THE EPHRON LETTER JANUARY 2006 1

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM

WANT ENGAGEMENT?
Make a More Engaging Ad
___________________
Its sloppy to talk about using
engagement in planning without
being specific. Media engagement
and advertising engagement are
very different things.
Advertising engagement is the goal,
but it is not very useful for media
planning. It erases the line between
what the medium does and what
the ad does, which is basic to any
good measure of media value. A
point we will return to shortly.
Media engagement is far less important, so it is even less useful.
Media are often engaging, but it stops there. They dont usually
pass that engagement through to the ads they carry.
Some recent evidence is in a landmark print study from FCB,
Meredith Corporation and Knowledge Networks. It found that self-
defined reader engagement with a magazine explained very little of
the variation in response to the advertising. Much more was
explained by the message.

THE EPHRON LETTER JANUARY 2006 2

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
THE DOOR MEN OF ENGAGEMENT
Media seem to work as the door men
of advertising engagement. They
control whether the audience gets to
see and respond to the advertising. So
the key to selecting media for
advertising engagement is to
understand how they exercise that
control.
Unfortunately thats not what the industry seems to be doing.
Instead measures of advertising engagement are being pushed as a
way to improve the ratings.
OPPORTUNITY TO SEE
Our ratings count people who have the opportunity to see ads in
the media we buy. This is not the same as people seeing
advertising. Especially now that clutter and the remote encourage
inattention and commercial avoidance.
Advertising engagement would jump us over this gap in the
ratings by counting only people who are, for some rational or
emotional reason, pulled into or involved with the advertising.
The ARF calls engagement A Search for 21st Century GRPs. The
choice of words is surprising. Historically media are measured by
audience delivery. Advertising is measured by response.
Engagement-based ratings would measure media by response.
THE EPHRON LETTER JANUARY 2006 3

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
THE ARF MEDIA MODEL
Weve bumped into this problem before. In 2002, the Advertising
Research Foundation published Making Better Media Decisions.
This was its second attempt at telling advertisers how to measure
media.
The ARF chose advertising
exposure as the standard
because it is the highest-level
media measure (there are eight)
which is not confused by
creative effects.
The principle is media
shouldnt be credited or
punished for response to the
advertising they carry, since it
is beyond their control.
This is the position taken by nearly all media. Why should they be
paid less because the product is poor or the ads are weak? They
have a point.
ENGAGED OR ENGAGE-ABLE?
To sensibly include engagement in planning we have to combine
media research, which measures the size and nature of the
audience, with creative research which measures response to
specific brand advertising.
THE EPHRON LETTER JANUARY 2006 4

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
Advertising engagement measures are ongoing, using a wide
assortment of copy-testing techniques. They can tell us how likely it
is that a given ad will engage a prospect.
Measures of medias contribution to advertising engagement are
almost non-existent. They would tell us which programs, channels,
time periods or media are more likely to deliver engaged, or more
to the point, engage-able, consumers to the advertising.
The media variables that appear to
help open the door to advertising
engagement are: The suitability of
the message to the mediums
audience (user targeting). The
message delivery package,
(including clutter). The exposure
situation (where, when and other
activities/ distractions). And the
size of the unit.
The first measure relates to relevance, the last three to
attentiveness.
GATHERER AND GATEKEEPER
To sum up. Media is first an audience gatherer then an ad
engagement gatekeeper. It can assist engagement by attracting an
audience suited to the message and by keeping that audience
attentive. Or it can do the opposite.
THE EPHRON LETTER JANUARY 2006 5

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
Media content in itself usually does not create advertising
engagement. That is done by the advertising.
This model suggests that indicators of media engagement like
Quads (frequency and duration of program viewing) have little
bearing on advertising engagement. A conclusion supported by
agency research.
If you doubt the limited role of media as the doorman in
advertising engagement, consider that ads for similar products
with identical consumer targets running in identical media
(automobiles are a good example) can still vary widely in most
measures of consumer response.
ENGAGEMENT AND PLANNING
So how do we bring engagement into media
planning? Certainly adjusting audience counts for
consumers who actually see the ads is an essential
first step. Identifying the media characteristics that
encourage advertising engagement (as outlined
above) is another. Both are within reach.
But looking to media for advertising engagement crosses the line.
Thats not medias job.
In the immortal words of FCBs Roger Baron, If you want
engagement, make a more engaging ad.
Erwin Ephron