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European Journal of Marketing1 Abstract Purpose While Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a well-known concept in academia, there is insufficient theorisation on what it means 'to do' IMC in practice. Despite broad acceptance for IMC, there has been scant application of available organisational and sociological theories to illuminate actual IMC practices in the field. Drawing from the 'Practice Turn' in management studies, this paper elaborates on the concept of 'IMC practice' and provides an empirical exposition of how integration is enacted in the lifeworlds of marketing practitioners. Design/Methodology/ApproachThe paper introduces Practice Theory as a lens through which to study IMC practices. Using qualitative coding and interpretative analysis, the framework was operationalised in the context of a two-year organisational ethnography encompassing IMC planning and implementation activities at a leading Swedish retailer. Findings Findings demonstrate how practitioners develop explicit and implicit strategies to enact strategic integration.The study conceptualises IMC as set of interrelated practices, or routinised behaviours, which are repeated and organised by social/formal rules and conventions. In the ethnographic context of the study, 'IMC as practice' is exhibited in the forms of (1) routines, (2) material set-ups, (3) rules and procedures, (4) cultural templates, and (5) teleoaffective structures. Originality/valueThe paper proposes a novel set of theoretical and methodological tools that can be used to understand how IMC lives as a set of practices inside organisations. It specifically conceptualises the link between mental and objectified, materialised and routinised activities that has previously been escaping the sphere of theorisation. By creating language and tools to capture hitherto unmodellable phenomena, the paper opens many new avenues for future research.

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Media policy schemes around the world are seemingly shifting character. As budgets for direct subsidies are under increasing pressure, the role of indirect tools, such as tax reductions, are growing in relative importance. This article explores the political justifications of value-added tax (VAT) as a media policy tool, and how longitudinal shifts indicate broader changes in the media systems. Based on a document analysis of newspaper VAT development in three countries with similar historical policy models-Finland, Sweden and Norway-the article identifies and describes the dynamics between four major policy positions; transparency, pluralism, harmonisation and financial austerity.