SIOBHÁN O'CONNELL MEDIA MARKETINGTHE BUZZ phrase at a recent briefing organised in Dublin for clients of Ogilvy, one of the world's biggest advertising agencies, was "engagement marketing".
This refers to the challenge advertisers face when engaging with young consumers on digital platforms, which span social networks, video sites, search portals, instant messenger, games, blogs and mobile phones.
Patou Nuytemans, Ogilvy's digital director, said that in addition to media fragmentation and digital technology making it more difficult to find and reach target audiences, the Web 2.0 phenomenon has "changed the face of marketing forever". She added: "To influence the engaged consumers of the digital democracy, push marketing needs to be replaced by engagement marketing."
But what does it mean? Many TV commercials set out to engage their audience, at least on an emotional level. The difference with digital, according to Chris Upton at ad agency McConnells, is the opportunity to interact with the consumer. Upton said: "Understanding how to engage consumers online is hugely important as they are in complete control of what they interact with and edit the superfluous in an instant.
"Examples of this are on social networking sites, where consumers view blatant advertising as an intrusion and react against it. The key for successful commercial communications in the future is to persuade the consumer to opt in.
"Brands need to focus on how they can assist the consumer and give them the information they need and want to interact with. Digital enables far greater interactivity between the consumer and the brand, and allows consumers to discover brand truth for themselves, forming a stronger and longer lasting relationship."
The most common forms of online advertising in Ireland are standard banners and microsites that host competitions and other promotions. Irish ad agencies have been much slower thaN their peers in the UK and US to embrace the online medium, largely because broadband take-up in Ireland has been relatively slow.
While there has been triple-digit growth in online spending over the past two years, it still represents a much lower percentage of total ad spend than in the US. However, things are changing. McConnells is rolling out a new ad campaign for Club Orange and online and general digital activity will account for much more of the €1.5 million budget that it would have a couple of years ago. The centrepiece is a made-for-internet short film that the agency hopes users of entertainment, gaming and social networking sites will tell their friends about.
Upton added: "You can't approach digital as you would a traditional medium. The age-old 80/20 rule [80 per cent media spend, 20 per cent content production] no longer applies. What digital requires is that the content that is created becomes a medium in itself. Finding ways that consumers can interact with your brand is the way of the future and virals are a good example of this. It must have credibility and be enjoyed or it will be seen as just another advertising message and deleted."
Ogilvy client Vodafone is one of the biggest online advertisers in Ireland and has trebled its digital spend in the last three years. According to Vodafone's consumer director Carolan Lennon: "It's not enough anymore just to have a banner ad. Now you have to have a microsite behind the banner that the user will reach when they click on the banner. Along with that there have to be formats that entertain the web user and interact with them."
Besides being a big advertiser, Vodafone is now also an advertising medium, with advertisers starting to crowd on to the pages of Vodafone Live on 3G mobile phones.
Lennon says that consumers don't mind the ads on their mobiles so long as the advertising is relevant. Paul McCabe, media director of McConnells, isn't so sure.
"As it stands, mobiles aren't a great commercial medium. Your mobile is an extremely personal device, so brands have to beware of intruding into people's space when not invited."
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