IDM launches UK’s first Integrated Marketing Communications Diploma
Released 11 May 2007: "Every marketer, every agency now faces the 'integration challenge'. They must learn a new approach." Professor Don Schultz.
Marketers admit that understanding how Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) works is their number one worry. Now, for the first time in the UK, there is a solution – the Institute of Direct Marketing’s brand new qualification, the IDM Diploma in Integrated Marketing Communications.
In a recent survey, top marketers in the US named IMC as their biggest issue, ahead of accountability, innovation and building strong brands¹. In the UK, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has said: “Over 80% of both clients and agencies agree they need more learning in the area.”1
The IDM Diploma in IMC has been developed to fill this significant gap in the UK marketplace. It is the first and only professional qualification designed specifically for today’s customer driven, interactive economy.
Don Schultz, Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in Chicago and the globally-acknowledged founding father of IMC, endorses the new IDM Diploma:
"The customer can now seek out a myriad of products, services and suppliers via a multitude of communication channels. As a result, every marketer, every agency now faces the ‘integration challenge’. They must learn a new approach that aligns, combines and integrates every form of communication."
IDM Managing Director, Derek Holder comments:
"To win in today’s market requires a new approach to marketing. All communications and processes must be designed from the customer’s viewpoint and interwoven to form a coherent whole. For many marketers, this means developing a new mindset and a new set of skills."
Media fragmentation, global connectivity, and the shift in power from business to consumer make learning about IMC vital for businesses. Old style mass marketing has given way to targeted, one-to-one communications, and marketers must balance ‘push’ and ‘pull’ to create marketing messages that consumers accept or even actively welcome. To do that successfully, all parts of an organisation must pool their knowledge about customers and use that combined knowledge to drive their communications strategy.
The new IMC Diploma course has been carefully developed by the IDM with the help of Professor Angus Jenkinson of the UK’s first and only Centre for Integrated Marketing. Significantly, over 70% of the course material is completely new and original and will not be found on the syllabus of any other marketing qualification in the UK.
The IDM has also recruited 20 eminent marketers from major customer-focused organisations to form the IMC Council of Management, which will provide guidance on content and ensure the course remains relevant in the future.
The prospectus for the new IDM Diploma in Integrated Marketing Communications is available now and can be obtained by emailing quals@theidm.com. For more information on the Diploma, including the full syllabus, visit www.marketingquals.com/imc.
¹Source: The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey. ANA press release, March 26 2007. ANA is the US equivalent of the UK’s Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA).
²Source: IPA Communications Strategy Best Practice Guide.
Notes to Editors
For more information contact Juliet Hilditch at juliethilditch@theidm.com.
