Are You Engaging?
Understanding the Consumer's Relationship to Advertising
By Sandra Pearce, MPA Media Marketing Coordinator
The age of consumers welcoming our advertising into their lives has passed. They're now inundated with more messages through more media platforms than ever before. They can turn the page, change the channel, block the pop-ups and tune us out. We can't just expect to get their attention by putting words on a page or our logo in a banner ad anymore. We have to engage them. It's not simple, but it's more relevant than ever before. The good news is that by increasing consumers' connections to our advertising we can positively affect our bottom line. That makes it worth the effort.
As marketers we tend to focus on measurement, return on investment, quality of leads, etc. But let's look at the facts. Some ads just work better than others. The only thing that is consistently unique is that those ads do a better job of engaging their intended audience. And engagement affects purchasing intent.
So let's look at what engagement is. Is it what the customer sees or feels? Can it be quantified in degrees of interest and if so, how do you measure it? Can we create connection, stickiness, wanted-ness and relationships with it? Unfortunately, there aren't any one-size-fits all answers or definitions. It's more about finding a fit between our advertising message, our consumers and the media environments we use more than anything else.
How many times have you seen an ad that you just loved only to recall it later and have no idea what was being advertised? This is an example of great engagement but a bad ad. I'm sure a designer had a great time creating it, but what did it do for the bottom line? How about an ad that really didn't grab your attention but you had time on your hands and just happened to take a second look and found it had a great offer for something you wanted or needed? That's also an example of ineffective ad because very few people will even bother to read it. Now, what if your ad has both of these elements? That's engagement.
People buy on emotion, whether it is trust, greed, obligation, desire or any number of others. That's why it's critical that we focus on the needs and desires of our prospective clients, not on our own preconceived ideas and personal vesting in the greatness of our creativity and concepts. I've been guilty of that a few times in my career. I'm not saying that having a passion about what we do isn't a good thing. What I'm saying is that what drives us isn't necessarily what drives our customers.
If I have a need for a product, chances are I already have a brand preference based on personal experience, a recommendation or exposure to a product in the form of advertising or an editorial. I'm probably already leaning toward one brand or another on an emotional level whether I admit it or not. Personally, I like to tell myself I'm being "logical" and that I am "well informed". The truth is that at some point, I've been engaged.
When I began my research for this article, I was hoping to find a few simple answers that could be clearly communicated. But all I found was one: There are no simple answers. That's why advertising agencies employ more analysts than designers. It's also why market researchers have now resorted to using high tech physiological testing to gauge the effectiveness of advertising. The theory is that if a consumer is affected by an ad, it can be measured by monitoring their physical reactions. So they're hooking people up to machines, showing them advertisements and then measuring their pulse, heart rate, skin condition, brain waves and even their sweat.
So unless you're ready to strap a focus group to machines and measure how much they sweat as they read your ads, its back to the basics of marketing. Know your audience, reach them in contextual platforms, speak to them in a language they understand and engage them. The bottom line from a potential customers' perspective is simple; "Engage me so you have the opportunity to persuade me. Affect me on an emotional level so you can sell to me." We have to reach them often with engaging advertising to insure that when they decide to buy, that we get the sale.
So, are your ads engaging?
| 
