Integration? It’s all in your head | Brand Republic Feature

Integration is a big buzzword. Everyone wants to be integrated.

But in many cases it involves digital and gaming agencies/departments taking the above the line campaign and pretty much sticking it on the web. Then the DM agency/department take the ATL campaign and stick it on a pack. Don’t even get me started on social media.

That’s not integrated, that’s an eyesore.

Put it this way, if I dump a car in the river, does it make it a boat? No don’t be silly. But too often integration is just that. An excuse for dumping ideas. It’s like fly tipping.

From a creative point of view, integration starts before the marker hits the pad, or finger touches the mouse. It starts in the head. More so than ever it’s about an appreciation of the brand married with a big idea and creative proposition.

Remember, just like any personality it behaves differently from situation to situation.

Think of it this way… what are you like at work? And with friends? How about family? What if you were in an interview? Very different scenarios, very different behaviour BUT the same personality.

Now transfer that to the multitude of channels available to a brand. Finally, we have the opportunity to create genuine dialogue, appropriate dialogue and even inappropriate dialogue (for the right reasons, of course).

Today’s brands need to create dialogue with consumers, when and how THEY want. The days are gone where the brand that shouts loudest wins. So the challenge is to develop engaging dialogues with consumers, ensure that wherever they meet you they find the experience enjoyable and memorable – enough to find out more and build a relationship.

Simply saying the same thing the same way across all channels doesn’t cut it. How bored would people around you become if all you did was blurt out the same statements regardless of the situation or scenario?

What’s marvellous about this is that having bleated on about appreciating brand personalities and being true to them, as an industry we now have a genuine opportunity to show it in action.

The key is integrating our minds. We’ve always talked about ‘big ideas’, now we have the opportunity to really put them into action. Like I say integration is all in the head.