FACTORS LEADING TO INTEGRATED MARKETING AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS 23Th ere is an increased cost awareness and a need for more cost-eff ective and effi cient mar-
keting. Th e time horizon of companies has become more short-term-oriented. As a result,
there is a greater need for directly eff ective marketing strategies and for instruments the
eff ectiveness of which can be assessed and can be assessed instantaneously. Th ere is, in other
words, a growing need for increased levels of accountability. Consequently, mass media are
supplemented with, or replaced by, other communications tools with allegedly more impact,
that focus much more on infl uencing the behaviour of individual consumers directly, and the
eff ectiveness of which can be measured precisely, such as direct marketing and interactive
marketing communications. Adding more and more diversifi ed tools to the communications
mix leads to more media being used and more fragmented media, and increases the need for
integration of marketing communications. As a spin-off from this integration of fragmented
communications tools, it becomes less and less relevant to measure the eff ect of one single
element in the communications mix, such as advertising. Th e measurement of communica-
tions eff ectiveness will have to focus on techniques such as monitoring and tracking, which
assess the eff ectiveness of a total campaign at the brand level.Branded content
Consumers react increasingly cynically to traditional advertising, and pay less and less attention to it. Therefore,
advertisers try to ‘hide’ commercial messages in media content. This is called ‘advertainment’ or ‘branded content’.
Product placement in movies and shows on TV is one example. And this is even practised in books: Fay Weldon got
a lot of criticism because she was paid to mention the luxury brand Bulgari in one of her books. Brands are also
integrated in computer games. Some computer games are even specifically developed to promote a brand. They are
called ‘advergames’. ‘Plugs’ are media formats in which celebrities are paid to talk about a brand.^50
Entire TV programmes can be produced to promote a brand or a company. In the TV format ‘Project Runway’,
candidates have to design their own fashion clothing products and are judged by a professional jury. At the end of
a series of ten programmes, there is a winner, who gets the resources to develop his or her own clothing line. The
local Belgian version of this format (called ‘De Designers’) was largely financed by JBC, a fashion retailer. In return,
JBC could appoint one of the members of the jury and received a lot of visibility and brand mention. The winner
could design his or her fashion clothing line which would then be sold in JBC stores. Also the Belgian electricity
producer Electrabel financed a programme, ‘Under high voltage XL’ in which families participated in experiments to
reduce their electricity consumption.^51
Walt Disney Studios sponsor an entertaining movie news show. At the end of the show it is revealed that it was
paid for by Buena Vista (Disney’s film distribution company). Of course, most consumers are not aware of the close
link between Disney and Buena Vista.^52 The Belgian cinema group Kinepolis experiments with scent marketing.
During the Axe Instinct commercial the deodorant is blown into the theatre through the ventilation system. Similar
campaigns for Dove and Magnum ice cream are planned.^53
Some companies experiment with personalised branded content. The German game producer Software
Entertainment develops games in which the brands placed are adapted to the individual’s preference. For instance,
in a car game, Ford can be replaced by BMW if the player appears to be a BMW fan. Also, interactive brand place-
ment is possible. If the viewer watches a programme on a digital platform, and an actor drinks a bottle of beer, for
instance by clicking on the bottle, the viewer can enter an advertising message, a promotion offer, or a Wikipedia-
like environment in which comments of other users can be read and own comments can be added.^54BUSINESS INSIGHT
Non-traditional forms of marketing communicationsM01_PELS3221_05_SE_C01.indd 23M01_PELS3221_05_SE_C01.indd 23 5/28/13 11:09 AM5/28/13 11:09 AM