Joe Plummer Opening of Consumer Engagement Conference

These are on-the-fly summary notes Consumer Engagement conference; Dr. Joe Plummer, Chief Research Officer of the Advertising Research Foundation:

My correlary to Murphy’s Law was that Murphy was an optimist. Let’s give a little framework on engagement before featuring Gerald Zaltman. One way to frame it is to contrast it to success that economists call the mass-media age, and where’s it going in the participant age? It’s a radical change.

Mass media --> Participant age

Ad Goal: Create brand awareness --> Create brand demand

Mental Model: Interrupt and repeat --> Co-creation and coownershop

Operating Construct: Reach --> Engagement

We’ve always asked what ads do to consumers, but now we must ask what do people do to advertising? We need to move beyond opportunity to se of hear the message to opportunity to engage in the brand idea. We must understand and measure the prospects. The true integrator is your customer. Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.

• Turned On – Activating associations, symbols, metaphors and experience to co-create personalized experiences.
• Old advertising process:
• Think à Feel à Do…but it’s wrong…we don’t work that way as people.
• Feel à Do à Think or Feel à Think à Do…is right!
• Storytelling is more powerful than argumentation. But there’s a gap between common wisdom and common practice.
• Spontaneous and reflective measures – both are needed.
• We must shift our thinking from push by medium to a balance of push and pull across media.
• Advertising should be focused on prime prospects, not just large audiences.
• New engagement model:
• Engagement + Trust x Targeted contacts + Brand Impact