Following my recent and innocent pondering over the state of advertising engagement, advertising theorist and engagement critic Erwin Ephron chimed in today via his Mediaweek “Blunt Pencil” column:
It is our inability to define what we are talking about as more than a wild card that makes engagement dark and troubling. Engagement should be a principle (or several principles) that can be tested.
I agree with Erwin, though I’d suggest the engagement initiative is only in its infancy and should be given a chance to prove itself through a multitude of experiments going on. Still, his scrutiny is not a bad thing and it will hold anything engagement to a much higher standard.
See Erwin’s full column here, which lifted key passages and reader comments from my recent MediaPost column noted above. Also related: see below my video interview with Erwin, filmed last year during the Advertising Week 2006 festival.