This document provides an overview of engagement advertising. It begins with definitions and explanations of engagement advertising, noting that it is about dialogue between brands and consumers online and offline. It then discusses the multi-platform nature of advertising today. The bulk of the document outlines 10 rules for effective engagement advertising, with each rule explained and accompanied by examples. The 10 rules are: be authentic, leverage technology, mind the gap, use the right kind of ads, experiment, generate great content, use a call to action, create brand advocates, embrace change, and have fun.

2. www.brandengage.com

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What is Engagement Advertising?
03
Multi-Platform World
07
10 Rules:
Table of
Contents
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.
Be Authentic
Leverage Technology
Mind the Gap
Use the Right Kind of Ads
Experiment!
Generate Great Content
Use a Call to Action
Create Brand Advocates
Embrace Change
Have Fun!
11
12
18
22
24
30
34
38
42
46
50
Company Overview
52
Sources
57
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What is
Engagement
Advertising?
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6. What is Engagement Advertising?
Engagement happens when someone is interested in listening to you.
This usually arises when what you tell them is catered towards fulfilling
their own interests. In engagement advertising the consumer is both
the focal point of and greatly shapes the communication.
Brand awareness and image are developed based on communities
and the content shared within them. Overall, engagement advertising
is about a dialogue between the brand and the consumer, both online
and offline, with the difficult task of finding the balance between what
will interest them and achieving your business objectives
This type of advertising comes from both sides. Consumers have
started demanding interaction and relationships that are both relevant
and valuable for them. Brands are beginning to realize its benefits
and challenges, such as how to embrace the changing attitude of
the consumer. This may require companies to change both their
perspectives and previous practices.
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The following 10 Rules highlight what we found to be the most
important considerations for engagement advertising:
01. Be Authentic
02. Leverage Technology
03. Mind the Gap
04. Use the Right Kind of Ads
05. Experiment!
06. Generate Great Content
07. Use a Call to Action
08. Create Brand Advocates
09. Embrace Change
10. Have Fun!
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8. www.brandengage.com

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MultiPlatform
World
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10. Multi-Platform World
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12. www.brandengage.com

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10 Rules
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14. 10 Rules: Be Authentic
01
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Be Authentic

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Brands rely strongly on advertising to communicate with their
audience about products and services. Consumers, however, are
becoming increasingly circumspect about this messaging. Onethird of online consumers actually trust a stranger‘s opinion on a
public forum or blog more than they do advertisements by brands.
Research shows that confidence in paid TV ads has decreased by
24% since 2009. How can advertisers turn this trend around?
Being authentic is an important first step. In order to create a
healthy dialogue it is essential to clearly and honestly communicate
brand values and make sure that advertising campaigns reflect and
demonstrate them. This not only means inviting the audience to
talk about the good aspects of your company but also being bold
enough to accept the less positive and open it up for discussion.
With the rapid growth of the Internet, it is indeed nearly impossible
for companies to hide from consumers’ feedback. A better method
is to be transparent. Embracing your assets and mistakes will help
improve your image in the long run.
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16. 10 Rules: Be Authentic
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Best practice
Dove recently struck success again with its “Real Beauty
Sketches” ads, in line with the brand’s “real beauty” positioning.
The campaign expresses perfectly the values Dove stands for:
self-esteem and acceptance no matter the physical appearance.
The ad concept is based on company research claiming only 4%
of women consider themselves beautiful.
The campaign achieved Dove’s key message. As of April 14,
2013, the three-minute version has been viewed more than 91
million times on YouTube. The video has over 3.4 million shares
as well across Facebook, Twitter and various blogs.
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18. 10 Rules: Be Authentic
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A “fail” turning into positive
JC Penney took a unilateral decision a year and a half ago to change
its image in order to attract new, potentially younger consumers:
new logo, new image, new look in stores, new promotions. All these
changes were too much for the core customers, leading to a loss in
2012 of $985 Million.
JC Penney is now trying to get its former customers back with a
multimedia ad campaign admitting to have failed. They want to
show that they have learned from their mistakes and will focus on
listening to their customers. The ad campaign itself is getting a huge
response. JC Penney’s Facebook page is receiving lots of traffic and
the hash tag #jcpListens is a top trending topic on Twitter.
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20. 10 Rules: Leverage Technology
02
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Leverage Technology

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New technology has brought innovative devices used for
different purposes. To make calls and text, we reach for our
smartphones. To browse the web, the tablet is the go-to device
and to work on documents, we have our laptops. In 2013, it is
predicted that smart mobile devices will grow by almost 20%.
The touchpoints to reach target audiences have increased,
but the unique features of each device have to be taken into
account when devising an effective strategy.
Furthermore being present on more than one platform has
been proven to increase marketing effectiveness. In a study
by Nielsen, nearly 75% of the people surveyed who saw an
ad on several platforms remembered it while only half of
them when exposed solely to TV. Finding and leveraging the
most impactful channels for your brand will help you be more
successful in multi-platform engagement.
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22. 10 Rules: Leverage Technology
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Multi-platform virality
Coca-Cola wanted to generate virality around their Happiness
Truck campaign during the Olympics. To achieve this, SponsorPay
employed its BrandEngage® platform to create an engagement
campaign around a video ad distributed exclusively in Facebook
apps. The campaign was spread across multiple platforms and
was able to achieve great success with hundreds of thousands
of completed video views. The engaging nature of the content
ensured a 63.7% share rate.
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24. 10 Rules: Mind the Gap
03
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Mind the Gap

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There is apparently a disconnect between what consumers
and marketers think is valuable. According to a study by
Forbes and TURN, only 15% of consumers who share an ad feel
connected to a brand while 49% of marketers measure this
type of marketing as very influential. 24% of marketers feel that
newsletters get a good response, however, less than 10% of
consumers are actually interested in them.
It is crucial to ensure you know your consumers. Making
use of the data about consumer behavior and interactions
has been –and should continue to be– an important focus for
marketers: 68% said they will increase data-related marketing
spending in 2013. Website analytics constitute around half of
the data generated on customers while email and social media
interaction are respectively 19% and 12%.
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26. 10 Rules: Use the Right Kind of Ads
04
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Use the Right
Kind of Ads

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Marketers are still struggling to crack the magic formula when it
comes to engaging consumers on new platforms such as
online and mobile. Display and search still draw the majority of
advertising budgets even though they are not liked or highly
ineffective. More than 60% of consumers do not like display or
text ads on mobile devices and over 40% of mobile ad clicks are
either by accident or fraud.
Interruptive ads have the power to not only irk the consumer but
also give them a negative impression of your brand – exactly the
opposite of what you were looking to accomplish. Establishing
a value-exchange is an effective method in which you can get
your message across to the consumer without annoying them.
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28. 10 Rules: Use the Right Kind of Ads
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Generate awareness with value-exchange
Nivea wanted to generate brand awareness for its product
range, Pure Effect. The campaign was inserted in social games
and apps with a strong female audience. The value-exchange
model was particularly effective in generating engagement
from consumers as they received premium content in
exchange for interacting with advertising in their favorite
environments. The result – 68% of consumers who watched
the video clicked through to the Nivea website to get more
information about products.
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30. 10 Rules: Use the Right Kind of Ads
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Create a unique user experience
American Express struck gold with their American Express
Unstaged campaign. The message the brand wanted to
communicate to customers was about achieving their own
memorable experiences. Through American Express Unstaged,
fans could stream concerts from some of the biggest names in
music through the lens of a well-known director to fans across
the globe. A Coldplay concert from 2011 is still the largest artist
event on YouTube.
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32. 10 Rules: Experiment!
05
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Experiment!

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On average, companies spend over six figures on advertising
campaigns. With this sort of investment, brands certainly want
to make sure they are communicating their messages in the
most impactful way.
In the past, marketers often diligently pursued one idea they
hoped would work. Today, however, it is inefficient to spend too
much time and resources developing an idea you are not sure
will be successful. Thanks to social media, several channels are
available to quickly and cost-effectively test whether or not a
campaign is meeting with resonance in the market.
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34. 10 Rules: Experiment!
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Test the social potential of your campaign
Warner Brothers took advantage of the BrandEngage®
platform to showcase the trailer for The Hobbit across
different channels, including mobile and social. In the process,
they were able to build strong social engagement – 65% of
consumers who watched the video became fans of the movie
on Facebook.
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36. 10 Rules: Generate Great Content
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Generate Great Content

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Below are three basic criteria for creating content that will
resonate well with consumers:
Research shows that consumers
are exposed to 3,000 marketing
messages a day but are only
able to take in 100. Further
empirical evidence suggests
that the attention span of most
users lasts for about three
minutes. How to make sure you
are catching the consumer’s
attention?
Eye-catching: Draw a reaction from your audience whether that
be through humorous, shocking (within reason) or thought-provoking
content. It also means creating real-time content to be relevant to
what consumers find interesting right now.
The content of your message
has to be valuable so as to
create real “value-exchange”.
Providing great content is the
currency you give so consumers
appreciate and reward your
brand with awareness, purchase
and loyalty.
Clear: Can consumers easily understand what you’re trying to
communicate? Using the right medium is important to express your
ideas in an effective way whether that is through video, text, etc.
Sometimes you can have a combination of both visuals and text
to deliver your message. Above all, however, it is important to be
mindful of who your audience is. Tailor your language and style to
suit them. That way they will be more receptive.
Accessible: Can the user find your content? Make sure you use
appropriate keywords. Linking to other related content is also
important. Your message does not have to go viral to be effective.
Instead, it needs to be easily discovered by the target audience.
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38. 10 Rules: Generate Great Content
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The power of real-time content
Each year advertisers spend millions to create memorable Super
Bowl ads, but many have started to wonder whether that money
could be better spent on digital advertising.
In 2013, some brands did just that by creating engaging content
on social media when presented with the right opportunity.
During the Super Bowl blackout, Oreo tweeted the image on the
left that created significant buzz – 16,028 people retweeted it.
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40. 10 Rules: Use a Call to Action
07
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Use a Call to Action

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An exchange is an action
followed by a reaction.
You have taken the first step
forward by creating content
meant to be valuable for the
consumer. Now it is time for
them to react to the content.
To help them do this, your
content should have a call to
action. This could be variety
of things including a Like
or share on Facebook, a
comment/response (such as
a poll) or a purchase.
Here are some top tips to keep in mind to give your content
a call to action:
Provide an incentive: Customers are more likely to respond to your
call to action especially when they feel they are receiving something
of value in return. This can include a discount, gift card or prize.
Focus on a small number of actions: No matter what the incentive
may be, a customer is less likely to engage if they are confused by
what they have to complete in the first place. Make the actions simple
for your audience.
Create a sense of urgency: Do not let your audience adopt the
“do it later” mentality. To create a sense of urgency, use action
words like “buy”, “call”, “click”, “order”. To reinforce this, suggest to
your audience that they do not have much time to act. This will give
them a boost to complete the action immediately instead of waiting,
thinking the opportunity will still be there at a later time.
Make the call to action easy to spot: Make the call to action stand
out. There are plenty of options on how you can achieve this. Give it
a special design, make it big or allow it to catch your audience’s
attention with an alternative, eye-catching color.
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42. 10 Rules: Use a Call to Action
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A clear value-exchange deal
Domino’s Pizza ran a campaign with SponsorPay in order to
build overall brand presence while simultaneously increasing
awareness of the “Box Busting Deal” campaign to drive online
pizza purchases.
The “Go” button on the campaign was both easy to spot and
created a sense of urgency for the audience. Effective dayparting was employed to showcase the campaign only between
the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. The result – a 36% clickthrough to
Domino’s online pizza ordering site.
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44. 10 Rules: Create Brand Advocates
08
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Create Brand
Advocates

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Creating great content takes
time, experimentation and
creativity. It is not always easy,
so why not have your biggest
fans help out for free? They
are your brand’s advocates,
customers who have gone
from liking your brand and
engaging with it to actually
being loyal and spreading the
word about it. With a typical
company receiving around
65% of its business from
existing customers,
loyal brand advocates are your
most valuable clients.
89% of marketers consider investing in brand advocates
particularly important for 2013.
Make it easy for advocates to participate via the following
methods:
Positive recommendations
Facebook posts, Tweets and comments
Stories and testimonials
Videos, photos and other multimedia
Simultaneously, take advantage of the great content they
produce by sharing it on your social media platforms or even
publishing it. Give advocates an easy way to share their content
with others as well.
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46. 10 Rules: Create Brand Advocates
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Local bloggers to spread the word
Duane Reade, a US East Coast-based drugstore chain, has
successfully used their brand advocates to form their VIP
blogger team. The VIP blogger team comprises bloggers from
the New York City area who generate content for Duane Reade
via their own social platforms. Although they are not employees,
they are treated as such. The bloggers receive incentives and
are introduced to initiatives before the public. This strategy has
helped Duane Reade fuel awareness and social activity around
its content. The chain experienced a 28% increase in year-overyear sales and earned 5 times its investment on the initiative.
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48. 10 Rules: Embrace Change
09
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Embrace Change

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More than ever, advertisers must be flexible and agile to navigate
the dynamic, ever-changing multi-platform world of engagement
advertising. Consumer preferences change at a rapid pace and many
times in ways we do not anticipate. On the other hand, innovation has
evolved to become cheaper and easier for companies to iterate.
Predictions are difficult to rely on due to both the changing
preferences in the consumer and disruptive tendencies of the
marketplace. Therefore, marketers must be open to new methods
and ideas and continue to be flexible by experimenting in their space.
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50. 10 Rules: Embrace Change
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Gamification as a new medium to reach
relevant audiences
SponsorPay developed a campaign for Axe that involved an
interactive mini-game placed after an engaging video. It was
very well-received with consumers spending more than three
and a half minutes with the brand.
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52. 10 Rules: Have Fun!
10
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Have Fun!

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Engagement advertising offers marketers a chance to be creative and
try new ideas, tools and strategies. Have fun with it!
The sky is the limit!
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54. www.brandengage.com

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Company
Overview
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56. Company Overview
About Us
ALWAYSON
OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies (2013)
Given to top emerging companies creating
new business opportunities in the world of
media and advertising.
Global leader in value-exchange advertising
Media Momentum
Rank #2 in Top 50 (2012)
Founded in April 2009
Berlin (HQ), Paris, London, New York, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Istanbul, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo
The awards acknowledge the
fastest growing companies in
the European tech community.
White Bull
Winner (2011)
International team of 140+ from 30+ countries
Investment from Team Europe, Hasso Plattner Ventures,
Kite Ventures and Nokia Growth Partners
The Bully Awards acknowledge
excellence in innovation,
leadership, growth and
disruptive potential.
Red Herring
Winner - Europe 100 (2011)
Red Herring honours the world’s
most innovative companies.
Previous winners include Google,
Skype, and YouTube.
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Global Footprint
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Sources
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60. Sources
Multi-Platform World
comScore Report: 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus - pages 16, 19 and 21
http:/
/www.inmobi.com/inmobiblog/2012/02/29/inmobi-releases-first-wave-of-mobile-media-consumption-q4-survey-%E2%80%93-global-results/
http:/
/mashable.com/2013/02/26/smartphone-users-giving-up-mobile-apps/
http:/
/www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4410297/More-than-500-million-connected-devices-in-U-S--homes
http:/
/www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/18-uk/154-mobile-devices
http:/
/www.emarketer.com/Article/France-Mobile-Devices-Boost-Gadget-Count-Homes/1009753
http:/
/www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/the-cross-platform-report-a-new-connected-community.html
http:/
/www.comscore.com/fre/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/5/comScore_Reports_March_2013_U.S._Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share
http:/
/marketingland.com/pew-56-percent-of-all-mobile-users-access-the-internet-27205
Rule 1: Be Authentic
http:/
/www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2013/01/03/nearly-one-third-of-online-consumers-trust-a-stranger-over-a-brand/
http:/
/www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html
http:/
/www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/media/dove-ad-on-womens-self-image-creates-an-online-sensation.html?_r=1&
http:/
/viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/youtube/Dove_Real_Beauty_Sketches?id=XpaOjMXyJGk
http:/
/www.businessinsider.com/jc-penney-q4-2012-earnings-2013-2
http:/
/www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2013/05/02/j-c-penney-is-listening-and-getting-a-huge-response/
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Rule 2: Leverage Technology
https:/
/www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23814112
http:/
/www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/nearly-75-of-consumers-remember-an-ad-when-viewed-across-media-platforms.html
Rule 3: Mind the Gap
White Paper Forbes Insights/Turn, The New Rules On Engagement, page 20
http:/
/blogs.pb.com/digital-insights/2012/11/21/brands-and-consumers-disconnect-over-social-media-marketing-infographic/
http:/
/www.infogroup.com/about/news/marketers-plan-spending-and-hiring-increases-in-2013-to-keep-up-with-big-data
http:/
/www.emarketer.com/Article/Marketers-Use-Social-Media-Data-Drive-Campaigns/1009682
Rule 4: Use the Right Kind of Ads
http:/
/www.fi.nielsen.com/site/documents/NielsenTrustinAdvertisingGlobalReportApril2012.pdf, http:/
/gigaom.com/2012/08/31/
report-40-percent-of-mobile-clicks-are-fraud-or-accidents/
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62. Sources
Rule 5: Experiment!
http:/
/news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57582408-93/tumblr-ceo-says-average-cost-of-ad-campaign-tops-six-figures/
https:/
/twitter.com/Oreo/status/298246571718483968
http:/
/www.emarketer.com/Article/Real-Time-Content-Creators-Need-Real-Time-Content-Consumers/1009862
Rule 6: Generate Great Content
http:/
/blux.co/approach/companies-need-brand-advocates
http:/
/www.informationweek.com/report-online-shoppers-have-a-4-second-a/193502066
Rule 8: Create Brand Advocates
http:/
/blux.co/approach/companies-need-brand-advocates
http:/
/blog.zuberance.com/blog/news-flash-marketers-interest-in-brand-advocacy-peaking/
http:/
/streetfightmag.com/2013/03/04/case-study-duane-reade-uses-brand-advocates-to-promote-neighborhood-stores/
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