Back in 2008, Microsoft announced that engagement is more important than clicks. It forgot to explain why this was or indeed how to measure it. Fast forward to June 2011 and the IPA launches a new white paper under the headline: “Metrics not doing justice to participation-led campaigns.”
It seems that not much has moved on. The IPA announcement continues, “we suspect these campaigns are a curious, and newly emerging, hybrid between two potential communications disciplines: advertising and direct marketing”.
It is an insightful if unhelpful analysis of the contradictions in our industry – energised by the opportunity, paralysed by the inability. It seems evident that engagement has changed in two crucial dimensions: for marketing and how it engages customers; and for consumers and how they engage with brands, society, each other.
So, how can we get a better grasp of this dichotomy? How can we begin to map and understand the currencies of engagement?
Mapping engagement is nothing new. Forrester Research has formulae for showing decision trees through involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence. Others show paths from awareness to consideration, preference, trial and purchase linked by values of finding/’lurking’/participating/engaging and finally purchasing or referring.
The basic problem for marketers is that consumption of content – the kind that drives intent – is hugely fragmented across both channel and motive. It means marketing propositions have to weave a more complicated web between the emotional pull of advertising and the rational pull of direct response.
So this means thinking beyond the currencies we are used to such as incentives, rewards, information, access or convenience. We need to think about the way in which people consume our messages and how they relate to them.
Modern society has had a dramatic impact on how we perceive our own place in it as consumers. It has undermined our sense of place. We are literally displaced from our roots and this undermines our sense of time: things are more fluid, dynamic, instant and disposable. It means we have new currencies of engagement: time, relevance, experience and meaning.
The application of these four currencies is crucial. While all brands in my experience touch each of them to some degree, the level of priority for each currency differs. Understanding the value and use of these currencies is the key to not only driving engagement, but measuring it.
Neil Fox is partner: strategy at TDA
