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.
engagement marketing, bravo, bravo media, engagement metrics
When I posted about Bravo TV’s engagement-rich Web site, my request for an interview went unanswered, so a few questions went unanswered.
Fortunately, some of my questions were answered in a DM News interview with Bravo’s Lisa Hsia – Senior VP of new media, Bravo.
It was a short interview (and worth a couple minutes of your time). Two key questions revolved around emerging technology and the value Bravo TV places on engagement:
Q: What strategy does Bravo take with emerging technology?
A: The way I look at it, we’re not only an entertainment company, we’re in the engagement business. We’re increasingly having success monetizing engagement. For the Project Runway mobile fan club, we had 92% participation while normal engagement is 1%–2%. We also did voting with cable remotes [for Top Chef] with Time Warner and Dish Network. With Time Warner, we had 26% participation. In the beginning it was just an experiment. Now, sponsors come on board because they want the engagement our users have.
Q: How does this engagement add value for advertisers?
A: With Bravo’s Info Frame [an interactive panel allowing viewers to participate in polls, games and chats during programming], the consumer is interacting during the program as well as during the commercials themselves. The advertisers can also interact and, presumably, if they’re engaging during the program, they’re going to engage during advertisements.
The numbers repeated in the first answer would make any marketing exec (or ad salesman) sit up a little straighter.
Yet the second answer (How does this engagement add value for advertisers?) is conspicuous mostly for its lack of numbers.
At this point, engagement is hard to quantify, which is why so many organizations are standing on the sidelines.
While I had criticisms of Bravo TV’s site (it’s confusing and hard to navigate), you have to applaud them for taking risks – and enjoying the payoffs.
Stay engaged, Tom Chandler
bravo, bravo tv, engagement, engagement marketing, dmnews
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