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October 11, 2006

Engagement, Buzzwords and Bigfoot

The business world, like the worlds of medicine, law, and science, has a love affair with buzzwords. At best, we use them to simplify. At worst we use them to elevate ourselves. But that's another post.

Engagement marketing is all the rage lately. Steve Rubel recently pointed out that a few prominent marketing organizations even launched a new blog on the topic recently.

And he also pointed out that "engagement" is hot air. Oh how we appreciate a straight shooter.

"Engagement is, quite frankly, hot air. It's indicative of a systemic issue in the marketing community. We love to create buzzwords to describe new marketing methods when the good ol' outdated ones like blunt interruption don't quite work anymore."

Steve's argument is that people want connection, not engagement.

"That's why venues such as Second Life, YouTube, Facebook and other social networks are so hot: They allow people to connect with each other."

So how does all of this apply to radio advertising? Maybe it doesn't. But if you believe that a good ad connects with people, and that a great ad facilitates people connecting with something in themselves, then maybe this post has a place on a blog about radio advertising.

Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 03:32 PM | Permalink