Goodby Silverstein & Partners share some of the most powerful tools for building engagement in today's cluttered media landscape.

For storied ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), consumer engagement is achieved with creative that's both attractive and drives participation. To come up with this sort of advertising, the key is simple: Look at the world through the eyes of the consumer.

Advertising doesn't need to be despised and reviled. If it's done right, it can be interesting to consumers-- it can be something that they actually seek out and interact with. Ultimately, the right ads can be entertaining, inspire creativity and drive engagement to new heights, so long as you create them with the consumer's perspective in mind.

"We look at the world through the eyes of our clients; but also through the eyes of our consumers," said Goodby Executive Producer Amanda Kelso. With this point of view, Kelso explains, you quickly realize how important it is to treat the consumer with "the utmost respect." That comes in the form of "quality content and relevance," said Kelso.

At iMedia's Agency Summit this week, Kelso, and Goodby Communication Planner Hashem Bajwa, took the stage to show how some of their latest work mixes interactivity and desirability to create engagement. In general, there were three key ingredients: emotion, media innovation and story telling.

Emotion
Appealing to a consumer on an emotional level is important for developing the interest which is so important for driving engagement. A good way to forge an emotional bond is by focusing on the user in a product ad. 

For example, Goodby created an ad for Hewlett Packard digital cameras that featured a small box that users could manipulate. By manipulating the box, the user could gradually reveal more of a picture in the background. In doing so, users interacting with the ad first saw the people, then the place where the picture was taken (in this case, Yosemite National Park). According to Kelso, "it's not just about taking pictures, but also the experience of taking pictures."

Relating to such an experience takes users to a familiar, enjoyable place-- vacationing in the outdoors. And it connects this place to the camera and the person taking the photo. "[This ad] focused not just on the camera, but on the person using the camera," said Kelso.

Media innovation
While emotion plays a strong role, sometimes a stunning mix of media is all you need to engage consumers. But to get there, it takes innovation-- which can be hard to pull off.

In a world where many of us think we've seen it all, and everything seems to have been done before, innovation is a big challenge. When Saturn came to Goodby to sell their new Sky automobile, innovation was the charge, and their work was cut out for them

According to Goodby's Bajwa, Saturn asked, "Could we take video and go beyond just a rectangle?" In response, Goodby went every which way but square to deliver consumer engagement.

Using what looked like a miniature planetarium (Kelso called it a "kiosk") with a Sky car in the middle, Goodby set up a show that gave consumers X-Ray vision as they explored the auto's features. As images of clouds, treetops and stars swirled on the curved ceiling, a consumer would walk up to an adjacent computer screen, pick out a feature -- say the engine -- then it would magically appear as though they were looking through the car's metal skin at the engine itself. Goodby achieved this by projecting a hologram on the outside of the car. 

Story telling
The problem with the Sky "kiosk" is scale. Although Saturn will be rolling out the sky into dealerships across the country this year, its hard to imagine it will have the same reach as, say, a website. True, the kiosk is targeted to specific consumers, at dealerships, who are pretty far along in the buying process, but there are other ways to engage people on a broader scale. For example, try using a good story.

In the latest Got Milk campaign, Goodby began by story boarding a broad integrated campaign based on an elaborate story. The story has to do with a race of human-looking aliens that are seeking sustenance from the miraculous benefits (unique brand attributes) of milk: stronger bones, healthier hair, helps you sleep, and so forth. To get milk, they need a cow, which they find living on Earth. 

Before the campaign went public, a site was quietly set up by Goodby where real farmers discussed allegedly missing cows. The videos are pretty funny and created a bit of a buzz. According to Goodby's Kelso, "this was a teaser that led up to TV spots which led up to a website." 

Between the different media, creative themes, characters and other story details were shared. Ultimately, it was a story that could easily exist online or offline, in the minds of consumers. However, "having that full story is something you can only do using multiple platforms," said Kelso.

What's interesting about good story telling in online advertising is that it's not all about the clicks. Engagement isn't always about people rolling a cursor over a banner or downloading a video. "You don't have to have true participation all the time… but you do have to be engaging."

Simplicity
Throughout all of these campaigns, there are a number of common themes: interactivity, ambition and simplicity. 

"If it's not simple," said Hashem, "people won't get it." And that's a missed opportunity. 

While each of these campaigns is pushing the envelope of what's expected online, they remain easy to use or understand, thus easy to get attached to and engage with.

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