In March 2006 the Advertising Research Foundation defined Engagement as "turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.  How we measure engagement – the turning on - is by the time a consumer actively spends with the brand.

But, how do you measure active versus passive?  What activities constitute being turned-on by a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context?  How do we measure activity at different touch-points?

Moderator John Gaffney, the Senior Editor of digiday:DAILY brought together a panel of executives that each has their own definition of the term engagement.  So, how can a marketer evaluate the best-of-breed vendor solution to engage a consumer?

Let’s take a look at the definition for – Consumer Engagement – volleyed about:

Scott Knoll, GM of Display Media for Aperture/Datran Media

·         Customer engagement depends on what the identifying the success metric – which usually is defined by locating a specific singular customer.

Avi Savar, CEO of Big Fuel

·         Customer engagement is not a disruptive experience, but a blended harmonic experience at a particular relevant touch point that begins with the consumer’s desire, whatever that may be, then leads the consumer into a brand’s story.

Nick Godfrey, Partner at Customer Portfolios

·         Consumer engagement is whole relationship measured by the life-time value.

Andrew Kraft, VP Technology for Collective Media

·       Consumer engagement is about the right consumer, experiencing the right content, in the right time, and in the right format.

The panelists didn’t address the questions presented in the opening paragraphs, but rather spent too much time debating terminology.

Since this panel reflects the media industry at large, the result is we aren’t much farther along in being able to measure consumer engagement with a standardized tool that can bench mark the process in a meaningful execution within a marketing plan.