An article by Jeffrey Stewart, partner and Chief Technology Officer at Trekk Cross-Media, will appear in the latest issue of the IPA Bulletin. The quarterly magazine is a publication of IPA, The Association of Graphic Service Providers. Stewart’s article, “Deliver on the Promise of Cross-Media,” offers insight to marketing services providers on the practical issues of understanding, delivering and measuring new cross-media services. It was based on a presentation made at the IDEAlliance’s XML 2010 conference, eMedia Revolution.

1. deasINeMedia/XML
Deliver on the
Promise of
Cross-Media C U S T O M E R B E H AV I O R S A R E Your ability to help clients transition
C H A N G I N G . E X P E C TAT I O N S A R E to more engaging, customized, per-
S H I F T I N G . T O D AY ’ S M A R K E T I N G
C O M M U N I C AT I O N B U Y E R S A R E sonalized marketing across all
LOOKING TO THEIR TRADITIONAL media—including social media—may
C O M M U N I C AT I O N PA R T N E R S F O R very well determine your future as a
N E W T O O L S A N D C H A N N E L S T H AT marketing services provider. But
DELIVER ON THE PROMISE OF
C R O S S M E D I A C O M M U N I C AT I O N S . does your sales force have the tools to
sell it? Can you deliver it? As your
BY JEFFREY STEWART company adds more complex com-
munication services to its traditional
set of solutions, keeping your sales
force up-to-speed on the terminol-
ogy and possibility of cross-media
communications is critical to e ec-
tive integration. The key to deliver-
ing these new services lies in not
only understanding the dynamics of
the marketplace but also in under-
standing why cross-media works.
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3. The digital revolution is
enabling the return of a
one-to-one marketing model
SHIFT HAPPENS keters to develop, package and deliver rel- i n g ), ma ke re com mendat ion s a nd
Before the industrial revolution, people evant, timely information. In fact, organiza- in uence the audience.
bought their goods locally. Shopkeepers tions can now customize content for all of While the channels for communicating
knew their customers by name and o en the audiences they need to reach—custom- with customers and prospects have
had a personal relationship with them. ers, employees, business partners and expanded, advertising spending has
Because of this, stores could cater to the other stakeholders. Instead of one-to-many, remained relatively at. Obviously, some-
wants and needs of their customers and digital communications allow us to return thing has to give. Globally, the trend has
stock the right mix of products and ser- to one-to-one. been a decline in traditional mass media
vices for their audiences. In the age of mass This paradigm shi also has changed spend and an increase in dollars budgeted
communications, companies began using the relationship dynamics between con- for interactive media, such as online adver-
new channels and technologies like news- sumers and companies. New communica- tising, mobile and social media. In the
papers, magazines, “spray-and-pray” direct tions channels have opened up and United States this year, digital media is pre-
mail, radio and television. What they lost in returned power to customers to interact dicted to overtake print for the rst time.
personal relationships, they gained in their with companies and brands when, where As your customers look to you for ways
ability to reach more and more people with and how they choose. to integrate more interactive media into
their messages. One of the biggest shi s is the ability to their marketing campaigns, you not only
With the digital revolution, there has interact through social media. Smart mar- need to deliver on the promise of cross-
been a return to the days of one-to-one keters have recognized the value of social media but also to e ectively sell it.
communications—albeit a hyper-con- media as a marketing tool. Within these
nected one-to-one on steroids. Today, communities, there is a tremendous oppor- KNOW IT
enhanced, personalized communication tunity to share information, create dia- When I’m speaking to audiences about
architectures are making it easier for mar- logues, collect information (crowd sourc- cross-media or technology in general, I like
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4. they get to decide which channels they use nology. Delivering it requires collabora-
to respond, whether that’s digital print, tion between a wide range of skilled peo-
email, web, mobile or social media. ple, including graphic and interactive
Because of this, a multichannel, multi- designers, copywriters, account manag-
touch approach is most e ective in captur- ers, prepress production, direct mail
ing the highest possible response. New experts, programmers, application archi-
research is con rming the validity of this tects, database experts and system
technique. For example, a study from Get- administrators. If you don’t have or can’t
Response shows that integrating email and find the talent it takes to deliver on all the
social media signi cantly increases click- tactics your customers need, consider
through rates. In our experience, the triad partnering with someone who already
of print, email and social media is proving has these capabilities in place.
to be even more powerful. Just like no one person has all the skills
This multichannel, multi-touch model needed for cross-media, there’s no one so -
reinforces the message while providing ware package or solution that provides
numerous opportunities to respond when everything. By choosing best-of-breed so -
and how the audience chooses to do so. ware and systems and building mashups,
Adding social media to the mix expands you can take advantage of the best solutions,
your reach even further. Incorporating combining them as needed for speci c proj-
Source: Outsell’s Marketing and Ad Spending social media buttons encourages message ects. Again, nding a partner can help you
Study 2010: Total US and B2B Advertising
sharing. Feeding these channels allows quickly ll in any gaps in your o ering with-
you to spread messages virally with little out making huge technology investments.
to relay something Albert Einstein once e ort. Now, especially with the explosion
said. “If you can’t explain it simply, you of mobile devices, instead of one-to-many, RIDE THE MESSAGE
don’t understand it.” If you don’t under- messages are spread many-to-many. ROADMAP
stand cross-media, how can you sell it? Trekk learned a long time ago that commu-
So what is cross-media? At its core, cross- nicating an idea to our clients is just as
media is a technology and communications important as developing the campaign cre-
strategy that allows companies to cultivate ative and messaging. Over the years, we’ve
relationships with their audience. Recogniz- found that using program or campaign
ing that mass, one-way communications can- roadmaps is very e ective in explaining—
not fulfill the need for immediate, relevant and selling—programs to our clients.
information, cross-media uses data and tech- This visual technique helps us docu-
nology to deliver messages through the most ment the process flow, showing how a
cost-e ective and e cient channels. cross-media campaign mingles print,
To create the two-way dialogue that email, social media, web landing pages and
constitutes a relationship, cross-media other tactics. The roadmaps spell out the
communications must also incorporate individual tactics, channels, response
feedback mechanisms to monitor the dia- mechanisms and feedback loops that
While integrating email and social media
logue, collect information and continue significantly increases click-through rates, the allow us to track response and learn more
the conversation. The more you can learn triad of print, email and social media is proving about individual customer preferences.
to be even more powerful.
about individuals and audience segments, By breaking programs up into smaller,
the more relevant you can be in your mes- bite-sized steps, we reduce the complex-
saging, your o ers and the channels you DELIVER IT ity and improve our ability to understand
use to communicate with them. Because Developi n g cross-med ia ca mpa i g ns our own cost structures. It also allows our
the audience controls the relationship, requires cross-discipline teams and tech- clients to see each individual channel and

5. Campaign roadmaps
are very effective in
explaining—and
selling—programs to
our clients.
the steps in time from one touch point to where we are in real time. This knowledge some bumbling error committed by Gilli-
another that ultimately guide a prospect allows us to refine campaigns and pro- gan. But rather than applying what they
to a measurable call to action. grams in mid-stream rather than waiting learned and adjusting accordingly, the
A good example of this is a recent cam- weeks or months to compile campaign next week there would be a brand new,
paign Trekk designed and implemented for results. This more rational approach equally elaborate plan. Like the castaways,
one of our clients. You can see in the pro- keeps you on track to achieve your pro- marketers who use this old approach will
gram roadmap that we included a combina- gram goals and increase return on com- never “get o the island.”
tion of variable direct mail, variable email, munications investments. Instead, by building test and measure-
lumpy mail and QR Codes that directed Too o en, marketers implement a mar- ment into cross-media programs, you can
recipients to a personalized URL. The land- keting campaign that doesn’t garner the monitor what’s happening and continu-
ing page is available as a traditional web expected result. But rather than optimizing ally change and adapt your strategy and
page as well as a mobile-device optimized the campaign by trying different offers, tactics to optimize response. The very
version. This is critical if you want to use QR messaging or calls to action, the entire plan nature of data-driven technologies gives
codes as part of your strategy. is scrapped in favor of a new one. us unprecedented flexibility in testing
This phenomenon is what Trekk part- campaign components and identifying
MEASURE AND OPTIMIZE ner MJ Anderson refers to as the Gilligan unique segment behavior. Headlines,
In the days of mass marketing, segmenta- E ect. If you remember the old television images, messaging and lists can be accu-
tion and measurement was, at best, a show Gilligan’s Island, in each episode the rately tested—even for small campaigns—
guess. With digital, you can measure exact castaways would come up with an elabo- at minimal cost. Based on the data, cam-
response and ultimately ROI. Now, instead rate plan to get off the island. And each paigns can be refined for the next cycle
of relying on gut instinct, data tell us week the plan would go awry because of continuous improvement.
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6. P O P U L A R M E C H A N I C S .C O M / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / 0 0
WEB TO EVERYWHERE,
EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING
At Trekk, we deliver cross-media cam-
paigns, projects and tools for our clients
using a web-to-everywhere philosophy. You
are probably familiar with the term web-to-
print, which typically refers to online or
web-based ordering and customization of
print-on-demand or variable data print.
Web-to-everywhere takes that concept fur-
ther, allowing for customized variable out-
put across all media.
The first thing to remember is to manage
all marketing message content in a way that
completely separates content from format. We
then use asset and content management tools
to help organize, assign and deliver text,
image and multimedia content and channel-
specific templates for delivery to web pages,
email messages, social media networks and, By maintaining a consistent structure,
yes, digital print. content can be quickly and easily
deployed to a multitude of distribution
An example from one of our clients channels, from mobile devices, social
shows this concept in action. Product infor- media to web sites, email and print.
mation is structured in a common XML
schema and managed by a web content matted for variable email, variable direct channels are designed to create click
management system (CMS). The CMS mail and for Really Simple Syndication throughs back to a featured product page
delivers the information as web page con- (RSS) feeds. RSS can be used to deliver on the website for tracking and call to
tent by transforming the XML structure into email to other web sites and social media action. The website is e-Commerce and
HTML for delivery to and rendering by outlets like Facebook and Twitter. The struc- e-Mobile enabled to deliver the easiest and
requesting web browsers. tured content can also be used to drive digi- most convenient customer experience for
That same product information is for- tal print for catalogs. All of these outbound purchasing the product.
LAUNCH & LEARN
I also like to misquote Voltaire by saying, “per- ABOUT THE print, web, mobile and social media,
as well as help printers transition to
fection is the enemy of good enough.” What I AUTHOR
marketing service providers. Today his
Jeffrey Stewart, a
mean by that is that you can’t afford to wait focus is on database system integration,
founding partner
until you have all the pieces in place to develop web-based applications and content
and chief technical
the perfect program (because you never will). management systems, cross-media
officer at Trekk
formatting technologies, variable data
Today, behaviors are quickly changing. What Cross-Media,
communications and emerging uses
worked yesterday may not work today. To be has been on
of social media and cloud computing
the forefront of
successful in cross-media, marketers and their platforms. Stewart is a frequent speaker
communications technology since
service providers must continually identify at industry conferences and regularly
the firm’s inception in 1995. An early
unique segment behavior, test, innovate and blogs and tweets on topics ranging
adopter of web technologies and one-
from variable data marketing and web-
optimize. The good news is that cross-media to-one cross-media marketing, Stewart
to-print technologies, to web content
and its underlying technologies allow you to uses his technological expertise to help
management solutions and social media.
do all of those things—quickly, inexpensively clients improve processes, reduce costs
and optimize communications across stew@trekk.com, www.trekk.com
and e ectively.