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Sunday, April 1, 2007
Defining Engagement
Like many of its pharmaceutical brethren, GlaxoSmithKline is "a big supporter of print," says Curtis Smith. "If anything, print spending has increased as we supported more brands," he adds.
Those brands include Advair, Avandia, Boniva, Requip, Avodart and Valtrex, to name a few, as well as the corporate brand.
Smith is responsible for the corporate contracts and a wide range of the company’s brands. He dovetails his efforts with those of the media team to develop plans.
When he contemplates a new project, "I look at where the opportunities are to leverage content and relationships with the media sellers...If there’s a good idea that can cross channels, we try to leverage the volume of spend."
GSK has created programs to run in National Geographic, focusing on its philanthropic projects. These campaigns ran in the print vehicle and on TV, tying the ad messaging with the editorial environment "to give it relevancy and engage the people who come to those properties. That’s why they come to National Geographic," Smith says. Ensuring that ad content works with editorial or programming content "provides a lift for the traditional creative, and we put metrics in place to measure that lift."
This is Smith’s definition of engagement. "It’s about putting the message in a place where the reader or viewer will be receptive to it and it flows nicely within the context of the environment in which it’s running." Smith doesn’t like "one-off" proposals – he looks for bigger ideas. "If we can work together to figure out a topic that’s relevant to the advertiser, the products and the messaging but also to the reader of the magazine, that has seamless integration." The challenge with print is content integration, but Smith says there are ways to do that and get past some of the rigid church-and-state environment. The rules "are there for a reason, but...the reader is smart enough to know what is potentially influenced editorial and what is not," he says.
If a magazine has planned editorial, and if a natural sponsor tie-in exists, says Smith, "I don’t understand the hesitancy to go out and sell it as such and work with marketers to design programs that are mutually beneficial. That will be a challenge for magazines to address or risk continuing to lose out to TV and emerging media."
The "drugs and remedies" category topped the list for end-of-year 2006 as the single biggest contributor to ad spend, dropping a total of $221,146,446 on advertising, a figure that was up 19% compared to 2005.
— PIB, 2006 data
Magazines need to know their brand’s essence and cleave to it to enhance their credibility beyond the printed page, says Smith. "Interactivity is important now. A lot of magazines are taking control of Web properties and making them an extension of the brand. It’s going to be interesting to see how they integrate packages across channels and whether it will be truly creative – not just selling pages on the one hand, banners and placement on the other. How will they work interchangeably between the two vehicles?"
Pulling It Together
CURTIS SMITH GOT STARTED in the advertising game at the University of Tennessee. He’s been doing it now for 14 years. As a member of the ad club, he toured NY communications companies for a week and "got a really good feel for what’s out there" before jumping in. He was part of the original Mediaedge, "at the front of the unbundling of media," he notes. "We were expected to go out and pitch and manage our own business as a standalone agency, not riding the coattails of a creative agency."
He worked with Glaxo Wellcome, GlaxoSmithKline’s Web site, on the agency side and knew the principals involved. He was doing contract work with AT&T when GSK built out its marketing department and called him. He joined GSK about six years ago.
The fact that he maintains a "big picture view" has helped him get many ideas off the ground. He also cites his good fundamental training, facilitated by mentor managing partner and account director Matt Schwach at Mediaedge:cia, with whom Smith still works on various accounts.
- min's Special Issues — April 19, 2011
- Brenda White - Vice President, Director of Print investment, Starcom — April 1, 2007
- Print/Online Bundle: WIRED Media, Xerox Custom Cover Project — October 1, 2007
- Maggie Knoll - Print Director, Senior Partner, MindShare Chicago — April 1, 2007
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