COHESIVENESS and convergence are two words that sum up my perspective of the communication channels in today’s market. Without giving my age away, I was taught the distinction between above-the-line and below-the-line communications and I got my head around that pretty easily. More recently, I was convinced that the model had changed and I had to embrace the distinctions between online and offline activity and eventually I got my head around that.

Now, I am told to suspend that belief and remove the line altogether or certainly blur the edges. Integration now seems to be the buzzword. Thank goodness we had the foresight to think about that concept 19 years ago when we started the business, although it would be stretching the truth to say we had predicted the level of integration we see today.

These days we talk to clients about the concept of a ‘hub-and-spoke’ approach to their marketing communication activity, the hub being the website and the spokes are all the other activities that drive traffic to the site and generate enquiries and sales. And, thanks to the fantastic analytics available we can measure the results of every campaign. There is no question the market has moved and the smart companies are moving with it, embracing the opportunities and ensuring that they are getting value from every dirham of their marketing budget.

If you want to find out how to create the most effective hub-and-spoke model for your company and how to monitor, manage and measure your activities, give us a call we will be happy to share some of the models we have created.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Five. It would be great if you could find the time to drop us a line with a comment on an article, a question or a suggestion for a future feature.

(Introduction by Ian Ord - Group business development director, Fifth Ring)