Interconnected: The headmistress, the centralist and the enabler

People, attitude and team culture are more important than systems or structure to ensure seamlessly integrated marketing communication, most brand-owners agree. An equally important aspect of the integrated mindset is a client's ability to balance the inevitable need to be prescriptive with the competitive tension that needs to exist between its agencies to foster the best ideas. Constant monitoring of whichever approach is taken, both within the client's own organisation and among the team of agencies with which it chooses to work, as well as continual evolution to further improve it, are also critical. All of which, it seems, makes the real difference between integrated marketing that is good and that which is truly great. Key to creating the right environment for effective integrated thinking is coherent briefing of all team members and efficient sharing of all the latest information to keep all agencies informed, says Sanjay Patel, marketing strategy and planning director at Heineken UK.