Starcom USA's SVP, director of strategic planning, Esther Franklin, steps above the tactics to deliver a strategic perspective on engagement.

Much of the talk surrounding engagement has dealt with tactical issues, but at this morning's iMedia Agency Summit keynote, Starcom USA's SVP, director of strategic planning, Esther Franklin, took a broader approach.

When you think of engagement, it's easy to get wrapped up in the tactics. For example, you might consider a viral video here, a catchy community website there. But if you're focusing at that level, it's easy to lose sight of the overarching strategic goals, and if that happens, your tactics could fall flat. 

Another danger is to lose sight of where your marketing tactics are directed: people. "Sometimes we get so excited about the possibilities of technology; we forget to overlay the human experience," said Franklin.

The role of engagement
To inspire strategic and consumer-centered thinking about engagement, Starcom's Franklin introduced the audience to a continuum that her agency uses. On one end is exposure, at the other, experience. And right in the middle: engagement. 

At the exposure end, the key is identifying customers and hooking them with a memorable brand message. But that's the easy part. The challenge is in driving the engagement range of the continuum.

According to Franklin, "[Engagement is] all about delivering the brand at places and times when consumers are likely to be paying attention." But that's just a thumbnail sketch of the concept. As Franklin explained, you need to pick a time, when consumers are not only paying attention, but likely to develop a positive bond with the message interaction. "Our job is to ensure that we are contributing to memories that have a positive and meaningful relationship to brands," said Franklin.

Once engagement is taken care of on the continuum, the experience is secured by developing encounters that make an emotional connection with consumers, thus, according to Franklin, "forging a deeper understanding of the intersection between brand, media and consumer." 

To demonstrate, Franklin served the audience some case studies. 

Special K
In order to help Special K gain ground into the crowded diet market, Starcom came up with a plan to launch the Speak community website in late 2005. The agency chose a communal page because people "rely most on communities, friends, family for guidance on weight management." As far as timing, Starcom picked the holidays-- when weight control is a big issue.

According to Franklin, timing of a message is important -- for example, what time of day, what part of the year -- but also, "it's also about people, and the mindset they're in at the moment of deliverability." During the holidays, calorie-packed meals are the norm, and it can be easy to over-indulge, so people are in the weight-control mindset.

At the start of the Special K campaign, Starcom combed their database for influencers. After finding the right people, they invited them to seed the new Speak website with their thoughts and advice (for example, in the form of blogs). Speak also included a "Holiday Defense Program" and other weight-management tools. 

In the end, 90 percent of Speak users told others about their experience, hundreds of comments were posted to blogs and Kelloggs ended up carrying Speak over into 2006. 

LEGO
For another client, LEGO, Starcom launched a campaign around the "Revenge of the Brick" mini-movie during the "Star Wars: Episode III" media blitz last year. Using non-TV outlets -- like print, online and outdoor -- Lego drove users to its website where the "Brick" movie could be viewed. From there, the campaign took on a life of its own as users engaged, then passed on the videos. Franklin called the result a "viral phenomena."

A key component to Lego's success, like Special K's, was timing. Engagement is allowing access to online games, video and content "where and when people want it," said Franklin. And what better time than when anticipation for the latest Star Wars installment is at full swing?

What about the big idea?
In the end, engagement is more about consistency than flashy marketing. In other words, it's not all about the big idea. "If we don't have the strategic tenacity, and the focus on our consumers, so that we can deliver those ideas consistently," said Franklin, "we're not really, as an industry, driving this continuum."

That's a tall order, but a challenge that Summit attendees seem ready to take on. But as Franklin pointed out, the industry needs to step up, because the pressure is on now. "Online has momentum and that's a great place to be… but everyone is watching now," said Franklin.

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