Making integration meaningful again: A planner’s perspective
Opinion
When integration moves from a buzzword to a lived experience, it makes the work more exciting, more rewarding, and ultimately, more impactful. Caroline Manning shares the secrets of integrated success.
We in the advertising and media industry are brilliant at buzzword soup. We stir it, we serve it. We’ve all been in that meeting where someone suggests “taking it offline,” and a quiet collective thought ripples through the room: aren’t we already offline?
A buzzword, as I see it, is a word we use with such frequency that its meaning becomes diluted, a chameleon changing its hue slightly for everyone who utters it. It’s a concept we all nod along to, but when pressed, our individual interpretations might diverge wildly.
So, hurtling towards the end of the first quarter of 2026, what has been the undeniable buzzword of my year so far? Integration.
But this time, it feels different. This time, it feels meaningful. And I wanted to take a moment to share why, for me, integration has transcended mere industry jargon and become a truly powerful force.
Positive integration
This quarter has been one of positive integration, both personally and professionally. Through some incredible new integrated client wins, I’m working as part of a much larger, broader Omnicom ecosystem – part of a collective, a network, a community and a group. These teams span media, creative, production, commerce, strategy, and so much more.
Being part of an authentically integrated team is nothing short of incredible. Just yesterday, I was walking past a room, minding my own business, when a creative colleague stopped me in my tracks. “I’ve had an idea,” they said, their eyes alight with that particular spark we all recognise. Next thing I knew, I’d sat down, and within minutes, we were turning that nascent thought into something brilliant – an idea that could live across everything: creative, media, and even culture itself.
It was one of those ideas that we planners get out of bed for, those ‘jump up with excitement’ and tell your mum to watch ITV at 9:17 pm types. Within ten minutes, more people had joined our impromptu huddle, bringing their unique perspectives.
We were using expansive datasets to check (and validate) our assumptions, poking holes and building it up simultaneously. Within 24 hours, we had turned this raw energy into a kick-ass collection of slides, ready to sell the idea in.
This is how the magic happens. It’s not in the quarterly, all-agency meetings where everyone is posturing to be the ‘lead agency’ (whatever that even means anymore). Instead, it’s in the walking past, the sharing a coffee, the “I had a thought” or the “do you have a minute?”
It happens when you bring an expansive collective of people together – a diverse crew all with different skills, experiences, and perspectives – and point everyone at the same, singular goal.
It happens when we all know our strengths and responsibilities, but there’s no ego involved. Just genuine collaboration: “I love it, and we totally could blow it up by…” or even the equally valuable, “I totally hate it because…”
It’s knowing that the idea can start anywhere – in commerce, B2B comms, sponsorships, media and creative together. It works because we all know that we are building something truly impactful together, and honestly, I never knew it could be so good.
But what if you’re not part of an explicitly integrated team? How do you foster this kind of magic? It requires a proactive shift in mindset, breaking down silos and embracing a more holistic view.
Be a bridge-builder
Don’t wait for integration to be mandated. Actively seek out conversations with colleagues in other disciplines. Understand their challenges, their objectives, and their language. We all need to become cross-functional advisors, sharing our expertise and absorbing theirs.
Focus on the north star
When everyone is genuinely focused on solving a client’s business problem or delivering a meaningful experience for the consumer, departmental lines blur. The common goal becomes more important than individual agency mandates.
Embrace curiosity and empathy
These are essential traits for effective collaboration. Be curious about how a creative team develops ideas, how a production team brings them to life, or how a commerce specialist drives conversion. Empathise with their constraints and priorities. This understanding naturally leads to more collaborative and effective solutions.
Champion the Idea, not the origin
True integration means celebrating the best idea, regardless of where it originated. It means being open to a media insight sparking a creative concept, or a creative brief inspiring a new media channel strategy. This requires letting go of proprietary ownership and embracing collective success.
Create informal touchpoints
Replicate those hallway conversations. Schedule “coffee chats” with people outside your immediate team. Share interesting articles or insights that might be relevant to other departments or even those not relevant to the work (a creative strategist recently sent me an email to alert me to the presence of toy dinosaurs that flash in the bath, for example). These small, consistent efforts build trust and rapport, which are the bedrock of genuine integration.
In a fragmented age, where media channels proliferate and consumer attention scatters, making our communications coherent and impactful demands seamless collaboration. It’s about moving beyond simply coordinating efforts to truly co-creating them.
This isn’t about efficiency; it’s about effectiveness. It’s about unlocking the exponential power of diverse minds converging on a single challenge. When integration moves from a buzzword to a lived experience, it doesn’t just make our work better; it makes it more exciting, more rewarding, and ultimately, more impactful. It’s the difference between a symphony of individual instruments and a truly harmonious orchestra. And that is music to my ears.
Caroline Manning is chief design officer at Initiative and writes monthly for The Media Leader.