Emotional Engagement: How Television Builds Big Brands At Low Attention

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a new definition for engagement that is independent of attention. Engagement is defined as “the amount of subconscious ‘feeling’ going on when an advertisement is being processed.” An “emotional engagement” model is developed that shows how strong brands can be built without the need for the high levels of attention that advertising usually demands. Finally, empirical evidence is presented demonstrating that, although TV advertising excels at building strong brands, on-air commercials get less than half the attention of print advertising. This confirms TV advertising is a high engagement, low attention medium.