Brand Involvement & Media Engagement

Ok, right up front, it's been a few months since my last post. What can I say, this Blog is one hobby among other interests.

To another but not unrelated point, the Internet - for me - has become more of a tool, and less of a source for entertainment. Remember the term, 'surfing' (the Internet)? For some, the Internet is still a means for killing hours of time doing little more than occupying otherwise bored brain waves. But for myself, and I suspect others, the once novel curiosity that led us to surf and explore, has given way to a reality that the technology of the Internet has simply increased the pace of our lives, becoming so familiar and routine, that it's entertainment value of surfing has diminished in the face of higher and more urgent seeking purposes.

With that backdrop, I serve up the following video clip which aired on CNBC this week. In the interview, Max Levchin, CEO of Slide, talks about the applications that his company has introduced in social networking environments. A giggle can be heard off camera -- maybe pause for consideration is merited?

video link here:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=800646248

I think it's worthwhile to bring up brand involvement and media engagement. Category product involvement, brand involvement, media engagement and borrowed interest in advertising, etc., are understood as long-standing traditional marketing considerations. Extreme examples of borrowed interest in TV advertising have often been laughed at -- entertaining to watch, but then quickly criticized as wasted media spend and inconsistent with fundamental brand-building.

I recently heard someone refer to a well-known social networking site as My 'Empty' Space. It's been suggested that many users (e.g. college students) have moved on (with their time) to other social networks like Facebook. Before we attribute this fully to Facebook being a better mousetrap, might the novelty have also diminished for the attributes that once made the former site so interesting?

I've opened a can of worms here and I know it. Obviously, different groups use the Internet differently. Different consumers have different levels of involvement for different categories. While one media application may lend engagement to one type of product category or for certain consumer groups, it may be inconsistent with the character and involvement for other categories and it may appear a silly distraction for other consumer groups.

In the real (non-virtual) world, life experience has equipped us all with (some) scepticism of that which new, with a view that suggests 'a fad' until proven more sustaining. Yet in the virtual online world, we have yet to fully incorporate this scepticism for all that is new, instead viewing each new exposure as the next significant trend, until proven only a fad. Yet ...the online world has already well-earned some credentials for producing fads.

As marketers, we are confronted with all things new for digital marketing at a blistering rate. If we've got a true balanced (and experienced) perspective, we'll see a few of these things as 'borrowed interest,' worthy of a good laugh, but not brand-building strategies.

And btw, this is not a judgement against Slide. Only time well tell fad from trend, in terms of it's long-term role in media. It was merely a useful example from which to raise the question.