GLENSIDE, PA - MARCH 08: President Barack Oba...Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I apologize for the irregular postings lately. I will hopefully get into some type of weekly schedule by fall.

Brand teams and brand managers are interested in how much people are engaging with their brand today. Getting people to engage with the brand makes sense intuitively in a world where just about every consumer (myself included) has some dark, nefarious form of 21st century Attention Deficit Disorder.

The problem for the business manager is…how can he/she show that great engagement ultimately translates into top line, bottom line, market share growth or social impact?   Engagement metrics are great (or maybe not so great) but life can get frustrating if engagement metrics are “off the charts” (or at least better than competition) and yet business is in the dumps…

Activity Drives Identity

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the power of online & offline engagement. If you can get people to pay attention, then things should go well at some point down the road for the business.  Acting can involve the following (txs for the list Bob):

• Reading text (consciously)
• Watching video (consciously)
• Playing games
• Forwarding/sharing/voting/”liking”
• Commenting
• Creating text/graphics/audio/video
• Attending (or participating) in an event
• Signing a petition or donating online

So how deeply do we believe (as marketers) that activity ultimately drives identity? Or is it the other way around.  Is it symbiotic? In any case, when people identify with our brands judgmentally they will be more loyal.

Red Bull does “activity” pretty well…they practically own the Xtreme sport territory today. Obama and his staff probably understand the power of activity better than anyone else. I’m continually impressed with how well the Organizing for America online team keeps pushing their community to do something (sign a digital petition, donate, etc.) for Obama’s latest initiatives–health care reform, finance reform, etc.

Transformational activity

Xtreme sports are fine (well, maybe a bit scary for some) but why not consider transforming things along the way? Pepsi is starting to do this with its Refresh campaign.  Sure, Pepsi is just sugar water, but the Brand guys there are driving positive, transformative activity that will engender loyalty and (some day) hopefully lead to top-line/bottom line growth. Side Note: I’m hoping Pepsi will start getting a little more exposure from the mainstream media with their ambitious campaign. Though I like Apple products, I’m getting a little tired of watching CNN interview Apple fans zombies who queue for days to buy faulty phones.

The case for driving “good” engagement internally and externally is here. According to CSR Magazine, being good pays out. The best corporate citizens list, which includes General Mills and I.B.M. (among others) had a total return on shareholder value of 2.37 percent over three years, while the 30 worst companies had a negative 7.38 percent return”.

Faith Based

Engagement is a bit nebulous.  Measuring engagement is a little tricky and tying it back to top/bottom line results even harder.  But everyone seems to believe in it, so lets not waste any opportunities to do good while we are driving it to another level.

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