“Will we see advertising, PR, direct mail and sales promotions firms disappear into one big category called ‘integrated marketing agencies’? Undoubtedly not. The trend is in the opposite direction. The trend is toward more specialized agencies. Furthermore, traditional agency services have continued to splinter off and become separate businesses, the latest being media buying.”

“Our advice: public relations first, advertising second. The issues involved in integrating these two functions are complex and we’re not sure that many clients truly understand the importance of managing the functions to take maximum advantage of what each function does best.”

“As time goes on, new functions will develop and increase in importance until they reach a point where they split off from the mainstream. Both inside and outside the corporation. Yet all the talk revolves around integration and convergence. “Although integration is often considered the Holy Grail of marketing today,” Advertising Age reported recently, “few have uncovered its secrets.” In the last 10 years, according to a word count conducted by the publication, “integrated marketing” was mentioned 960 times. It’s all talk and no action.

Furthermore, whenever the Holy Grail is dragged into a discussion you can be pretty sure that whatever they’re talking about will never happen.”

(Ad Age)