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Can you call it engagement if you buy it?

At the risk of sounding cynical – Engagement? Really? Over the last day or so I have read a number of  news posts, blogs and comments that suggest this is what engagement looks like. I think it would be more well stated to suggest this is what manufactured engagement looks like. Even then – I can’t wrap my head around this campaign as it relates to the word engagement.

I agree with @TamiMcCarthy –

“@mbrewer Check out the link I re-tweeted to the IKEA Facebook campaign. Brilliant buzz marketing.”

This is just that – brilliant buzz marketing. That being said,  introducing the notion of being the first to tag the photo of a product and win it tosses engagement out the window for me. It crosses the threshold of authentic. In terms of risk/reward – the upside was to good to pass up. I believe true engagement is when people of influence [Evangelist] share for no reason other than they really like the experience.

In the way of apartment marketing, I think I could achieve a similar result if I filled an apartment full of furniture and suggested the potential fans be the first to tag the items to win them. Moreover, I could give away free rent for a year for the first person that tagged a photo of a vacant. And, hey maybe I throw in a second set of products [furniture] to that winner. Buzz!!!! Love this idea – think it is time to propose it as a way to kick off a Mills Properties Facebook Fan Page [Fan building campaign]. But engagement?  Not so much – not in my book anyway. You can’t purchase real engagement.

0 Responses

  1. Mike, Good Morning, and Happy Thanksgiving Friend!

    I posted about this video too, but I respectfully disagree with you regarding Engagement, in that Engagement is Engagement, however you can garnish it. To be clear, they didn't PAY folks to say something specific, they gave something away to create BUZZ, and there is a huge difference. It is just Marketing.

    Watching what Scott Monty's Ford Fiesta Social Media Project has accomplished is nothing less than stunning too. And another thing to note, Both of these marketing campaigns created lots buzz for significantly less than traditional means and methods.

    Reply

    1. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well E.

      We will have to agree to disagree on the definition of true engagement – you are right to some extent, it is marketing at some level and I would not argue the brilliance or the low cost nature of it. Heck, I would even use it but engagement is not engagement no matter how you garnish it. In this case it is manufactured – it's not real, not in the truest sense of the word. And, respectfully, there is no difference between paying and giving something away to create buzz. It's semantics in my mind – call it money or a product that has a value – it is a form of currency. And, free is a currency with a ton of power. At the end of the day – it is payment in exchange for content or your definition of engagement. It's just buzz and in the case of IKEA – brilliant buzz.

      Maybe I can articulate true authentic engagement this way; back prior to being married, I didn't get engaged to my bride to be because she gave me a tangible item of value – I did it because I deeply enjoyed the experience of being with her. I gave of me because she gave of her and vice versa. Engagement in it's truest sense does not require an exchange of goods for words of praise. It just happens as a result of creating deep emotionally compelling moments of truth. It's much more powerful and a far different, far more compelling form of engagement in my book. People who truly engage with products and services do it because they want to satisfy a deep seated need, not because they are compelled by a worldly piece of stimulus. They don't require prompting. In the world of the truly engaged – the space between stimulus and response called choice is unadulterated – it's real – it's true – it's serendipity. We can call it marketing but it's far deeper than such a general statement.

      Thanks for the feedback – it's thought provoking…

      Reply

      1. For the Love of Pete Mike and Mark, Why are you guys so stuck on the Righteous and Purist Square? What about some Guerrilla Marketing, Some Marketing Creativity for goodness sakes,

        Further, So what if facebook takes the page down, it's FREE. You both purchase print ads all the time that only ever have a Shelf Life of not more than a few days or weeks, yet such a fuss over MAYBE, facebook MIGHT take it down, So What?

        btw; This Isn't Engagement, as in getting engaged to marry someone, it is Marketing Engagement as defined below via Wikipedia

        “Engagement marketing, sometimes called “experiential marketing,” “event marketing”, “live marketing” or “participation marketing,” is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages consumers to participate in the evolution of a brand. Rather than looking at consumers as passive receivers of messages, engagement marketers believe that consumers should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs.

        Ultimately, engagement marketing attempts to connect more strongly consumers with brands by “engaging” them in a dialogue and two-way, cooperative interaction.

        For decades, consumers would simply watch a commercial or look at a print ad that advertisers produced. That’s one-way communication and doesn't qualify as engagement, where consumers participate, share, and actually interact with a brand. The brand and the “brand experience” are directly taken to them through interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. Rather than wait for the consumer to find it, the brand takes itself directly to the consumer with campaigns that resonate on a personal level.

        This is closely related to the definition of transparent marketing. Transparent Marketing is a strategy used to personalize the content marketed to a customer by engaging them in Web 2.0 social media technologies such as blogs, live chat and product ratings. Through these web based technologies, companies are able to provide true transparency to their company and products, good or bad. In addition, they are able to build trusting and lasting relationships with their customers.

        Reply

        1. I don't think Pete, Mike or Mark are suggesting anything from a purist sense – I rather think they are just adding to the discussion. Not to speak for Mark but I applaud the campaign and would be excited to mimic it in the apartment space. I would hate to see Facebook take it down, I rather see them change the policy. I just would not call it a form of engagement.

          Thanks for keeping the dialog going – good stuffing for a turkey day…

          It looks like Wikipedia might need an amendment to their definition. It appears that even the various authors that penned the current definition can't decide on what to call it as they came up with four other phrases as options.

          I just see this as a difference of opinion and that's okay – it makes for good conversation. I am sure there are a number of smart people out there that would fall on either side of this discussion and all for good reasons. It's what I love most of all about these mediums – no one person or platform is the end all be all. In this case I just see engagement in a much deeper sense and as such I think it's a much more powerful proposition. In my mind associating it with the word marketing or buzz is a true disdain for the word. But again, that is just my opinion. I think if we truly tapped into engagement, in it's truest sense, our products and services would gain in ways that we can't even imagine today. And, it would not be marketing – it would be – being.

          Reply

        2. You're right, Eric, it's marketing and very clever at that. I'm all for outside the box thinking and utilizing these online tools to the Nth degree. It's not that I disagree with IKEA on this promotion, I applaud them for the creativity (or the creativity of their ad agency really).

          I just think that if facebook is going to take a stance they need to take a stance. There is a reason they wrote their policy. If marketers continue to take advantage of social sites people will stop using them. The majority of users on facebook did not join so that companies can market to them (directly or subliminally). They joined to connect on their own terms. This is the reality, and could be an argument for why MySpace has suffered.

          Yes, I know what you're going to say next, we all want to sell more stuff and that's why we do this, blah, blah, blah. But let's remember, that's not why the customers are using these sites. They don't join facebook so that they can buy more stuff. This was not engaging, it is a gimmick just like my photo contest. (Which, by the way, is run in accordance to the fb guidelines.) It's marketing plain and simple.

          Reply

  2. While I think was clever and has obviously created a lot of buzz, I'm curious still on what facebook thinks of this. According to their promotional guidelines (http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php) I see this as a violation. If they are going to let this slide because it's IKEA, then throw these guidelines out the window for anyone that would love to take advantage of the power of facebook. Mashable has contacted facebook for their thoughts and hopefully we'll see an update here. http://mashable.com/2009/11/25/facebook-marketi…

    Reply

    1. Mark – Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

      I must admit I was unaware of the promo guidelines – thank you for sharing. I'm very much intrigued by this whole discussion.

      Maybe we coin a new term “buzzgagement” or “Enbuzzment” as I just can't put my mind around buzz and engagement in the same sentence or paragraph.

      Reply
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