Integration - the Holy Grail of communication

Meanwhile, marketers have been hoodwinked into thinking they are buying the 'holy grail' of integration when what they have really been purchasing is a poor excuse for the term, according to Baird's Communications Management Consultancy, launched last month.

Communication is today in the same position as information technology was 15 years ago, when everyone sold boxes and wires and software programs, but nobody sold business solutions. Just as systems integrators had to show the way to integration for big technology, a new breed of communication service provider - communication management consultancies (CMCs) - will show the way for big ad agencies.

Just like technology system integrators, CMCs will be expected to know the detail of the different communication components - advertising, public relations, investor relations - as well as the advertisers and public relations people themselves. Instead of doing PR or advertising however, the CMCs develop strategies to solve business problems using the appropriate communication components and then help clients to manage the implementation of the strategy through all the communication service providers required for that particular solution. CMCs have the advantage of not having to pander to corporate cross-selling pressure, but to design objectively the best solutions and select the best-of-breed service providers for those solutions.

The ad agencies talk about communication integration, but they practise advertising. And they will not sell the poor client anything that they don't own. It would not be unfair to say that marketers in the once-free world have become the hostages of Soviet-style ad agency dictatorships. Placing expensive advertisements, running simultaneous PR campaigns, sending notes to your staff about the importance of your "integrated" campaign and going on road shows to investors and regulators will cost a lot of money, but it is not integrated communication. If it gets results it will be by default, not by design.

Integrated communication does not mean "doing everything from advertising to investor relations", anymore than owning boxes and wires and software means an integrated technology solution.

The core of integrated communication solutions is that it leverages all communication in a co-ordinated and creative fashion to enable the achievement of clear business objectives. While an adman may honestly think that he is providing just that by including PR in the planning, it is really just a sop to the demand for true communication integration - the best communication solution for the business problem or need, implemented by the best people for that solution. Instinctively, corporate managers are beginning to require integration.

The first thing that savvy corporate managers are beginning to do is to take back the power. "I no longer let the ad agency think," said a successful and much-awarded marketing director of a major mobile telecommunications company, recently. The second thing they do is to figure out how to integrate all the communication that takes place in and around the company. That is where communication management consultancies, the systems integrators of communication, come in.

The legacy of communicating in silos is so strong - inside and outside the company - that it is often impossible to start with communication integration without the facilitation and expertise of this new breed of communicators. The ideal CMC is independent, experienced, with a keen understanding of the client's industry and one or more communication specializations like crisis communication, strategy development and marketing. This means that they cannot be taken in or co-opted, but remain focused on achieving results for the client.

Their role is to help top management draw the road map for real integrated communication and setting clear, business-driven communication objectives. They also guide the various communication decision-makers and providers in creating an integrated communication strategy, and help to develop the platform from which the organization will manage the implementation of the tactics. Not least, the CMC will keep all the communication service providers (including the formerly all-powerful ad agencies) in check.

For those sensible enough to act, the results are often astonishing. The South African
Government's manager of the national population census, Stats SA, decided that a program like the census was just too important to leave purely to the designs of an ad agency and appointed a CMC to develop an integrated communication strategy and manage the 29 different communication service providers for its implementation. Like good custodians of public money, Stats SA also insisted upon independent research to verify the results achieved by the implementation of the integrated communication strategy. The outcome, verified in a large sample study by ACNielsen, exceeded the expectations.

Stats SA expected the communication campaign to reach 85% of all people in South Africa by Census day in 2001. They also expected the same percentage of the population to have a positive attitude to the Census and to understand what a Census is. Much to their astonishment, ACNielsen reported figures exceeding 95%. No surprises then that all the communication service providers, including the ad agency, were as highly pleased with the results as the client. Of course, not many of them would credit integrated communication.

However the rules for successful communication integration are becoming clearer:

1. Top management commitment is non-negotiable. This is the first rule. When it comes to communication everyone is an expert and every expert guards his or her territory more fiercely than a lioness her cubs. The only way to break down the silos is through top management commitment.

2. Create an integrated communication strategy that is single-mindedly focused on achieving strategic business objectives. The second rule is not as blindingly obvious as it looks at first reading. If you think it is, try finding the link between communication strategy and business strategy in your own organization. If you do, your communication people deserve a raise.

3. Top management must set the objectives for integrated communication strategy. The third rule is based on the simple premise that making communication people responsible for setting their own objectives is like asking 15-year-olds to set their own exam questions.

4. Develop a single platform for delivering the integrated communication strategy. The fourth rule does not necessarily imply that a Chief Communication Officer (CCO) must be created, although it is worth thinking about. The delivery platform could be a team, a system, or a process, but without such a delivery platform communication integration will not happen.

5. Measure the desired outcome of communication, not the output. The fifth rule sounds equally obvious until you are reminded that your own organization probably still measures PR results by the column inches of media coverage achieved and its worth in advertising spend. If not, what exactly do you measure? If you need to achieve perception change, then that is what you should measure.

Communication integration is poised to develop far beyond the simple start of these five golden rules. Customers are getting smarter and ad agencies are increasingly finding it more difficult to pinch the cat in the dark. Over the next few years, more and more customers will benefit from new insights, new protocols and more advanced systems devised by communication management consultants in pursuit of the holy grail of communication. If the first results are indicative, corporate communication is about to be revolutionized.