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Dispatch from the ARF Engagement Metrics Panel

Yesterday morning, the Advertising Research Foundation ReThink! conference explored in depth the idea of “engagement” as a consumer-centric metric to supplement if not replace the traditional media-centric metrics of impressions, GRPs and reach/frequency.

I’m biased of course, but I see the analysis of consumer-generated media playing an important role as marketers move toward the future of engagement as a central principle.

Joe Plummer, the ARF's Chief Research Officer, kicked off the morning summarizing the work of the committee and presenting this definition of engagement:

Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhance by the surrounding context.

He went on to define "turning on" as "activating associations and metaphors so the prospect co-creates brand meaning."

So here's the central paradox of the idea of engagement as a metric: it is fundamentally a “soft” concept in a world demanding more and more hard metrics


Jean-Louis Laborie, Global Research & Development Director for Integration Marketing & Communications, demonstrated some progress toward resolving this paradox. He granted the point that engagement is attitudinal, and as such, can only be a relative measure, e.g., this consumer is more engaged than the other consumer. An objective scale of engagement is probably impossible. He showed indices his company is developing for consumer engagement with media and brands.

Why CGM has a role: CGM is a qualitative data source in high volume. Applying the right analytic tools and techniques can identify brand associations with quantitative rigor.

Other notable comments from the session:

Ted McConnell, Manager of Interactive Marketing Innovation, P&G, quoted this excerpt from the World Federation of Advertisers’ Blueprint for Consumer-Centric Holistic Measurement:

We know our consumers beyond demographics and get info about them in a very timely manner. We truly understand their multi-media behavior and respect their privacy.

Ted also had one of the most quotable quotes of the day: “We should measure share of choice, not share of voice.” He didn't elaborate on what he meant, but I interpret it to mean simply counting the number of impressions we deliver in an ad campaign is inadequate; we need to shift the perspective to the consumer reaction or behavior that is the result of those impressions.

Why CGM has a role: CGM is both timely and revealing of consumer attitudes and habits: it is available continuously in real-time, and this spontaneous voice of the consumer provides insight into consumer feelings. And because Cymfony analyzes both CGM and mainstream media, we can track how mainstream media is impacting these feelings.


Greg Smith, EVP Media Insights, Planning & Analysis, Carat Fusion, had one of the other most quotable quotes: “Today’s media choices allow us to paint our brand story in color; current metrics only measure black and white in b/w.”


Why CGM has a role: Greg is agreeing with the WFA vision of understanding more about consumers than dry facts. In CGM, consumers share their motivations, needs, wishes and other  colorful details. Extracting the essence of these emotional characteristics from CGM and overlaying it on the demographics statistics will put flesh and bones on our statistics.

Posted by Jim Nail on March 22, 2006 at 08:32 AM | Email this post Permalink

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