Every week, our team pulls together a collection of published research and articles for clients that speak to one of the digital marketing issues of the day. It’s “hosted” by one analyst each week –this week’s host is my multichannel co-conspirator, Adam Sarner, and he’s talking Multichannel Marketing.
Sometimes I feel like multichannel marketing gets a bad rap. The art in individual disciplines just seems cooler. Mobile maven…social savvy…quant jock. Branded identities, associated with discipline expertise. As the great digital marketing conductors, multichannel marketers coordinate them all, but the specialists get the heroes welcome.
This week, whether intentional or not, the art of the connected, multichannel experience had a moment of glory. I spent a few days this week in sunny Los Angeles (and it was beautifully, beautifully sunny….sigh….) at the Razorfish Client Summit. I expected sessions to be full of gigantic, singular ideas and “how do I get one of those” concepts. You know the kinds of ideas I’m talking about – the ideas that leave clients wanting to go a bit further – concept wise, and budget wise – to get to the shiny object they just saw their peer present on stage.
Instead, what clients saw from other presenters, while exceptional, was…dare I say….reasonable. Rational. Achievable. Thought leaders brought in for the event certainly opened minds and pushed gazes to the horizon. But then client case studies grounded attendees in what excellence looks like in real life. Certainly, discipline expertise was evident. Social executions leveraged small but exceptional tactics that drove big time results. Web experiences told brand stories impactfully, bringing narratives alive. It was all great. But clients didn’t leave saying, “To win, I need THIS ONE GUY who can do THIS ONE THING for me in THIS ONE CRITICAL CHANNEL.” Instead, they left thinking, “To win, I need oversight…vision…coordination…a thoughtful approach”
Tweetable moments allowed the conference sentiment to travel. One session on design talked about designing not for the “wow” moment, but for the “after-wow,” referring to the reflection you have after a month of buying and owning a product, about how marvelous the experience has been over time. Twitter buzzed with another session quote, reflecting that “it takes a generalist to make something special.” (As a generalist myself, I may have that one turned into a tattoo)
I’m sure these lines spoke to designers, to planners, to creative teams, and to customer and user experience people in their own way. To me, these quotes – and the content – spoke to the magic of good multichannel. Because while no one was speaking literally to the point of multichannel campaigns, and the ideal connection of push message-targeted social post – personalized web experience – email, everyone was speaking to experience and journey, which is by nature the turf of the multichannel marketer.
So sleep well tonight, dear generalist. Your future remains safe. You may never be THE GUY who knows THE THING, but you may be the ONLY guy who knows how to make all of those other guys work well together on behalf of the customer, and the company. And, indeed, that’s pretty special.
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