Engagement marketers sometimes struggle to quantify the value of an engaged customer; it’s not as simple as toting up the day’s receipts.
Yet Bravo Media (whose many blogs were were profiled on the Engagement Principles) says its viewers are broadcasting’s most engaged, and provides a brief glimpse at engagement’s economic rewards in a New York Times Magazine interview (a profile of Bravo head Lauren Zalaznick):
“We know for a fact Bravo is the most engaged network — the most people who see a commercial on Bravo, of any other network, remember that ad and think more highly of a product! So think about that statistic! That statistic is true!” Sixty-three percent of Bravo’s viewers recall the name of the brands they’ve seen advertised on Bravo, and 26 percent say that after seeing a product placement on Bravo, they have an improved opinion of the product.
“That’s nuts, right?” Zalaznick says. “But what’s my job? My job is to entertain people and deliver a bottom line at a company. Now I’ve done both, and I can punch the clock, punch out and go home. I’m done. That was my shift.”
Are Bravo’s readers engaged simply because of the programming? Or is it because Bravo’s site is loaded with blogs and interactive media – and its reality “stars” are more accessible to fans?
Whichever is true, what’s clear is that engagement pays, even when the economy is in the grips of a downturn:
Like everyone else, Zalaznick has been trying to figure out what the new economic reality means for what she sells, and to whom she’s selling it. “For two years, we’ve been thinking to ourselves and saying out loud in strategy meetings and in elevator rides, hey, ours is the most affluent, most educated cable entertainment audience … what happens if they’re less affluent? What do we do?” Zalaznick said from her office late last month.
Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.