3 Questions for Ben Moorsom on ‘Engagement: Decoded’
With the launch of Engagement: Decoded, we sat down with its author (and our Founder!), Ben Moorsom, to talk about why this book is an important resource for the world of corporate communications.
Debut: All this confusion about engagement. What is engagement to you?
Ben: Engagement to me is whatever best resonates with a given audience so that they are led towards a desired behavioral outcome. In 1992, when I started on this quest to understand engagement, I felt an empathy for the audience because resonance wasn’t a consideration. Whether it’s live or virtual, any form of communication intended to lead to behavior change must first resonate with the audience. Having an event for event’s sake will not lead to desired outcomes, certainly not behavioral ones.
Debut: You’ve been at this since 1992, why the book, and why now?
Ben: Engagement is a complex, multi-faceted thing so there’s been a lot to figure out; to decode. But once I did, I didn’t want to keep it to myself. The mission has always been to change the way corporations approach their events and communications. That level of change cannot be accomplished on a client-project basis. The book is meant to be a vehicle to share insight, enabling others to do what we at Debut do for our clients. And even then, the book is just scratching the surface, this is only the beginning. There’s so much more to engagement, but we need to start somewhere. The industry simply has to change, or we’ll be losing audiences for good.
Debut: Why should someone read this book?
Ben: Because it’s too costly not to. Based on research conducted by Debut, audience engagement is only captured 25-32% of the time. Every part of an experience that does not resonate with its intended audience is wasted. Wasted money, of course, but also time, resources, energy, ideas, moments, and arguably worst of all, opportunity. Leaders and companies cannot afford that kind of loss, especially when audience attention is so limited to begin with. When engagement is done right, companies invest less for audiences to experience more. Behavioral outcomes are achieved more efficiently.
“I hope that the book will help leaders and communicators be more aware because once you understand engagement, you’ll never see an event or communication the same way again.”
- Ben Moorsom
