Interactive Marketing

April 24, 2006 8:18 AM

does anyone know what the term "interactive marketing" means?

my girlfriend needs to know for a marketing position she's trying to take and the application calls for what the phrase means to her. do any of you know what this might mean at all? is it just a bogus term?

posted by jadanzzy to work & money (11 comments total)

It can mean a lot of things, technically it should mean advertising that people have to interact with. However, a lot of times people use "interactive marketing" to mean any advertising done on the web or via email (as opposed to print or tv).

It could mean concepting, building, and/or selling things like punch-the-monkey banner ads. There's a slim chance it might mean developing large scale interactive feature sites for a company (e.g. MCgame, GE Pen), but those are a lot less common.

Mostly it means banner ads, eyeblasters, and the like.
posted by malphigian at 8:28 AM on April 24, 2006

I hope it's not a bogus term because it's what my company does. "Interactive" is a catch-all term for digital products related to the marketing of a company or product. These include web sites, email marketing, kiosks, branded entertainment and product-specific games, CD-ROMs, viral and referral campaigns, online promotions...

It has also grown to incorporate (or be considered part of) online advertising, as the line between marketing and advertising gets blurry when one can buy ad units both in a newspaper and on a newspaper's web site. Often "marketing" and "advertising" are used interchangeably. This is technically not correct, although this line is truly getting fuzzier and fuzzier and will some day likely disappear.

In general, if you think back to pre-internet days and what "marketing" meant then...and consider what's now done online (and offline, such as product-related kiosks in stores or banks) in support of the same goals --> interactive marketing.

On preview, I would argue that in a professional setting, we're probably talking about fully legitimate marketing initiatives and not cheap ads designed for quick clicks rather than long-term goals. But hey, I could be wrong.
posted by hsoltz at 8:42 AM on April 24, 2006

I would describe Reactrix as real-world interactive marketing of the coolest kind.

Full disclosure: I am a technical consultant for this company.
posted by JMOZ at 8:53 AM on April 24, 2006

On preview, I would argue that in a professional setting, we're probably talking about fully legitimate marketing initiatives and not cheap ads designed for quick clicks rather than long-term goals. But hey, I could be wrong.

I've heard the term used for all of the things I described above in professional settings (there are million dollar projects to make banner ads, believe it or not). Heck, spammers use "interactive marketing" as a code term for their mail bombing.

It's not bogus, there just isn't one definition.

To the OP -- read up on the specific company she is applying to, and it should be pretty clear what kind of interactive marketing they are doing.
posted by malphigian at 9:09 AM on April 24, 2006

As opposed to what the term could mean or should mean, here's what it actually does mean the vast majority of the time: making and placing banner ads.
posted by jjg at 9:53 AM on April 24, 2006

check out advertising.com - they're AOL's interactive marketing arm.
posted by ab3 at 10:08 AM on April 24, 2006

Within the industry, it just means advertising on the internet. As pointed out previously, 95% of the time that means banner ads and the companies that create the tracking/serving systems, including Google adwords of course. The other 5% is anything else distributed on computers, like kiosks or CD promotions. And design shops that make flash ads will call that "interactive marketing" instead of "flash ads."

Of course, marketing firms being marketing firms, there are a million ways to sound vague and revolutionary about this very dull business.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 10:35 AM on April 24, 2006

It means you punch a monkey.
posted by kindall at 11:22 AM on April 24, 2006

I would consider this interactive marketing.
posted by bigmusic at 12:04 PM on April 24, 2006

I worked for a marketing company and we often did consumer events for the automotive companies. Potential customers were invited to come to a field, race track, or parking lot filled with tents and driving courses. They could then examine the vehicles, drive them, get something to eat, pick up some brochures and information, all of this without having to talk to a salesperson. Some of the larger ones had a complete campus with climbing walls, mountain biking, and other outdoorsy stuff. (Ford NBX, to name one) The account execs referred to these as interactive marketing in that it allowed automotive representatives to interact with their customer, without the traditional middleman role played by the auto dealerships.
posted by Roger Dodger at 1:58 PM on April 24, 2006

My title involves interactive marketing (in the music biz). I am responsible for all marketing (iTunes, contests, banners, reviews) on the internet as well as promotions with satellite radio and mobile service providers. Under me is someone responsible for keeping our online presence current (websites, rss, newsletters).

Hope this helps.
posted by softlord at 6:56 AM on April 26, 2006