Strategic and Tactical Integration Between Print and Web Advertising in the United States and Australia

Abstract

Integrating communication strategy between new and traditional media appears necessary for advertisers to achieve maximum communication impact. This study compares the extent to which advertisers in the United States and Australia integrate messages in print ads and websites. Australian advertisers utilized the power of the internet better than US advertisers, and appeared to “do more” in that Australian advertisers' websites exhibit higher-level advertising objectives than their print ads. Overall, fewer than 20% of print ads and websites are strategically well integrated in both countries. Integration tends to be more tactical than strategic as both US and Australian advertisers integrated an average of four out of eight tactical elements between the print ads and the websites. The authors discuss implications of these findings for both countries.