You, Me & IMC
That there is a billboard. It’s one of the tactics we’re using as part of an extensive integrated marketing communications campaign for client Blue Ridge Orthopaedic & Spine Center.
What, exactly, is integrated marketing communications (IMC)? Let’s start with what it’s not: it’s not marketing, advertising, public relations, or social media. Rather, it’s a mix of those–perhaps all of those and more–rolled into a concise, easy-to-follow plan that starts with a set of concise, easy-to-understand business objectives.
Or, as the folks at my grad school program explain it, just as individual instruments come together to create a beautiful piece of music, so do strategies like print advertising and direct mail combine to create a stellar IMC campaign.
The WVU IMC folks also note that huge companies like Apple and Target are among those that use IMC. Don’t be fooled. In many ways, an IMC approach to marketing and public relations is even better-suited to small businesses. Why? Because one of IMC’s core pillars is using multiple outlets in a consistent, cost-effective way. In other words, come up with an approach and adapt it for use across multiple channels.
For a huge business, that could mean developing similar but separate campaigns for TV, online video, and national print ads, and mixing in an über high-profile retail location that’s as much a marketing vehicle as any actual promo piece. For a small business, it might mean a consistent message on Facebook, in an e-newsletter, and at the bottom of your customer invoices. (Don’t think of your invoices as marketing pieces, you say? Pro tip: every customer touch point–from the print ads that go through dozens of revisions to the information on your business cards–is a marketing piece. Treat ‘em all as such.)
Blue Ridge Orthopaedic & Spine Center’s IMC campaign has focused on the differences that it makes–with patients and the community. So far, the plan includes a TV commercial (below), an online video that talks about staff community involvement, print ads in pubs like Warrenton Lifestyle, and a billboard series, among other tactics. It’s been fun, and there’s still plenty more to come.
Every IMC campaign is different, but there are some common traits. Among them: a set of overall business objectives that drive the entire campaign, and a mix of strategies and tactics that reach the target markets identified as part of the planning process.
Having a hip, creative agency working alongside you doesn’t hurt, either. Just sayin’.