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As marketers plan their budgets for 2005, they're falling into the same bad habit that they have for years. They divide their marketing budgets into two columns: brand and direct marketing. Interactive generally falls into the latter category. What marketers fail to realize is that interactive — unlike any other channel — can be a powerful hybrid of brand and direct response.

Interactive blurs the line between these disciplines. The key difference is the personalization it offers.

Despite the expansion of online media and marketing practices, the philosophy behind most client marketing planning hasn't changed. An overwhelming number of companies are denying evolving media consumption, shopping and buying habits. Changes in consumer conduct demand a blend of brand and direct response strategies. Unilever is different. The packaged goods giant uses interactive as a brand and as a direct response tool. The corporation runs branding campaigns online, but it also focuses on direct response, operating online contests, delivering coupons, and adding to its databases for loyalty marketing programs.

In one of Unilever's recent DR campaigns, the goal was to get consumers to sign up to receive a free sample of Snuggle sensitive-skin fabric softener. A special landing page was set up on the Snuggle Web site and consumers were driven there through e-mail and online sampling networks that provided targeted e-mail addresses from their databases.

A customized online game also was developed. Research demonstrated that the target for this product — women ages 25-54 who spend time online — like to play interactive games on the Web. The game was a word-find in which the player searched for words that are attributes of the product. This made consumers associate the product attributes with the brand.

Consumers drawn to the Web site were asked to provide some basic information about themselves, their product usage, a mailing address to receive the sample, and an opt-in to receive future e-mail communications from Snuggle.

During the six weeks of the campaign, more than 500,000 consumers requested samples. Better still, 88% of the people who received the sample ended up using it.

In the interactive space, consumers don't want to be “talked to” with video ads that look like TV commercials. They are looking to be engaged with ads and content. If you want to break through, you need to create interaction with consumers and personalize their experience.

The moral for marketers? The companies that have been successful with online marketing efforts have prioritized e-business initiatives. Integration works. The more marketing channels that can present a cohesive, integrated message, the more successful the campaign will be.

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Maria Mandel is vice president and director of interactive marketing at Draft Digital.