event sponsorship, and product placement

event marketing creating compelling circumstances that command attention in ways that are relevant to the product or firm. These activities typically take place at sports and entertainment venues, via mobile trailers or road shows that publicize products, and in malls

event sponsorship situation in which companies pay money to be associated with particular activities that their target audiences enjoy or value. Examples include concerts, tours, charities, and sport

product placement agreement in which a firm inserts its brand in a positive way into fiction or nonfiction content

barter products used in movies and TV shows are provided by the manufacturer to the producers for free in exchange for the publicity

product integration the act of building plot lines or discussions for talk shows and reality TV around specific brands

Branded entertainment involves associating a company or product with media activities in ways that are not as obviously intrusive as advertisements. The word "branded” refers to linking the firm or product’s name (and personality) with an activity that the target audience enjoys. The three most common forms of branded entertainment are event marketing, event sponsorship, and product placement.

EVENT MARKETING Event marketing involves creating compelling circum­stances that command attention in ways that are relevant to the product or firm. These activities typically take place at sports and entertainment venues, by way of mobile trailers or road shows that publicize products, on college campuses, in malls, and in bars. Some of the activities are termed “grassroots.” That is, companies pay nonprofessionals (say, moms who like their products) to set up parties or other meet­ings that promote the items. These are activities that bring the products in front of people in unusual ways. Other activities are called “guerrilla” events. An example is when a company planted blinking electronic devices around Boston in a publicity stunt for a Cartoon Network show.21 Figure 16.1 presents the proportions of different forms of event marketing in 2008.