Media engagement

Samantha Kelley
Stratège Média, Touché!phd

In the world we evolve in, communication channels are growing exponentially. Furthermore, both old and new channels are more and more targeted (resulting in higher media costs) this also means the consumers attention is diluted among all of these channels.

Given we all have limited media bugets, it is impossible to advertise in all these new channels in order to keep the same level of consumer attention. This leaves us with a tricky problem, how to keep the consumers interested in our products/services?

I believe the answer is by creating brand demand vs brand awareness. Unfortunately, the traditional model of targeting the mass by interrupt and repeat (also known as reach and frequency) is not enough to create brand demand. We need to look towards a model that includes a combination of targeting and engagement.

This is where the ‘media involvement’ factor comes into play (AKA media intensity). This is also when our channel strategist (previously known as media planner) role takes much more importance.

The ANA, AAAA and ARF came together to define engagement: Turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.

For a more complete explanation: http://www.thearf.org/research/engagement.html

For us media people, the key emphasis in this last sentence is ‘enhanced by the surrounding context’. This means that the medium is the message! The environment in which the message is vehicled must enhance the meaning of the message, therefore creating the media engagement.

We should consider consumer mind set and relevance of the media environment when planning and choosing media for our clients.

Do you agree with this theory? How do you apply this theory when planning media? How do you think we can change our work habits in order to consider engagement?