Ogilvy says: From Interruption to Engagement

All Companies must learn to move from interruption to inviting participation. For all marketing initiatives, this no longer means communicating by interruption, but by engagement

Is what was written in CDB, waaaaaaay back in 2005 and in fact it was something I spoke a great deal about in 2002.

What we got back from the media, clients, - well you name them, was something along the lines of a nervous twitch or a blank stare - or some clever dickie leaning over the table and telling me his compliment was a "double-edged" sword because I was a pioneer and they tended to get shot.

Sorry CS - I am still alive and kicking :-))

So - it was interesting to read all about Engagement Marketing in the Irish Times this week.

Ogilvy it seems have become Messianic to the SMLXL philosophy

To influence the engaged consumers of the digital democracy, push marketing needs to be replaced by engagement marketing

Said Patou Nuytemans - who I do know. So nice one Patou - thanks for spreading the word.

An aside I would like to make is that, the emphasis on pure digital is a little cul-de-sac of straight line logic (Not Patou's fault - I can assure you) because we live not separate from offline and online - we live in a world of blended reality.

A point of view expounded by William Gibson

And it was Henry Jenkins who said that we live in a participatory culture

And Glen Urban who talked about trust based marketing strategies as an imperative in a world of information empowerment.

What this means is that we cannot define engagement purely in terms of a digital reality. Digital provides connectivity, but we still enjoy communing together. And much more besides.

As I said in my interview with Henry Jenkins

Engagement Marketing is a very broad term, and purposefully so. At its heart, is the insight that human beings are highly social animals, and have an innate need to communicate and interact. Therefore, any engagement marketing initiative must allow for two-way flows of information and communication. We believe, people embrace what they create. And why is this important? Because in advanced economies the values of society and the individual change. At the heart of this is the key issue around identity and belonging. We have always had community.

Pre- industrialization, we were tied to our communities by geography, tradition, the state and birthright. External forces shaped our identity. However, in a post-modern world we can have many selves, as we undertake a quest for self identity. This is described as Psychological Self-Determination the ability to exert control over the most important aspects of ones life, especially personal identity, which has become the source of meaning and purpose in a life no longer dictated by geography or tradition.

The Community Generation, shun traditional organizations in favor of unmediated relationship to the things they care about. The Community Generation, seek and expect direct participation and influence. They possess the skills to lead, confer and discuss. These people are not watching television and have grown up in a world of search and two-way flows of communication.

Going further Engagement Marketing is premised upon: transparency - interactivity - immediacy - facilitation - engagement - co-creation - collaboration - experience and trust these words define the migration form mass media to social media. The explosion of: Myspace, YouTube, Second Life and other MMORPG's, Citizen Journalism, Wicki's and Swicki's, TV formats like Pop Idol, or Jamies School Dinners, Blogs, social search, The Guinness Visitor Centre in Dublin or the Eden project in Cornwall UK, mobile games like Superstable or Twins, or, new business platforms like Spreadshirt.com all demonstrate a new socio-economic model, where engagement sits at the epicentre

If agencies persist and clients insist on a siloed approach to communications then they will not achieve the full potential that engagement offers, neither in terms of the end-user experience nor in terms of generating revenue.

Now I know that certain activities can be exclusively digital, but when SMLXL defined Engagement, as a philosophy and process, we never did so looking at digital as an singular exclusive media in which this philosophy could be played out. No we took the Bill Bailey approach: You start with a laugh and work backwards. Engagement must be solely premised upon the end-user experience. Not on the media.

But because of the the way media is sliced and diced, because of the way agencies are structured, because of the way media is bought, sold and measured - it is very, very hard to take a truly holistic view - which in fact is what is required. So its idea + comms + measurement + budget = a hybrid team task, not, siloed orientated.

The theory of the 4C's: Commerce, Culture, Community and Connectivity is well explained on this site as are the principles that then underpin that theory and practice, mentioned above.

Networks, argues Manuel Castells, whether they be; Economic, Cultural or Media, like nature, have become the nervous systems of society.

This implies that our world of business, media, and communications is evolving from the straight-lines of an industrial era to the more complex and networked world that mimics nature. This interactive networked world isn't about vertical silos, traditional notions of product and service creation, mass-production and mass media and marketing. It is about the massive flows of people, who are connecting, collaborating, organising and creating in a manner that has nothing to do with a linear approach too much at all. This is truly an engaged and participatory culture.

As Robert Penn Warren wrote in All the Kings Men

You look up the highway and it is straight for miles. Coming at you, with the black line down the centre coming at you, black and slick and tarry-shining against the white of the slab, and the heat dazzles up from the white slab so that only the black line is clear, coming at you with the whine of tires, and if you don’t quit staring at that line and don’t take a few deep breaths and slap yourself hard on the back of the neck you’ll hypnotize yourself and you’ll come to just at the moment when the right wheel hooks over the black dirt shoulder off the slab.

So claiming Engagement only for digital makes no sense - there is still much for organisations to learn.

Comments

[david cushman]

Nice one Al. Engagement is for human beings. Digital just happens to be a great way for those humans to form into adhoc communities of purpose. Digital IS often where the conversation starts - but not where it finishes. Give me a shout? dc

[Tim]

Hi Alan, Did you capture the article from the Irish Times? It would have been good to read it in its entirety but the IT has that old school approach to information dissemination and wants subscription [what a put off!!] Tim

[Alan Moore]

Dear Tim,

Sadly I only have a paper copy. But the focus was purely on digital. I could try and scan it for you and break the law!? :-)

Thanks for posting

Alan

[Tom Chandler/Engagement Principles]

Who pays attention to intellectual property any more (one of the downsides of digital and Web 2.0)?