Integration Tops Tech As Hot Topic in Detroit

Integrated marketing and technology's role in the media mix were the themes at the fourth annual Digital Drive confab last week. Last year, individual technologies like wireless communications were all the rage, but mimicking the conversations dominating advertising circles these days, most attendees and speakers at the automotive conference focused on integration and nontraditional marketing. Some panelists at this year's meeting, held at the Ford Event & Conference Center at Ford's sprawling Dearborn, Mich., headquarters, said they see technology as a way to amplify their integrated-marketing efforts. While showing a 3-D online demo for Buick's Rainier SUV, Reggie Beckius, the General Motors unit's manager of advertising and promotion, said that as the nameplate works to upgrade its models, it plans "to use technology to demonstrate why our new products are a cut above."Several marketers portrayed traditional media, particularly TV, as playing a diminished role in their overall marketing efforts. Mickey Pant, chief marketing officer at Reebok, said the Canton, Mass.-based athletic-wear company bought a few high-profile spots for its "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" campaign (which launched during this year's Super Bowl and showed a football player tackling office workers) but used TV as a teaser to the longer-form films on Reebok's Web site. As of June, the Web versions of the Terry Tate campaign had been downloaded 14 million times.Rich Stoddart, marketing communications manager at Ford, said TV was the smallest part of the media buy for its integrated effort to promote the Ford Thunderbird in the James Bond movie Die Another Day. Among the marketing techniques the initiative used was a special version of Yahoo!'s instant-messenger service that put a "James Bond T-bird" skin on the IM interface. Stoddart said 1.7 million messages were sent daily during the course of the campaign.Several presenters took the opportunity to decry the network upfront, which this year took in almost $9.5 billion, setting a record with 15 percent growth over last year despite still-declining viewership. "That phenomenon is very counterintuitive, and at some point people are going to sit down and say, 'That's enough,' " said Mark Kaline, global media manager at Ford.The conference also demonstrated how painfully aware marketers are of increasing consumer anger toward intrusive marketing, especially as the "Do Not Call" list goes into effect with more than 50 million registrants. Beckius stressed that all of Buick's marketing efforts are opt-in. So did Kenneth Gaffga, vp of sales for Michigan at AT&T Wireless. As evidence of the tension marketers feel about appropriate communication with consumers, one panelist, Modem Media founder G.M. O'Connell, noted he had signed up for the list despite the fact that he's on the board of the Direct Marketing Association.Addressing that issue, the conference also focused on product placement and other ways of integrating advertising into content. Beckius said public relations—particularly a documentary-style mini-movie showing Buick endorser Tiger Woods—played a major role in Buick's "Tiger Trap" promotion, which launched in June. For the effort, Woods gave away four Rainiers to unsuspecting golfers as part of the vehicle launch.

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Integration Tops Tech As Hot Topic in Detroit

Catharine P. Taylor

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Catharine P. Taylor