Why media integration is of particular importance in branding campaigns

People have two ways of remembering something, they can learn it by rote or they can understand it. Once something is understood it is easily called to mind. You want your brand to be understood by your customers so that they can easily see where and how it fits in to their life.

Trade driving advertising is about causing a specific action where branding is about taking it closer to the more reflexive level. To do this the understanding must be complete and not broken up. Moving to this level involves reinforcement without conflict. If something about the brand message jars it is harder to understand and to fit smoothly in to your view of the world. If on the other hand you see it as part of the background, part of the natural way of things, then it is easier to call to mind.

Martial artists start by training to learn certain body movements on their own, but as soon as they can do them they work on fitting them in to series of movements. It is only when they can do them at any time whether they are expecting to or not that they have really understood the movement’s purpose. This contextualisation helps the unnatural movements to become natural and easy.

This is what we are working towards when we talk about media integration. It is not just integrating the media together, it is producing a seamless view of the brand that helps the customer integrate it into their world view and so aids memory.