What is Engagement?

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), through their joint MI4 Committee, have established an industry-wide effort to develop Engagement metrics by which media may be bought and sold. The idea, driven by today’s focus on media ROI, is to finally get past the exposure metrics which have dominated media selection for as long as anyone can remember.

The MI4 Committee met on December 9, 2005 to allow individual researchers to present their ideas on the subject. The agenda to which we were to address ourselves included questions similar to these: “What is your definition of Engagement? What are your hypotheses? What other hypotheses are there? What are your findings? How have your findings been applied in media selection? What’s your future plan for Engagement R&D?”

Dictionaries define Engagement as meaning “the act of sharing”, “a mutual promise”, “contact by fitting together, meshing, interlocking, in gear” – among many other meanings. These are all intriguing, alluring concepts which tickle the mind, when applied to advertising. But there has been already much mind-tickling on the subject of Engagement, since the MI4 Committee came out from secret status some months ago. The word has already become overused. It’s time to get concrete. How are we going to define Engagement so that the work of measuring it can go forward?

Our December 9 presentation proposed that the operational definition of Engagement for advertising industry purposes ought to be: “A measure of concurrent response to advertising that can be proven to be predictive of sales effects.” This definition includes two measurable aspects: First, at the time of advertising exposure, there is a psychological response that can be measured. Second, that immediate response triggers a behavior change that can later be measured in terms of sales effects.

Why this definition and no other? Because Bob Barocci, President of ARF, told me that the whole point of MI4 is to “find a measure that can serve as a surrogate for ROI.” And Kate Sirkin, Global Research Director of Starcom and spearhead of MI4, said that her intention for Engagement is to “focus more on brand preference and product movement than on recall.” Therefore however we as an industry define Engagement, it has to predict sales effects. Yet by implication Engagement is something that happens at the moment the advertising is perceived, therefore there must also be an element that is measurable in that moment.

We welcome your reactions, pro and con, and your alternative views on this subject – thanks! Best to all for the New Year, Bill

To be continued. Stay tuned.

www.billharveyconsulting.com
www.nextcenturymedia.com
www.humaneffectivenessinstitute.org