Integrated Thinking.

On Friday 2nd March we hosted our second integration seminar in conjunction with our media partner MC&C (www.mcand.co.uk).

A number of guest speakers were invited to speak about how individual channels working successfully with integration can have a significant impact on ROI.

Giles Finnemore from Royal Mail kicked off the session, speaking about mail as a medium to not only acquire or engage existing customers, but as a very important brand awareness tool. A startling 87% of consumers read direct mail that they receive, with 21.6m adults having done something as a result of the direct mail they've received in the past 12 months (14m had bought or ordered something). Giles also demonstrated how ROI can be increased by combining Direct Mail with other media - research suggests that DM pushes up ROI from an average of £2.81 to £3.40 for every £1 spent.

This was followed by eCircle (represented by Philip Storey) who presented on email best practice, as well as how to successfully merge email and social media, the importance of text to ensure you're not hiding your strongest message, offering a consistent experience, and with mobile rapidly moving closer to becoming the leading platform for email consumption - the importance of designing for fingers and thumbs (not just the mouse).

Marc Michaels, the director of Direct, Relationship Marketing and Evaluation for the COI, spoke about the integrated multi-media approach to Behavior Change, in particular citing how a coordinated effort using traditional forms of advertising within the Change4Life campaign kept brand awareness at 88% recognition. He also covered our work for The Queen's Awards, demonstrating how our use of earned media allowed the integrated campaign to have a far wider reach.

Belinda Beeftink from the IPA wrapped up the morning by talking about TouchPoints, the first consumer centric multi-media planning database, that provides you with a 360 degree view of your target - from demographics, product use, location, life activities and media consumption.

By having relationships with experts such as these, we hope to continue to build our best practice thinking in integrated marketing.

If you would like to find out more about any of our up-and-coming seminars, please pop an email to sam.parsley@tbch.co.uk