Let's talk a little bit about message involvement. And message involvement is distinct from product involvement. It's it's nice to have both but you might have one or the other. A great example of a campaign that boosted message involvement in a very innovative way was Jay Z's celebrated campaign to promote his autobiographical decoded book. During this campaign, the agency Drogo five, created a national scavenger hunt, when it hit all 320 pages of the book, mostly blown up versions of those pages, in outdoor spots in 13. cities that somehow related to the text on each page. For example, on cheeseburger rappers in New York, or as you can see here, on the lining of a jacket or even on an automobile generally speaking print is a high involvement medium Whether it appears on a dead tree, or in an E book, the reader of print content has to actually process the information.

And if desired, he or she is able to pause and reflect on it before turning the page. In contrast, television is a low involvement medium, because it requires a passive viewer who exerts relatively little control, other than some remote control zipping now and then, over content. TV's passive nature explains why advertisers try to place their ads in shows, such as American Idol that engage viewers. They want to increase the likelihood that their audience will pay attention when their messages come on the screen. And they do this for good reason. research evidence indicates that a viewer who's more involved with a TV show will respond more positively to commercials he sees During that show, and furthermore, these spots will have a greater chance to influence his purchase intentions later on.

The takeaway here is a little more complicated. We know that we want to boost message involvement if possible, particularly because as we've seen, there are so many messages competing for viewers attention. So there are actually several ways that you can boost message involvement. One is to use novel stimuli such as unusual cinematography, sudden silences, or unexpected movements in commercials. When a British firm called egg banking, introduced a credit card to the French market, its ad agency created unusual commercials to make people question their assumptions. One ad stated for example, cats always land on their paws.

And then two researchers in white lab coats dropped a kitten off a rooftop. Never To see it again. Needless to say animal rights activists were not very amused by this message. Another tactic is to include celebrity endorsers. Consumers process more information when it comes from someone they admire, or at least know about whether that person is Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, or maybe even Kim Kardashian. Or you can provide value with your messages that customers appreciate.

One of my favorite examples is a campaign run by Sharman bathroom tissue, where the company set up public toilets in Times Square that were used by hordes of grateful visitors. You can even invent new media platforms to grab attention. Procter and Gamble did this when the company printed trivia questions and answers directly onto its Pringles snack chips with ink made of blue or red food coloring. Encourage viewers to think about actually using the product. These cues can be subtle but still effective. For example, you can orient an image of a cup with its handle to the right so that at least for right handed people, it matches the dominant hand and facilitates mental stimulation.

Some marketers like to create spectacles where the message is itself a form of entertainment. Acts body products, for example, sponsored a posh Hamptons nightclub for the whole season. The club became the x lounge, and it sported branding on the DJ booth and menu and x products in the restrooms. The third and final form of involvement is situational involvement and this refers to engagement with a store website, or a location where people consume a product or service. So one way to increase this kind of involvement is to personalize the messages shoppers receive at the time of purchase, just as we saw with product involvement, to the extent that you can personalize anything, you're in good shape, because consumers will pay much more attention to the message and process the information in a much more elaborate way. So for example, at some Dunkin Donuts locations, a person who orders a morning coffee sees an ad at the cash register, that pushes hashbrowns or breakfast sandwiches to go with that coffee.

Many retailers and event planners today focus on enhancing customers experiences in stores, dealerships and stadiums. Industry insiders in sports marketing, refer to this as a quote butts and seats strategy So for example, many professional teams have now taken to encouraging their cheerleaders to circulate among the fans before and during a game to offer them photo opportunities as a way to increase involvement with the situation.