The advertising industry's biggest accolades are being handed out this week at the annual awards festival in Cannes, France, on the Riviera, and much of the talk among the executives attending the
festivities centers on one of the industry's hottest buzzwords: engagement. The term is loosely defined as getting consumers to spend more time with brand messages than simply viewing a TV spot or
reading a print ad. And the best way to achieve that elusive goal is through the Internet, which allows for considerably more consumer interactivity than traditional media. Online advertising has
become so big, in fact, that this year's Cannes festival has seen a nearly 32% increase to 2,502 entries for the Web ad competition -- called the Cyber Lions. The belief among marketers and agency
executives is that the best way to achieve engagement is to send the consumer -- often with a traditional TV ad -- to a Web site to interact with or sometimes create an ad. Such interaction can extend
a consumer's time spent with a brand to minutes or longer vs. 30 seconds for TV spots. "Moving the needle on awareness and engagement are both important. Let's face it, it's not as easy to sell
something until you have a brand preference," says Anne Benvenuto, executive vice president of strategic services for hot digital ad agency R/GA.
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