Marketers aim for ‘engaged' consumers

MARKETERS AIM FOR 'ENGAGED' CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Theresa Howard]
The spread of broadband Internet access and resulting growth in Web advertising in the past year have made the pursuit of interactive consumer “engagement,” rather than the number of viewers seeing a TV ad, the new hot button for agencies and clients. The resulting surge in online activity, alone or as part of multimedia campaigns, has driven a nearly 32% increase to 2,502 entries for the Web ad competition -- called the Cyber Lions -- at this week's 53rd Annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Grand Prix and gold, silver and bronze Lions recognize the world's best advertising in nine categories. Much of the ad industry has been converted to the belief that engagement -- adspeak for getting consumers to spend time with brand messages -- is what gets results from advertising. One way to do that is to send the consumer -- often with a traditional TV ad -- to a website to interact with or sometimes create the ad. Such interaction can extend a consumer's time spent with a brand to minutes or longer vs. 30 seconds for TV ads.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060620/cannesengagement.art.htm