Definition:
Blended marketing is an approach that coordinates traditional or offline marketing activities with digital channels so that they perform complementary functions within the same strategy.
The integration may connect out-of-home advertising, events, shops, direct mail or audiovisual media with websites, applications, search engines, email and social media. It is not simply a matter of using both types of channel, but of maintaining coherent objectives, messages and journeys and supporting movement from one touchpoint to another.
The approach can form part of the marketing mix of organisations of different sizes, but it does not guarantee a low budget or greater reach. Selection depends on the audience, context, coverage, operational capacity and the ability to measure results without assigning them arbitrarily to a single channel.
Phases of blended marketing
Planning a combined campaign can be organised into the following phases:
- Define objectives and the journey: Establish what the campaign should achieve and how offline and online contacts connect from discovery to action.
- Understand and segment the audience: Identify habits, locations, needs and barriers without assuming that everyone uses the same media.
- Select channels and functions: Decide what each medium contributes and avoid reproducing the same asset without adapting it to the context.
- Coordinate message and execution: Maintain a recognisable identity, compatible calls to action and a continuous experience across teams and suppliers.
- Measure and review: Define indicators, codes, URLs, promotions and test designs that connect responses with different touchpoints within a digital marketing strategy.
Measurement may combine digital platform data with sales, shop visits, promotional codes, surveys and experiments. Multichannel conversions cannot always be attributed precisely to a single exposure.
Examples of blended marketing
The following historical cases show ways of connecting physical experiences with digital participation. Their particular applications, networks and mechanics may have changed:
- Samplia: Connected sampling machines in shopping centres with registration and identification through a mobile application.
- Special K: Its Tweet Shop campaign offered a sample in exchange for a post on Twitter, now X, connecting a physical space with a social action.
- KLM: Used information shared publicly by certain passengers on social media to deliver personalised gifts at the airport. The case illustrates the connection between physical service and digital channels, but a current activity would need to assess privacy expectations and data use.
- Destinia and La Rioja Tourism: Installed displays with scents in the Madrid Metro and connected the experience with a digital activity and hashtag-based prize draw.
- Walkers Crisps: Combined a vending machine installed in London, an appearance by former footballer Gary Lineker and messages posted on Twitter to distribute samples.
A blended case does not need to use social media or an application. A code in printed material, a digital booking that continues in a shop or a physical event connected with online content can also form part of a coordinated cross-media marketing strategy.