The quest for measurable data that confirms or denies the success of a campaign, particularly in the eyes of a cost sensitive client, is now coming to social media.
Adweek is reporting that a new industry group, the Social Media Ad Council, is forming to establish guidelines for engagement-oriented advertising, including a common way of describing and measuring campaigns beyond simply impressions and clicks.
“I think we have all recognized that creating engagement in the social media space is different from traditional brand advertising,” said Tom Gerace, CEO of social networking site Gather, who organized the group. “You can do traditional brand advertising on social media sites. We have ways to measure and buy it. But engagement campaigns are really creating conversations and awareness at a much different level than display advertising. We don’t have standard ways to buy that, uniform ways to measure it and a common vocabulary around it.”
Some of SMAC’s founding members include: Havas Digital CEO Don Eppersen, Universal McCann global managing partner Stuart Bogaty, Digitas media director Chris Paul and MediaVest group director James Kiernan.