The broadening adoption of engagement tactics

Julian Smith | April 26, 2006, 05:21 AM

As I have mentioned a few times in previous blogs one of the key trends we are seeing in the evolving marketing landscape is the emergence of "engagement marketing" tactics as marketers start to more fully embrace the potential that the broadband Internet now offers.

To start with early adopters of tactics such as 'digital branded content', 'viral' and 'collaborative marketing' have tended to be those targeting the early adopters. ie the young, male, tech-literate crowd. A good example being the Axe deodorant campaigns in Germany (created by AKQA). Now it seems that the concept is going mainstream as more grown-up, old world marketers attempt to engage with an increasingly empowered, interconnected and informed digital consumer.

A couple of examples I have heard of recently:

The 175 year old financial institution Standard Life Bank, who have just launched (with the help of Avenue A-Razorfish) freestyleplus.com in the UK -an immersive online brand experience containing 34 video snippets told from the point of view of a roving reporter and a studio anchor to explain topics such as draw-downs and fixed rate mortgages!! Now there is a new approach to selling a boring old product like finance!

To increase brand awareness of the three online property brands propertyfinder.com in the UK, realestate.com.au in Australia and New Zealand's allrealestate.co.nz DMC has just launched www.weirdflatmate.com to encourage their audience to share experiences of weird flatmates. Admittedly being heavily seeded on myspace.com this campaign is targetting a young adult audience however it does offer insight into possibilities for the wider real estate marketplace and is a far cry from the days of advertising property availability in the classified section at the back of your local newspaper!!