Is it true that TV is still the most engaging medium?

Question: We’re a first-time advertiser and we’ve chosen a small advertising agency to handle our account.

For our initial ad campaign, our appointed ad agency proposed that we go TV. Being a medium-sized personal care company, we found the ad budget for TV very expensive. We were thinking more about radio, like placing our ad in the hands of Mike Enriquez who will talk about our brand and all its good points. And we noticed that he would talk about any advertised brand for one to even three minutes!

Our ad agency argued, however, that if we want our advertised brand to be remembered and to gain share of mind, we should be on TV. The agency people said that TV remains the most engaging of all media.

Will you please help us and give us your expert opinion and recommendation?

Answer: Being a first-time advertiser, you must have felt reluctant to ask your agency what is meant by “media engagement” and how that is measured so that the proposed TV advertising can be made accountable for it.

Remember our previous columns’ reminder about what Tom Peters said regarding “metrics?” Professor Peters of Harvard Business School said: “What is not measured is not managed.” When he was here in Manila, someone in the audience quipped: “Mr. Peters, we all have metrics. We all have scorecards.” To which, Professor Peters said: “What is not well measured is not well managed.”

You should have asked. You’re the client. So you have the right to ask.

So let’s start by being clear about what exactly “media engagement” means. It’s one of the latest currency terms in advertising circles.

Fairly recently, in 2006, the respected and powerful Advertising Research Foundation in the US defined media engagement as: “Engagement is turning on a prospect or a consumer to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding media context.”

How does that “turning on” happen? How does TV or any other ad medium turn on its consumer and audience?

Being turned on is an experience. Therefore, depending on the kind of experience you want your target consumer to have, media engagement from TV would generate such an experience.

Let’s look at the result or outcome from that experience, which your ad agency believes is important for your ad campaign. Your appointed agency talked about your target consumers “remembering” your advertised brand and “gaining share of mind.”

What sort of media experience has the best chance of generating these two outcomes among target consumers?

Two professors at The Amsterdam School of Communication Research, Professors Fred Bronner and Peter Neijens, wrote an often cited 2006 article in the International Journal of Marketing Research that answers this question.

According to Professors Bronner and Neijens’ research, the “stimulation experience” makes consumers remember and remember well. On the other hand, the “practical use experience” gets consumers to keep what’s advertised top of mind.

A TV program that gives the stimulation experience makes the viewing consumer “excited, curious or enthusiastic.” The TV program that engages the consumer to have a practical use experience gets the viewing consumer “motivated to do something or to learn some useful tips.”

So what are these two TV programs? This is what you should ask of your ad agency and to provide you with the information with supporting evidence.  And those are the TV media vehicles where to place your ad, of course, if you ever decide to go TV.

We now tackle your most critical question: “Is it true that TV is the most engaging of all media?”

Or more specifically, is it true that the two TV programs which your ad agency identified in the preceding paragraph give the most “stimulation experience” and the most “practical use experience?” Are there other more cost-effective media alternatives that will do the job just as well as TV?

You mentioned that you were thinking about radio. Why don’t you ask your chosen ad agency to study and assess in writing radio along the preceding engaging consumer experiences?

And what about Facebook or Twitter and other social network media? These should be the cheapest and therefore the most cost-effective.

Ask your ad agency to submit a written evaluation study on the social network media.

(Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at [email protected] or [email protected]. God bless!)