My DVR’s skip button is the guilt button. Anytime I catch myself hitting it, I get a pang of guilt. It begs the question: how much do we "get" while fast forwarding through the ads? Maybe more than you think.

NBC recently had Boston-based Innerscope Research hook up sensors to people and measure everything from heart rate and eye movement, to palm sweat and eye movement. The goal: determine what effect  television viewing has on viewers. While still preliminary, The New York Times reports that results indicate viewers are just as engaged while fast forwarding as while watching.

“People don’t turn off their emotional responses while they’re fast-forwarding,” said Carl Marci, the chief science officer of Innerscope. “People are obviously getting the information.”

“Whether people watch or not is not a useful measure of anything,” said Joe Plummer, chief research officer for the Advertising Research Foundation. “Exposure has very, very weak correlation with purchase intent and actual sales, whereas an engagement measure has high correlation and are closer to what really matters, which is brand growth and creating brand demand.”

Engagement is the beginning of the magnetic force in Attraction Marketing. It’s that moment you leap the divide from advertisement to relevance. You’re granted a conditional audience to build upon.

Remember that next time a media rep comes in beating the "exposure" drum. Exposure boils down to old-time promotion. Engagement is the manifestation of salient messaging:  the road to long-term consumer conversion.