Switch to engagement marketing will be tough

22 October 2009

I was intrigued to read about the change in Procter & Gamble’s digital strategy on the cover of new media age (17 September). As a move from the world’s largest advertiser, this is an important development in digital marketing and, as expected, it has received mixed reactions. What is engagement? How will it be measured? Will publishers make money from this model?

In 2007, Forrester proposed a definition of engagement which included four components: involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence. The first challenge for digital media owners is to offer the opportunity to generate all of these engagement factors and, second, to measure them so they have meaning for the client. At Blyk, we’ve always traded with brands on the basis of proven engagement and will continue to do so as we take on more partner operators around the world.

For me, the crux of the issue is this: based on P&G’s brief, media publishers will have to retrofit proof of engagement and its measurement into their existing properties. This will be a challenge. On a wider scale, as more brands follow P&G’s lead, I expect many marketing messages to be delivered within two-way conversations and traditional media spend will shift to reward based on customer understanding.

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