AllThingsMarketing

Why are we still talking about engagement?

Carly Yanco, Director at J Walter Thomson Sydney asks why marketers are still using 'engagement' as a key metric when plenty of experienced and revered industry professionals like Mark Ritson and Bob Hoffman have now debunked the term. Even Facebook has told us all to stop using it and its associated metrics.

Here are in my opinion the top eight charts on marketing effectivenes s from the work of les Binet and Peter Field originally chosen by Tom Roach at BBH. Steal them, share them, use them as you see fit to nudge those around onto the path of effectiveness.

Marketing initiatives mainly have one of two main objectives: brand building or sales activation. Brand building has a long term perspective whilst sales activation is more short-term focused.

The yellow side of the scale refers to short term sales activation initiatives, whilst the long term brand building initiatives are shown in red. Not all mediums are created equal, some are better at sales activation, such as inserts whilst others are better at brand building such as PR, sponsorships and online videos.

What the data tells us is that the ideal split between sales activation and brand building to obtain maximum effectiveness is a 60/40 split between short term sales activations and longer term brand building.

The benefits of brand building initiatives builds over time. This is different to the short-term impact received from monthly sales activation initiatives.

Focusing only on existing customers have earlier effects but smaller paybacks. Focusing on long term customer acquisition has broad but slower effects but bigger paybacks.