The phrase “online integration” has been bandied about for years, but it appears that few companies really understand and implement it successfully. In fact, many don’t have a clear definition of what integration actually entails.

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Most marketers have tweaked their way to very slight increases online because they are trying to maximize only one pipeline. But you can only do so much with one pipeline. How many times can you tweak the banner, change fonts, change the header image or redesign a site to minimal success?

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A cable industry group’s decision yesterday to withdraw from further trials of eBay Inc.’s online TV-ad buying system could seriously set back plans to create an alternative advertising marketplace. The Cable television Advertising Bureau, a trade group that represents most major cable networks, said it wouldn’t participate in further testing of the Online Media Exchange system…

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Some direct marketers spend thousands of dollars creating and placing space advertisements only to find their money ill spent. Can space ads be a successful part of your marketing mix? Possibly, but only if you avoid the pratfalls of failed efforts. This medium is worth testing, but how can you learn their secrets and execute successful space campaigns year after year? By breaking down the anatomy of the space ad and building a smart campaign inside and out.

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WITH A REDUCED advertising budget and a desperate need to increase sales, Chrysler is relying more heavily on new technologies to predict how ad purchases will translate into sales. A team of statisticians, economists, software engineers and media planners at Chrysler’s digital marketing agency, Organic, has designed a “media modeling” system that helps the company calculate the best ways to allocate its marketing dollars.

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No matter who you’re marketing to, you’re more than likely to reach a pet owner, After all, 63 percent of u.s. households – more than 71 million homes-have one or more pets, according to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, conducted by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. But while the pet owner market might encompass more than half the country, not all pet owners are created equal.

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A Magazine Publishers of America study reconfirms prior studies that show including URLs in magazine ads drives readers to advertiser Websites. The biggest lifts came in the women’s services, home and travel categories, where ads featuring Web addresses were 98 percent, 103 percent and 186 percent, respectively, more likely to boost Website visits.

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FOR DECADES, advertising has been a relatively simple process dominated by a clubby world. Long-established advertising and media-buying agencies, most owned by half a dozen global giants, make TV or print ads and negotiate for airtime or space with TV networks or publications, most owned by a handful of other big media companies. But as a series of recent high-profile deals makes clear, the emerging importance of digital advertising is making for a shifting and more complicated advertising terrain.

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What makes direct response advertising different from general advertising? One word sums it up: response. No matter what type of direct marketing media you use to target your customers and prospects, your primary objective is to generate response – immediate or delayed, in the mail or online. And it’s your call to action working hand-in-hand with your offer that generates this measurable response. That’s why your call to action should never be…

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Anyone familiar with database marketing is aware of the cultural divide between creative types and data types. It’s as if the two groups speak a different language. While maximum response and ROI are shared goals, how the two groups go about understanding the audience to craft campaigns that achieve these goals often is completely different.

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