Combine promotions and advertising for real impact

June 28, 2011

Combining above-the-line advertising with promotional marketing is the most effective way to achieve ‘hard business objectives’, according to a new report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

The report, New Models of Marketing Effectiveness: From Integration to Orchestration, explores the impact of multi-channel marketing campaigns by analysing entries to the IPA Effectiveness Awards.

Combining advertising and promotional marketing delivered a ‘very large hard business effect’ in 84% of the cases in the IPA’s database. That compares with only 71% for advertising alone, 71% for advertising and online and 77% for advertising and direct marketing.

Annie Swift, chief executive of the IPM, says: “We’re very pleased to see that the results underline the effectiveness of promotional marketing. We don’t always agree with the IPA’s insistence that advertising and promotional marketing can be separated in this way, however – as far as we are concerned, the vast majority of advertising carries a promotional message. Very little of it nowadays is purely image-related.”

For further details of the report, see www.ipa.co.uk.