Media Buyer For Hire

Advertisers Comment on Engagement
July 14, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso

We asked some iMedia Agency Summit attendees their thoughts on engagement-- the theme for the conference. Here's what they said.

Do you have a one-sentence definition of "engagement" that you can share?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:Engagement is the result of an experience shared between a marketer and their customers.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iEngagement is the consumer's active involvement with the campaign and brand so that the consumer is cognitively aware of the campaign and brand, and they develop a degree of affective (or emotional) attachment.
The most engaging campaigns are those that actually change consumer behavior-- such as getting the consumer to register or complete a purchase. A campaign can succeed with engagement with the affective and cognitive components, though impacting behavior is the ultimate goal.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: Yes. Engagement is not that difficult of a concept. Simply put-- it's grabbing your customers' attention and actually conveying your intended message.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Engagement is any form of interaction with a user/brand.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: Other than I believe the term to be too clichéd?! Engagement means that both parties get value… plain and simple.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:Noun-- a customer's (either existing or potential) intent to interact with your brand/product/service; influenced by previous experience, word of mouth or other media outlets allowing for one's expectations to be met or exceeded.

One of the great things about interactive marketing is how measurable it is… does that hold true of an idea like engagement?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:I think that engagement is one of the best possible concepts that we can and should measure. The important thing to remember is that numbers tell you what happened, not why it happened. We cannot rely solely on digits to tell us if someone is engaged-- this data must be combined with other qualitative research to understand reasons for engagement and the resulting impact on the brand. This combination of information will allow us to truly learn what drives effective engagement.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iYes, it's true, although you have to define what it is you're trying to measure. Say a campaign moves branding metrics through the roof. That could count as engagement for some marketers, but others might only care about engagement if it's in the context of increased sales or some other more tangible metric. Engagement can be measured, but there are several ways to measure it, and you need to establish that at the outset of the campaign-- not as an afterthought.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: Engagement definitely translates into ROI ultimately, but it is much more difficult to quantify with an Engagement "Quotient", or some similarly manufactured statistic.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: That's to be determined.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:Yes and no. While you can quantify a user's 'engagement' (time spent viewing an ad, return purchases), there does not appear to be one set level of metric that is ubiquitous across all media.
As engagement becomes the new reach, how does that affect how you measure ROI?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:In this manner, engagement almost becomes the equivalent of a qualified lead. ROI measurements are always dependent on a variety of factors. I believe that engagement metrics will fall into a similar "cost per __" ROI metric-- it's just that they will likely be worth spending more to achieve.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iIt depends on your goal. An e-tailer is going to have a pure economic ROI on their campaign while a packaged goods marketer may be looking at indirect ROI metrics such as lifts in brand awareness or some form of engagement metric.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: ROI will still be measured, but engagement becomes the new "Reach" for online.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Advertisers need to change their idea of top metrics; interaction rates are key for awareness-driven campaigns.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:It will most likely force establishing two levels of ROI: primary, based on true CPA/ROAs, et cetera; and secondary, based on factors such as return visits, posted comments/feedback and other levels of interaction.

Dawn Anfuso is Senior Editor, iMedia Connection.