Fast Forum: Engagement Through Technology

Contributors: Larry Engel, Jon Baade and Rick Stoner

We all know content is king, but how do we ascend to the throne? Taking advantage of technology to engage your audiences is a major trend we’re seeing with larger consumer brands. And the reason it works is because of the technology platforms that enable mass engagement opportunities that still feel personal and relevant to potential customers. Reaching and communicating with stakeholders to build a relationship with the brand in advance of and beyond the transaction is often times simplified when interactive technology comes into play.

Engagement is about being accessible, listening and responding to the needs and opinions of the target audience. We’re seeing companies entertaining people and getting physical engagement at locations as mundane as bus stations, and we see package goods manufacturers reinforcing brand perceptions with playful, public interactions where the literal call-to-action is to put a smile on a person’s face. Other stand-out examples include:

• The Unilever Smile Activated Vending Machine: To launch the new “Share Happy” brand position of food brand Wall’s, Unilever developed a vending machine that provided free ice cream via one simple call-to-action.
• Monday Night Football: ESPN engaged consumers walking down the street with a full-body, responsive, real-time platform where users could physically interact with the ad. Passersby participated in a quarterback challenge and could see how their scores matched up against players from other markets.
• Lexus: The luxury automaker developed this video ad to promote the safety of its vehicles, and the company took advantage of the physical media landscape at-hand by placing the ad near an intersection with a traffic light. 

These uses of engagement through technology get consumers to physically interact with brands so they can connect on their terms. While B2C brands have pioneered the concept of engagement through technology, it’s applicability in the B2B market is just as valuable. One example is our work with Johnson Controls and the interactive digital wall

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Visual bookmarking: My new social addiction

Maybe it’s because after seven years of Facebooking, my attention span is spent, or maybe it’s because my friends — who now have just about all settled down — are not posting as captivating updates as they did during our college days.

Either way, I am now faced with a serious void of quality social content consumption. What am I to do with all the time that I used to spend devotedly perusing my newsfeed? Enter Pinterest.com, one of the newest “it” sites — and my new favorite way to get my social media fix.

Unlike my original web addiction, Pinterest isn’t about what you’re doing. It’s about what you’re into — your passions, interests and motivations — which means it never gets old. It’s about sharing ideas with your friends, or whomever, and getting other new ideas in return. But the best part is it’s totally visual: the site is photo-based and requires just a short caption for each post.

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