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Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
needs some fine tuning
 In recent years, with the explosion of
touchpoints, many marketers have realized the
need to create consistency across all possible
channels. A new buzz word became very
popular, “Integrated Marketing
Communication”.
 IMC is defined by many Marketing Associations
as: - “ a planning process designed to assure that
all brand contacts received by a customer or
prospect for a product, service, or organization
are relevant to that person and consistent over
time.” Usually this concept has been associated
with the execution and deployment of one single
advertising or marketing campaign. Although
this has been widely accepted as a good practice,
and a challenging one to execute, its concept
needs some fine tuning to accommodate how
consumers interact with brands in the new digital
era.
Consumer Journey is now a lot more complex
 We used to live in a much more linear and
simpler world, where marketers could expect
consumers to follow certain patterns in their
journey… A consumer considering purchasing a
new car was expected to buy a specialized
magazine, search for different models of their
interest, get some technical information, discuss
it with friends, look at different price ranges,
ending up paying a long visit to car dealers. TV
Ads were designed to build awareness and
desire; Print to be informative, newspapers to
feature promotional attraction, and the dealership
salesmen to influence and close the sale. Digital
has changed and amplified this journey quite
significantly: The points of influence have
increased; There is much more influence from
unpaid/uncontrolled touchpoints; Much of the
process of filtering and assessing brand options
has moved online; The Internet is equipping
consumers to find better pricing and mobile
technology to locate dealerships with on the fly
information. In short, the many new touchpoints
has led to the empowered, connected consumer,
and this changes how integrated marketing
campaigns need to be planned. - There is not
only a need to be aware of new consumer paths,
but linking the touchpoints in a more cohesive
manner is also more important in the new world.
It is not about one single advertising execution
 Consistency in brand communication has always
been an important practice, as we want to make
sure consumers are getting the same relevant
message from different touchpoints. The
problem is that this practice typically has been
associated with one single executional idea
and/or one campaign narrative. The choice of
touchpoints was like the Three Musketeers
commitment: “All for one, and one for all”. In
the new digital world, the idea of consistency
needs to expand in its meaning and application.
The brand’s core creative insight (The Big Idea)
remains the base, but marketers need to
understand that consistency is not about
homogenizing one execution and rolling it out to
be translated to other touchpoints. It is no longer
“all for one and one for all”. Advertisers who
insist on creating TV spots and just expecting the
Synchronize, orchestrate
and stay tuned!
Alan Mark Liberman
President Ipsos Connect Latin America
Ipsos

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creative to be adapted across all touchpoints in a
similar fashion are not leveraging the power of
each touchpoint, in the context of each exposure.
IMC needs to expand to allow for different
creative executions and different narrative to
leverage the context of each touchpoint, and to
recognize how consumers will interact with each.
Each touchpoint should be chosen for its own
unique strength and contribution. And it is the
collection of unique different contributions
which defines the total brand effect. Naturally,
these many different efforts need to be ‘on
strategy’ and expressing the brand in the way it
wishes/hopes.
Blending Media and Creative together
 The media industry is under-going a deep
transformation which started over twenty years
ago with creative agencies losing the media
planning business to media agencies. There is
now quite a split between the two important
elements of communicating; creative planning vs
media planning. This was likely driven by
economic reasons, but without full appreciation
of the implications to the holistic concept of the
campaign. This separation of Media and
Creative makes even less sense in today’s world.
The Internet is merging and blurring the lines
between creative and media. It is also providing
for many new different contexts to express the
brand. In turn, we need Media and Creative
executives sitting together, side by side in the
same room, working as one, to give context to
the big Idea, and the creative in the context of the
touchpoint, for the unique strength of each
touchpoint. - The good news is that we are
seeing some great examples of highly creative
ideas that have aligned the media and creative
expression which best reflects the context in
which the consumer experiences (and hopefully
engages in) it.
Speed, Reaction, and Collaboration have grown in
importance
 With the popularity of social networks, the high
degree of consumer connectedness and the state
of being “always on”, the manner of running
brand communications has changed. Marketers
have to closely monitor, make changes, and
respond to market situations in order to stay in
control of their brand expression. It is unwise to
let consumers own and co-create themselves
without the brand leading/guiding the desired
direction. The Abercrombie & Fitch fiasco with
consumers manipulating the brand story is an
example of the new world. More than ever,
brands need to take control of the brand
expression by being right on top of things in real-
time, with quick course corrections. This type
of immediacy and dialogue with consumers is a
new dimension in IMC.
Fine tuning IMC: Synchronize or.. Orchestrate
it!
 So the old buzz word “integrated” has become
too small and frankly not best suited to
accommodate the new consumer journey nor the
new world of touchpoints. IMC needs a better
and more appropriate definition. Some advanced
leaders are starting to use the term
“Synchronized Marketing” or a “Synchronized
campaign”. Synchronization combines the
concept of deploying a long term Big Idea by
understanding the different roles and strengths of
the individual touchpoints, connecting them in
the best possible meticulous way, allowing space
for dialogue and fine tuning. Beyond integration
of marketing efforts, synchronized marketing
connects and tunes the various different
elements/platforms – making the whole a log
bigger than the sum of the parts.
 It is very much like an orchestra: all of the
different musicians orchestrate their moves
simultaneously to create a much more powerful
music than any individual effort. Each
contributes a part and not necessarily each
playing the full tune (just their selected role). A
well conducted orchestra provides impressive
and moving music, with the conductor (the
brand) synchronizing and modifying the
musicians in real time. Perhaps the more
appropriate evolution of the IMC term should be
“orchestrated marketing”!

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It is not a mindless journey; the need for
inspiration
 Perhaps marketers can no longer fully control
their brand narrative in the new digital era.
Perhaps this is concerning to some. Certainly
there are risks of consumers dictating part of the
brand narrative, but there is also a lot of benefit
owing to the power of (positive) word-of-mouth.
Frankly, generating consumer-to-consumer
retransmission of the brand narrative is often an
important benefit for the brand, and should be
part of the orchestrated, synchronized campaign.
But clearly, the brand needs to act as the
conductor in the metaphor of our orchestra. And
like a good musical score, the brand conductor
needs the right creative Big Idea.
Orchestrated Campaign: How do we get there?
 So the big question now is: - What are the things
we can do to leverage our big Idea and
synchronize our campaign? The 5 key common
elements based on observations of great
campaigns are:
1. They have a Big Idea. And it is built on a
powerful human insight. Make sure you work on
it!
2. They make the best use of each individual
Touchpoint. One of the great outcomes of our
online, digital, multi-media world is the ability to
micro-target, and customizes each touchpoint,
for the right objectives, to the best target.
Advertisers need to select the right touchpoints
for the best roles they can each play, and then
align the creative to leverage the context of the
touchpoint (for the objective/role it is intended to
play). Understanding effects of the different
touchpoints and overall brand effect are
becoming critical.
3. The creative and the exposure are one
synchronized and powerful (synergistic) effort.
Creative planning and media planning need to
happen in the same room, at the same time. We
can see an emerging trend of powerful
campaigns where media and creative play
together to build a much more powerful
campaign! As with the orchestra, each musician
practices together and not in isolation in their
respective homes.
4. They connect multiple platforms. The silos
between traditional media can no longer exist.
All touchpoints feed each other, and become
connected in a continuous conversation, and in
no controlled order.
5. And finally, they allow consumers to engage and
co-create with the Brand. These advertisers listen
to their consumers! Not only to understand
where they are going but from where they are
coming from! (Validating TP connections). They
might be using social media to make their
campaign stronger by fine tuning while still on
air! As I hear recently from a senior executive: -
Plan and guide; don’t be afraid to lose control; be
afraid to lose engagement!
 In summary… a successful orchestrated
campaign starts with an inspired insight which
transforms into a brand idea that is able to strike
the right consumer chords; then, when these
chords are put together, they can create songs
that truly connect consumers to the brands.
Finally, when well executed it is pretty much like
a good orchestra: - the music is just beautiful!
 The examples of orchestrated campaigns are
increasing; this is a sign of maturity. Leading
brands are learning to uncover more powerful
ideas and connecting the touchpoints in their
own terms, maximizing the message and
boosting results. Besides it is becoming more
democratic: the low variable costs per exposure
associated with the new emerging media are
allowing all size companies (and budgets) to
play!
 Stay and be tuned: Results will be music for your
ears! ◙