The engagement steering committee (aka MI4) comprised of the ANA, AAAA, ARF and several of our constituents, developed a deceptively simple definition after several months of discussions with those in the industry working on engagement. Why is this work important? Well as one of our task force members said: in the future advertising will be something that consumers do rather than something they only see. Thus, a definition was our first step on our mission to find a metric relevant for consumer media consumption in the 21st century.
Our simple but elegant (and still complex) definition: "engagement is turning on a prospect (current or potential user) to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context."
At the heart of this is the brand idea – it has to be grounded in solid consumer insight. Then one progresses to engaging the consumer with that brand idea via the surrounding context. And the last component is that this engagement results in action – either a change in behavior (purchase intent) or attitude. The reason each component is so important is that a lousy brand idea won’t be enhanced by terrific context and conversely a good idea can be pulled down by the wrong surrounding context. To learn more about engagement and the work going on in this space, join us on September 28 – 29 at the AAAA/ARF Engagement Symposium. On September 28, I will be leading an afternoon panel that you won’t want to miss about how one teases out from all of this a comparable, meaningful engagement metric. It is not easy, it will probably be an agonizing process, but it should result in a more accountable way to evaluate media choices.
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