Recently, during one of my MBA readings I came across a buzzword I hadn’t heard before, but the concept surrounding this buzzword was all-too familiar. Omni-channel marketing is an iteration of multi-channel marketing and cross-channel marketing. While it is not all that different from the concept the integrated marketing, this view of the new and improved multi-channel or cross-channel marketing is starting to make its mark on businesses in all industry.

Let’s explore the idea of omni-channel marketing a bit further…

There are three key pieces when thinking about omni-channel marketing: platform awareness, seamless consumer experience and reporting + data.

Platform awareness means platforms being aware of each other. Omni-channel marketing is about creating a circle of awareness across digital channels - having your brand’s website know what experience a consumer has had on Facebook or Pinterest, how that consumer has interacted with a company’s app and what types of digital in-store experiences a consumer may have had. Seamless consumer experience is about being able to take the awareness aspect and create a continuous story that transcends across channels so that the consumer experiences the brand in the same way anywhere.

Reporting and data is critical to the success of any marketing strategy, but even more so for omni-channel marketing as it is the key to understanding the consumer profile information gathered. Without a strong, sophisticated reporting and data collection tool, the awareness and seamlessness pieces are void. For omni-channel marketing it is critical for this data collection to be collected in such a way that your company can complied the data into a dynamically updating database and paying even more attention to that data to build a profile of your consumer.

Digital strategy that embraces this thinking understands that reaching current and potential customers across all channels means customizing and optimizing each channel. For brands, in-particular retail stores, it means integrating your physical and your digital interactivity. The idea surfaced as retailers were faced with the reality that more consumers were moving to online shopping, specifically mobile shopping, and less were shopping in-store. So what’s a retailer to do? Rethink how to engage consumers and bring them back in-store by linking the digital with the physical. 

So by now I’m sure you are intrigued, maybe a little bit confused and wondering if there are any real examples of companies engaging in this new thinking. And my answer…there are no exceptional examples of companies or brands using omni-channel marketing to its fullest potential, but there are several moving in this new direction.

Generally companies with successful multi-channel strategies are also “ones to watch” as leaders for the success of omni-channel marketing.

Starbucks – Starbucks has done a great job of establishing brand consistency across all marketing channels. The company has recently integrated a strong CRM system via mobile channels with the Starbucks rewards system for brand loyalists. Your rewards card balance is stored on your mobile phone and all you need to do is swipe and go.

Macys – Macys was an early investor in digital merchandizing and marketing capabilities. Macys email marketing program leverage cross-channel information to delivery nearly individualized campaigns to subscribers. Additionally, the company has brought digital in-store with the introduction of “Beauty Spot” as an in-store digital experience. In-line with the company’s email strategy, the in-store digital experience also focused on the consumer rather than the manufacturer. Macys also offers a smartphone check-in feature allows in-store consumers to access and use coupons while in the store.

Additionally, other retailers, such as Target, are starting to put their “toe-in-the-water” with this approach during the holiday season. Target is putting QR codes on the top 20 toys this holiday season allowing shopper to scan the product to an online wish list and buy later. While not a super creative digital idea, it is perfect for holiday shopping and their target audience as a first move into the digital and traditional store integration.

The final thing to remember (and the most important point) is that omni-channel marketing isn’t just a cool new marketing buzzword, it is change. A change in your marketing strategy, a change in your digital strategy, a change in your business strategy.

With the growth of the online community, certain devices and marketing tactics have become so extensively interconnected, that the standard model of media buying is facing serious questions from a variety of fronts: is Social Media a good investment? Does my company need a mobile strategy? Should I offer my products/services online? We’ve decided to take a step back and get a better perspective.

Technology is slowly starting to blur the lines between different mobile devices and media to the point that the public is now consuming the same content across multiple platforms, sometimes at the same time. GoogleTV, for example, syncs with your current TV provider and bypasses the provider’s technology and interface all together. Your TV and channel subscription, in essence, become manageable directly from a wireless keyboard. The device has a built-in browser and of course is compatible with the GooglePlay app store. What results is that one can watch TV in a picture-in-picture mode while simultaneously surfing the web online - not to mention consume the sum of the content of the Internet on their 42 inch flat screen.

Along with these new technologies comes the ever expanding mobile landscape. Mobile, or the ability to access content delivered via wireless networking, is quickly becoming a major avenue for business to target the consumer. The smartphone has attained an enormously large role in society as a whole. Forget simply sending a text or the ability to call another phone. Think documenting and globally sharing a major civil war, tracking the amount of miles you log during your morning run or even controlling your home alarm and of course TV with nothing but an app on your cellular device. These are just drops in a never ending ocean of possibilities.

The bottom line is that brands and industries must take a more multilateral approach to marketing and advertising. A campaign in today’s world cannot simply be conceived and adapted for merely TV or only radio. It must be capable of engaging with the consumer and adapting across both traditional and digital media. Most recently, Adidas has managed to get spectacular results with a well defined mobile strategy. During the Euro 2012 soccer tournament the athletic apparel company launched a wallpaper app that simply allowed one to tap a simulated ball on the screen as well as display their favorite team’s flag. Simple but effective: 1.6 million downloads across 200 different countries along with 21,000 reviews.

So the next time a new marketing campaign gets put up for vote in your company ask yourself some of the questions covered here and think: will this campaign translate well into mobile? Social? Because at the current rate of media convergence and thanks to social media there is little time to react once a campaign is launched.

You wouldn’t go on a road trip to a far off land without some kind of map or GPS.  Similarly, you wouldn’t implement a marketing strategy without a plan outlining benefits, costs, etc.  A marketing plan is an essential part of any marketing strategy and acts as a road map for your company’s marketing efforts. 

As an intern here at LeapFrog Interactive, I have been thrust into the business world, observing how a well-run digital advertising agency works.  I have learned a lot of valuable information that I often take back into the classroom.  One thing that I am going to be working on this semester as Client Development intern is creating and helping implement a marketing plan for a client.  Not only is this a great portfolio piece, but it will help me understand marketing strategy and how to implement that strategy efficiently.

Here are some of the classroom marketing concepts I’ve applied when discussing building client marketing strategy at LFI:

• SWOT Analysis – your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  This includes examining the competitive climate.  What are your competitors doing well that you can do better?  What are some of your strengths that you can capitalize on to make the most of your marketing plan?  SWOT involves seeing how you’re doing, what you could do better, and what you need to be doing that you aren’t doing already. At LFI we present this information to our clients as a competitive analysis focused on the specific marketing services we are providing.
• Market Segmentation – Once you have pinpointed your target market(s), you will need to divide these markets into segment that share common characteristics.  This segmentation will help with your brand differentiation strategy within the industry. Understanding a client’s voices and target audience helps LFI to create strategy, specifically for clients using our social media, PR, PPC or display advertising services.
• Marketing Mix– Remember the 4 P’s.  Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.  These are crucial when you are looking at what makes your brand better than your competitor’s.  You can’t change the competitor’s strategy, but you can change the 4 P’s to offer a more lucrative option. As a full-service digital agency, LFI understands these 4 P’s and works with clients to develop long-term strategies aimed at long-term success.
• Short and Long term projections – What do you expect your marketing strategy to do for your company?  These are the projections that you foresee when implementing both short term and long term strategies. LFI works with their clients to review goals for strategies and implements monthly reporting to help track the progress of meeting those goals.

At LFI, or any advertising agency for that matter, it is important to give the clients a clear view of what we can do to help them reach their goals.  This is where the marketing plan comes in.  As an intern, I’m still learning a lot of the strategy that goes into making a project successful.  From social media strategy to web development, a good marketing plan will set goals for the client and illustrate what can be done to achieve those goals.

LFI has taught me the value of having an integrated marketing strategy across all marketing channels. Brands and clients can benefit from agencies by having a resource that provides them with efficient processes that work towards their goals. I look forward to dazzling my professors this semester with the real-world experience I have learned from LFI. The learning hasn’t stopped here – more to come!

Contributed by Sabrina Wellendorff, Client Development Intern

Recently, companies have started to utilize and apply Twitter hashtags in their traditional advertising, especially on television. Not surprisingly, I am probably not the only one that has some opinions on that issue.

First, we should start with the purpose of hashtags and what they are used for. Hashtags are basically a way for Twitter to categorize tweets along a certain topic or interest. Hashtags can have a variety of different uses for businesses that can include anything from event marketing to experiential marketing and beyond. However, it all boils down to one core function: connecting users with each other and around one central idea, opinion, or event.

Now, how are companies using this utility to their advantage? They are not.

I applaud the efforts of the companies that have adopted Twitter hashtags and implemented them into their marketing efforts; it is a monumental step forward and they are headed in the right direction, but they are simply misguided in their efforts.

As a company, you must first take into account all the factors of your existing marketing strategy and leverage each component’s strengths to benefit and amplify your brand. A hashtag cannot “live” and “thrive” in the Twitter-verse on its own, no matter how clever or relevant it might be. Just placing a #Hashtag at the end of your commercial is NOT effective. You are missing the call to action and therefore missing the opportunity to engage your audience.

What reason or purpose do I have to go online and use my time to talk about your brand? Unless your commercial was the most compelling or comical thing I have recently seen, I am not going on Twitter to use your hashtag, and even worse, I’ve already forgotten what your hashtag is because by now I’m immersed in the talking babies of E-trade or the newest Old Spice commercial.

Make sure your marketing efforts have a well-defined strategy. Create compelling content for your audience that creates context with them. Context creates relationships and relationships create loyalty. Guess who uses your hashtags, loyal customers and people that hate your brand. Which one do you want?

[Contributed by Sean Slattery, Jump! Account & Marketing Coordinator]

Connect with Sean:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Google+

One of our favorite commercials currently running is the State Farm – State of Discovery video featuring Chicago Cubs greats Kerry Wood and Andre Dawson. The brand continues the ‘discount double-check’ introduced by Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. The ad also finishes with nice CTAs of a phone number and website.

However, the State of Discovery would be a great social media campaign. State Farm could have built an online, interactive game to find all of the missing items in Wrigley Field. Similar to “Where’s Waldo?”, one could find Andre Dawson on their multiple social media properties for SWAG or unlock special content around Wood and Dawson. At the very least, the art card at the end of the spot should have their social media properties identified. Integrating a social media campaign with the media buy leverages the spend past the flight plan.

Traditional media must capitalize on extending the campaign digitally. Does every spot need a Facebook CTA? No.  But brands should understand how their creative concepts could be applied across multiple marketing channels for more effective reach.

On Sunday, millions of people, including me, will gather together to watch the Super Bowl…commercials. Advertisers pay top dollar to get their messages out to millions of people during this monumental game. But in this world full of distractions such as Smartphones, iPads, and social media, how do advertisers ensure they capture the attention of all of those people? Well it’s like the old saying, “If ya can’t beat em, join em,” which is exactly what Chevy is doing.

Instead of fighting the distractions, Chevy decided to become one and engage the Super Bowl audience with the Chevy “Game Time” app. It creates an interactive environment for fans to answer trivia, talk about the game, and win prizes like a new Chevy Camaro. Every person that downloads the app gets a unique virtual license plate, and if it matches one in a Chevy commercial during the Super Bowl they are a winner. Chevy’s audience now has a reason to watch and (more importantly) pay attention to Chevy’s commercials during the Super Bowl. If you ask me, Chevy may very well come out of this year’s Super Bowl as the MVA (most valuable advertiser).

Engaging customers is more important than ever and Chevy has found a way to do it on the biggest stage, but you don’t have to have millions of dollars to achieve the same effect. Let Leapfrog Interactive help you create an interactive marketing plan that will work for your business.

[Contributed by Sean Slattery, Jump! Account & Marketing Coordinator]

Connect with Sean:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Google+

I love extreme sports! I have since I learned to watch television. So, naturally, when I hear it is the time of year for the X Games, I pencil in a couple hours of sitting on the couch. The athletes in this year’s games were more outstanding than ever and, then again, so were the sponsors. According to Sports Business Daily, the X Games staff went with fewer sponsors this year having only four signed as “Official Partners.”  In an attempt to form deeper relationships, marketing rights were offered across several types of media. The sponsors were not shy about using these well-earned media spots, but one of them truly stood out above the rest, Red Bull.

Red Bull took the marketing rights that came with the sponsorship and ran with it, launching an impressive integrated marketing campaign across the social media, digital marketing, print, television and radio channels. Red Bull delivered a strong and consistent message to their young male target market, “Red Bull gives you wings,” while reinforcing it with clips of their newly sponsored Louie Vito flying high above the superpipe. I’ve let their aggressive branding slip into my mind and I have a feeling that I’m not the only one. In fact, their messaging has been so strong and consistent over the last few years that I’ve begun to associate it with any type of extreme sport. I can hardly spend an entire day on the slopes without one!

If you were at all interested in the X Games, you would have certainly come across the Red Bull message. Whether you were looking up information on ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, or just watching it, you know what Red Bull is all about. Like all successful integrated marketing strategies, they were consistent, they knew their target market, and they approached their audience through numerous channels. Out of all the advertising competitors I’d have to give them the gold. 

We are often asked what defines our integrated marketing strategy. It is a term that is used by many advertising agencies, industry experts and professionals. However, the way it is described will differ from one person, and agency, to the next.

At LeapFrog Interactive, we define our integrated marketing strategy in two ways: philosophy and execution.

Philosophy

We grew up in a digital world. It is in our DNA. We came from a world where a website was once text and hyperlinks and entered what has evolved into highly interactive websites, Facebook tabs, mobile and video. We know at our core that the website could not stand on just text and hyperlinks and thus we involved our creative teams. Our technology teams were coding websites with elements geared towards SEO before it became a marketing channel – because it was the correct way to code a page. Thus, for twelve years, we have combined expertise in technology, creative and marketing to create award-winning, results-driven marketing solutions.

And as other digital marketing channels came along, we were the first to implement them for our clients. From the advent of SEO to banner ads to PPC and now to social media and mobile, we have developed competencies around how each channel works – and how each impacts other marketing channels. As digital marketing has moved execution offline into the traditional marketing space, we have moved with it bringing our knowledge of analytics and measurement along the way. We have tested, and continue to test, the most effective ways all of our channels can work together to provide extra lift in your marketing campaign.

Execution

It is simply not about what we believe, it is also how we execute the programs. We build out strategic documents, which lay the foundation work for understanding your audience and business objectives and then outline how we will meet them with creative messaging and delivery into specific marketing channels. Our road maps don’t just start at developing a plan, but lead to execution. We follow-up our execution with detailed analytics and reporting – proof we have implemented the plan and are seeing results. We continually tweak and test all elements of the creative ensuring not only are you seeing results, but also that we are driving ROI off your marketing spend.

We spend countless hours developing out marketing campaigns for our clients. It is who we are and it is what we do.

In the last several years, more and more brands have begun to develop integrated traditional and digital marketing campaigns. Successful integrated campaigns reach not only a variety of target audiences for the brand, but also provide the opportunity to extend reach and provide an interactive experience for consumers. Take, for example, the campaigns from Old Spice and Budweiser below.

Old Spice: “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

• TV spots
• Social media marketing – repost ads; customized responses

What we can learn from this campaign:

When your TV spots are a hit, turn to social media to expand the brand story. Old Spice and its agency recognized the overwhelming response to the TV spots and created a brand story by developing an integrated social media program.

Budweiser: BudUnited Campaign during the 2010 World Cup

• Mobile SMS text message campaign to select official Man of the Match
• Social media marketing – BudUnited
  App: Paint Your Face – allowed fans to “paint” their Facebook face (photo) the color of their favorite team and then use it as their profile picture
• Traditional media: television, print, outdoor signage

What we can learn from this campaign:

Get consumers involved in all aspects of a campaign. From Budweiser’s interactive website and online reality series to traditional media driving fans to the Budweiser website, their focus was on the consumer experience tied to the 2010 World Cup. Budweiser offered fans around the world, whether they were at the game or at home, the experience to feel like part of the World Cup.

Integrated marketing campaigns provide a great brand story. It’s not only about consistent messaging through multiple channels, but engaging with your audience by providing a total brand message and delivering that message in the best way possible using the capabilities of each media platform — traditional or digital.

With so many ways to advertise, how can you ensure you are reaching your target audience at the correct time and place, while also sending them a clear, uniform message? As advertising vehicles evolve rapidly, it can be tough to keep up and stay on the cutting edge in order to stand out in today’s competitive business environment. Advertisements can sometimes be invasive, annoying, or just miss the mark all together. How do you cut through the clutter and deliver a marketing campaign that is engaging and effective?

The key is to create an integrated marketing campaign in which you deliver your message across several mediums with impeccable timing and consistency. This takes strategic thinking. Where are your consumers? What are they watching? What are they doing? Buying? Listening to? Reading? Downloading? The list goes on. An integrated marketing campaign will reach your target market on several of these levels, if not all of them.

Once you have researched your audience, then you can decide the best place for your message. Every brand is different. Reaching your audience may be best served through interactive marketing like text messages, social media like Facebook and Twitter, or online videos. Or it could be traditional marketing like television ads, radio or billboards.

So, what are some of the trends in integrated campaigns? Which brands are raising the bar?

One integrated marketing campaign I love is from Audi USA. Their Audi A7 Bold Design campaign is based on the theme, “A boldly designed car deserves a boldly designed world.” It utilizes several traditional and digital marketing channels and incorporates user interactivity. The campaign consists of TV commercials, FourSquare promotions, billboards, QR codes, a Facebook app and a YouTube channel. Each channel has its unique twist, but together you are able to educate yourself on the Audi A7 model, watch videos and even tweet about it. The tweets and FourSquare check-ins are streamed live on a billboard in Times Square!

But it doesn’t stop there. Audi USA even created a Google map application that incorporates Facebook and the YouTube channel so people can create their own bold design and nominate their favorite bold destinations throughout the U.S. What a great interactive element!

One might think this campaign is too much or perhaps tacky because it involves so many advertising vehicles. Well, the opposite is true. Audi USA has created a marketing campaign that is sleek and classy, yet informational and integrated enough to stand out among the clutter. It’s not just another car commercial. It is so much more.

The interactive billboard was timed around the New York International Auto Show, which is also one of the boldly designed locations featured in the campaign.

(Contributed by Emily Blankenbaker, account coordinator)

Before I even think about getting out of bed in the morning, I have checked three email accounts, Groupon, Living Social and caught up on the last eight hours of Twitter action. The way things are going these days, I’m in the majority when it comes to my consumer-minded consumption.

There is no better time than right now for B2C businesses to be pumping marketing dollars into digital marketing campaigns, including email, SEO, PPC, display, mobile and social media marketing. The greatest benefit to reaching me through these mediums is that I want you to — this is where I am.

Gone are the days of waiting for your customers to watch your TV spot or to pick up a publication to see your ad. Now is the time for integrated, interactive media marketing, using your traditional marketing as a starting point for a new integrated campaign. Your best value is to integrate digital media into your traditional campaign. One example of this is to include your website or social media information in your TV spots, as Audi did during their Super Bowl XL spot. Using your website, you can integrate YouTube videos, links to social media and other interactive media options.

This is not new news, or at least it shouldn’t be. It’s a great reminder that if your business is not actively involved in integrating all of your marketing efforts, especially through social media, you’re missing the boat — and your audience. As a child, I remember the first time I learned to peddle a bike without training wheels. Everything clicked; I felt empowered. As a digital agency, we get the same feeling every day when we help and observe our clients firing on all cylinders, driving leads and sales from a broad scope of integrated marketing efforts.

If your business is not actively pursuing your customers and clients where they are, you are missing valuable time with them. Remember that your consumers’ lives are integrated in technology on the go and the most valuable way to reach them is through an integrated campaign. Talk with your account manager or account executives about what innovative tools you can use to push and integrate your campaign. And remember: there will be something bigger and better tomorrow, so ask your digital marketing agency what else they can do for you.

(Contributed by Jacob Knight)

This is my second entry in a four-part series discussing what I wish someone had told me about the wild world of interactive marketing.

During my time working in internal marketing for a corporate company, I successfully achieved many challenges, but with a strong background in traditional marketing I lacked the expertise in non-traditional marketing tactics such as email marketing and using innovative marketing tools and resources. While I navigated through this unknown field, I wish I had known what I know now.

Don’t be afraid to take chances on innovative marketing tools. I think I felt hesitant about utilizing different marketing tools that were out of the norm. The company tended to like more traditional marketing tools vs. trying things that others weren’t doing. You were more likely to get the approval on a TV spot vs. a QR code. TAKE CHANCES! You not only will appear to be interactively innovative, but you might also find that a poster with a QR code could be more effective and less expensive than a :30 TV spot that’s harder to measure. Will there be pushback from your management? The answer could possibly be yes; however, if you never take a chance, you’ll always be exactly where you are as far as your perceived measurement of success.

(Contributed by Ashli Worden)

Remember the days of Saturday morning cartoons? One of my favorites was The Jetsons. I remember being four or five years old and watching reruns, completely enthralled by robot maids, flying cars, talking appliances, and people talking via video screens. Could those things really happen? In the 1980s these were things of the future — not even the foreseeable future (or so we thought). And yet, today our digital world has far surpassed many of those dreams from decades ago.

Our digital world makes staying in touch more than a phone call, letter or email of old; it’s about being informed and communicating instantaneously via text messages, video chat and social networks. Today you can video chat with just about anyone, anywhere, anytime from an office videoconference to news interviews to talking to your loved one on the other side of the world — thank you Skype. We are completely immersed in digital technology, from our home to our car to our offices. It’s completely natural for us to be surrounded by technology and have it integrated into all parts of our lives. Gone are the days of playing make believe and Barbie in the living room. In are the days of make believe with a talking Barbie with integrated digital media to “continue her story online.”

What I find really interesting as a marketer is the willingness of society to accept these changes and understand that the technological integration is not going away. It is only increasing. With the advancement of social media and mobile connectivity, marketers have the opportunity to reach consumers in an “on the move” way and need to embrace those opportunities.

Digital media is taking over my life — something I suspect is not abnormal or different than yours. Goodbye unforeseeable future … hello reality! (Well, maybe not the flying cars just yet.)

(Contributed by Brittany Burdoine-Lewis)