Integrated Marketing Forum

On June 19th, I took part in an "Thought Leaders Round Table Forum" put on by PRNews and VMS. The event brought together some of the leaders in the industry to talk about the future of integrated communications. This was one of many forums that PRNews has held around the country talking about the subject of integrated communication.

Below are a few points that I took home:

• People were very concerned about social media as a new silo in the integrated marketing mix

• People use the word silo a lot when talking about integrated marketing communication

• Many people, myself included are still having a hard time defining integrated marketing communications
- Pam Hamlin, President of Arnold Worldwide had the best description. While I don't have, word for word of what she said. Below is a bit that I like from Arnold's website.
True brand integration is what we do best. It’s easy when you start with the brand truth. Integration, per se, is not even a stated goal here at Arnold, because it is always an outcome of our work. It’s understood that everything we do for the brand will be integrated because every discipline is working against the same objectives, budgets and brand truth articulation. And with one bottom line across all disciplines, no one discipline is “fighting” for your dollars. The communications plan is built only to solve a client’s problem.

• Companies are having a hard time coming out of their defined "silos" of advertising, pr, marketing and interactive for fear that they will lose a piece of the pie. However, most of these agencies are actually practicing integrated marketing communication every day.

• Many people in the forum did not know that their was a masters offered in integrated marketing communication

It was a great event and I was proud to be a part. Below are a list of round table attendees.

Round top attendees:
Pam Hamlin, Arnold Worldwide
Stephanie Anderson, Osram Sylvania
Michelle Davis, Boston Children’s Hospital
Todd Defren, Shift Communications
Andrew Eberle, Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Mike Farber, Schwartz Communications
Mike Lawrence, Cone
Craig Martin, Feinstein Kean Healthcare
Kathy O’Reilly, Lycos
Patrick Richardson, Schneider & Associates
Christine Simeone, Lois Paul & Partners
Steven Singer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
David Thomson, Thomson Communications