It's all about meaning...

Quoted:“Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.”

Quoted:What does that mean, exactly? In her article “Cracking the Engagement Code,” Mollie Spillman interprets it as an “indicator of the propensity of a brand message to resonate and connect with a prospect and ultimately drive some kind of meaningful action.” [1] The focus is less on how many people experience the message and more on what the message means to people—especially considering whether the appreciation of meaning leads to an action such as a purchase or a click. In the interactive world, a simple example of designing for engagement is placing an ad in a context where it is likely to have meaning. For instance, a BP ad about the company’s environmental efforts appears on CNN.com beside an article about the environment, shown in Figure 1. Because this BP ad relates to the article’s topic, I was interested in getting more information and clicked the ad to expand it.