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3D environments do improve memory recall and extend attention span.
The attention span of the global population has reached an all-time low. We can get frustrated by that fact, gloomy even. Or we can start thinking about the impact it has on content production and experiential marketing campaigns, the threat it poses to native apps. How to get quality content to work in the smallest time frame ever? What technology can help us with that which works against us? How can we find other ways to share content? Ways that don’t flood people with information they passively gobble up. Because UGC proves that if you let people play along, they will play longer.
As Is
The youngsters these days, nothing can hold their attention for longer than eight seconds. How are brands supposed to bring a qualitative story across in eight seconds? It sounds like a mission impossible. Of course, offline experiences also make up for a big part of brand experience. Everywhere you look, stores are collaborating with artists and fine tuning the in-store atmosphere, right up to the smell that tickles your nostrils when you walk in.
If it’s any good, I’ll watch. If not, not.
But still, if your product’s no good, how can the experience be anything to cheer for? Is the fight for attention really a challenge or just an excuse for bad produce? It might be both. Suppose attention hasn’t diminished but simply has to be spread out over many more channels than ever before. That the world is constantly bombarding us with info can’t be denied. If the television was the only one begging for our attention, it would get all of it. With so many screens, though, we have to divide our attention. Take ten attention, divided by 5 media platforms, that equals two. Two what? No idea, but two will always be less than ten. Our attention, if anything, is watered down, fragmented, fought over.
could be
So the pie isn’t smaller, there's just more people having a piece. No real way out of that pickle, is there? You’ll just have to get better at what you do. Build better products, shoot better commercials, invent the most inventive campaigns. Because from now until forever, attention will be scarce. And thus longed for.
Attention has to flow both ways. Make it interactive, keep ’em engaged.
You know what gets a lot of attention from those same youngsters everybody claims have no attention? Games. Hours and hours they spend in virtual worlds, gladly spending their attention budget in a magic forest, building a farm or kingdom. Why, you ask? Three magic words: interactive, interactive, interactive.
It’s starting to feel like we’re on repeat, but boy do we love McLuhan. The medium is the message, guys. So if the technology allows for interaction, it’s almost an insult not to go into dialogue with your audience. A newspaper might have a very good excuse to remain passive and focus on one-directional content. When it comes to other media, though, the way to get the next generation’s attention is to involve them. Let them in, or they won't play.