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ARF Engagement Council will offer insight into how to pick the best home for magazine ads.

Want to get more from your magazine advertising dollars? Make sure you pick a publication with content that excites your target customers.

New research from Experian Consumer Research shows just how important it is to choose a book with the right subject matter. John Fetto, a product manager at Simmons, a unit of Experian, will share highlights with ARF members at the next Engagement Council meeting on August 20 in Chicago. Engagement has become an essential metric in measuring the success of advertising as research methods to evaluate it have become more precise.

“Just as in broadcast advertising, advertisers seek to place their ads in appropriate and relevant content,” says Greg Whiteman, council chair and a market research manager at the U.S. Postal Service. “There is a direct correlation between the engagement a reader has with a magazine’s content and the engagement with advertising that runs in it.”

“The consumer comes because of the content,” says Greg. “Magazines that pull the reader into the content at a stronger level are going to provide advertisers with a higher level of engagement with the ads themselves.”

The council meeting on “Consumer Behavior and Measuring the Bottom Line” will take place from 1:30 to 3:30 CST at Starcom Mediavest Group, 35 West Wacker Drive, Room 14 Main.

The choice of location is part of an ongoing effort by the ARF to hold Council meetings in Chicago and Los Angeles, two markets outside of New York where there are many members. “It allows members in those two major cities to participate in person,” says Greg. “I know they have been satisfied with previous sessions in Chicago and on the West Coast. This is the first one for our council.

The meeting will also look at engagement in realms beyond print advertising. John Chandler, principal analyst at Microsoft/Atlas, will also offer insight to the work Microsoft is doing in “engagement mapping.”  “The process allows a company to map the impact a company has with its consumer, across all touch points, which presumably goes beyond direct advertising,” says Greg.  

Mike Mickunas, who heads market research at the Kellogg Company, will also discuss a case study showing how consumers’ engagement with advertising affects their purchasing of products made by the cereal-maker. “We’re bringing representatives of companies that are using engagement before our members so they have exposure to the concept from that perspective,” says Greg.

Registration

To attend in person: Email councils@thearf.org. (Please include your name, title and company.)
To attend virtually: Register via WebEx.

Read about other recent meetings of the ARF’s Council:

The Right Touch for Digital Advertisers
Understanding Teens and Tweens
Keeping Pace with Video and Electronic Media