Not all attention is the same.

What do I mean by this statement?

If you are talking to three people; one is looking at you attentively, another is on their phone, and the other one is completing a task. How do you think this will affect their recall on what you told them?

Now lets put this in marketing terms

You are advertising your brand message/sale on SVOD (streaming video on demand), you pay for 400,000 impressions. That audience is split into four groups; people watching with undivided attention, people cooking and watching passively, people scrolling social media whilst they 'watch' & people who have fallen asleep whilst watching. You can't really say you made an impact on 400,000 people, because not all attention is the same.

We have studies that back this up.

• 76% of TV watchers are distracted
• 56% of Newspaper readers have undivided attention - the strongest of all media
• 51% of podcast listeners have undivided attention

• 41% of Online News readers have undivided attention
• 30% of audio listeners maintain recall when distracted (easier to neuro-process audio than visual)
• 78% of audio listeners recall brands when actively listening

Environment matters for brand recall

What is the audience engaging with the media for?

As you can see above, entertainment media coincides with key times for online shopping causing distraction.

Whereas, informative media (podcasts, radio, news) is used to educate. This means the audience are receptive to learn and are ready to soak up information.

We actually see scroll speeds 3x slower in these environments when compared to social media. This leads to better brand recall as memory/encoding increases.

To make it simple: people are more likely to remember you in an informative environment.

Creative Matters

You would have noticed in these highly competitive environments, creative is king. Capturing attention in the first 1-3 seconds is crucial because people aren't connected to the environment.

To put this into a real life example: Imagine popping a backflip before you start chatting to your audience. You would have their attention then right? Now you have to sustain it.

Sustaining attention comes down to how well you know your audiences pain points, burning desires, dream outcomes and main objections to buying your product or service.

If you can speak to the above, they will listen and are much more likely to convert.

SOV (Share of Voice)

Share of voice also matters.

This is the share of advertising you have in the environment. The less competition for attention, the more likely you will increase your brands recall.

Online Audio, Print & Outdoor are all channels with lower competition, this presents a huge opportunity for advertisers. Especially in Online Audio which is growing in audience faster than in advertisers.

Conclusion

Make sure when you are creating a marketing strategy you are weary of the environment you are speaking to your audience in.

You wouldn't choose to tell something important at a grand prix whilst the cars are whizzing past blowing up the listeners eardrums - you would tell them somewhere quiet where you have their undivided attention and less competition for their eyes/ears.

Make sure you capture their attention before you start communicating your message. Then ensure you understand their key thoughts and feelings to keep their attention throughout.

That's what makes a killer marketing campaign.

Above all else, remember that not all attention is the same.

You are one of 258 subscribers! If you know someone else that would like to receive marketing tips, send this over to them!

If you have questions on this article, DM me!