In todays world of advertising, running an Integrated Marketing Campaign (IMC) is much like conducting an orchestra. There are a number of different media outlets that have to be accounted for when running a successful marketing campaign, such as internet, print, radio and television. Integration has become increasingly difficult as of late, due to the growing number of marketing jobs being outsourced and sub-contracted to specialists. Although this creates a more efficient financial standing for the companies, it hurts the ability of the marketer to integrate material and create a "amazing" performance. Another element that has made integration far more difficult is the sheer number of available channels. The number of media channels used in advertising was two in 1990; that number has tripled to six recently.
Two key roles make up the orchestra for Brand media strategy; the conductor and the composer. The composer is the person who develops things like the brand idea and the marketing plan, while the conductor is the person who leads the implementation of the strategy. It is important that these two roles do not overlap too much but can collaborate well when needed.
Pepsi demonstrated how running an Integrated Marketing Campaign is much like conducting an orchestra when they were introducing Diet Pepsi MAX into an already crowded marketplace containing some 150 energy drinks(Young, pg.115). The overall campaign objective was to essentially "wake up" consumers who had become bored with the current soda options by providing a diet soda with double the caffeine and ginseng, designed to deliver maximum energy to its consumer. Pepsi created awareness of their new product through a fully integrated television, radio, out-of-home, internet, and PR guerilla campaigns. Pepsi transformed the game of Whack-a-Mole into a "Whack-a-Yawn" video game, this created a space for consumers to view the latest television ads as well. The result of this campaign was a 17 percent spike in both brand awareness and persuasion compared to category norms.
