Over the last few years, the global advertising industry has been working on a new way to measure the impact a marketing message has on individual consumers. “Engagement,” as its called, is an evolving concept–but it raises serious privacy and consumer protection concerns. Online advertisers are especially focused on the concept, as they sell access to users via online videos and other interactive services. In a recent issue of Marketing Week (UK), there was a useful definition of engagement via a letter to the editor. Since the mechanisms involving engagement–such as user tracking–need to be on the public interest radar screen, we thought it would be useful to cite the definition here [our italics]:
“The term engagement refers to the level of attention an ad draws from a user–weighting up how effectively it is in the real world. The measurement takes into account the overall interaction rate, which is a figure determined by the overall click-through rate, interaction with specific objects within the video and viral effects such as video sharing or emailing.”
From: “Interactive video ads increased engagement.” Letter by Irfon Watkins, Chief executive, Couli, Bristol. Marketing Week. July 10, 2008.
