The environment we live in today is constantly changing, and we’re adapting as a result. According to research from Microsoft, the average adult checks their mobile 150 times a day, while 75% of families make use of a second screen at home. This has resulted in our core skills being very different to that of our ancestors, and with coding being introduced to school children from the age of five, we will continue to evolve in parallel to the digital world.
Many companies may fear that, with our desire to consume more and our attention being less focused, there are less opportunities to be truly memorable. However, this is where marketers need to use technology creatively so that they make an impact – the relationship between creativity and technology is evolving as a result.
Social media has revolutionised the communications world, but we’re now at the next stage of the process, and mechanisms such as brand-led promoted tweets are simply not cutting it anymore. Brands need to be creative in order to engage people on an emotional level, especially if they want to make a lasting connection. If you spark the conversation, and your audience continues the dialogue, it’ll gain momentum, and you’ll have held their attention long enough to become memorable. There are certain developments and evolutions currently ongoing in the digital marketing world that companies need to recognise and plan for.
Know your audience’s attention span
Speaking at London Tech Week’s Tug Life Expo, James Murray, Microsoft’s UK Search Advertising Lead, recognised that people’s attention span can be categorised into three groups. He classified these as ‘Sustained’ (those that can hold attention for long periods), ‘Selective’ (those that can keep focus when faced with competing distractions) and ‘Alternating’ (those that switch quickly between different tasks). Driven by developments in technology, humans are adapting and learning new skills, meaning sustained attention is eroding. This leaves brands a shorter window in which to make an impact, so they must therefore target people by their attention spans rather than demographics. This will be a process that brands can test, learn and refine, by analysing their audience’s online behaviour, how long they dwell on particular campaigns, and if their response to the message is different when language is tweaked. Brands are now competing for attention space.
Embrace technology first, and tweet about it later
Channel 4’s concept behind their show Humans is an example of how companies can combine creativity with technology to capture people’s attention. Rather than directly promoting the new show, they created a ‘Personal Synthetics’ brand, selling the idea of humanoid robots in the family home. They also created a pop-up store on Regent Street, where the public could interact with ‘their’ robot. The corporation’s chief executive, David Abraham, believes this technological stunt was the main reason behind attracting so many viewers to the show. Promoted with #Humans, once the concept was in place, the majority of the publicity grew organically from the audience itself – the idea was so real, so engaging and thought provoking, that the show built engagement before it aired.
Why just use your own channels, when others can do some of the job for you?
If you don’t have the resources to create new brands and run pop-up stores, then there are still ways you can apply creative thinking to available technology to engage with your audience. It’s a known fact that our ability to consume information is increasing, as is the amount of information available to consume. Because of this, we’ve become a nation of researchers and reviewers, and brands are hyper aware that negative reviews could be harmful. Brands can combat this by taking control and creating relationships with bloggers, which allows them to influence their target audience. If your network of reviewers have a strong perception of your brand, it will come across in their writing, which is an excellent way to reach an engaged consumer.
Jamie’s Italian is an example of a company that use social media not just to attract customers, but to engage with relevant bloggers. In order to increase their brand perception, they invested time and resources into engaging those who are able to influence their audience – either through direct engagement with target bloggers, or advertising with bloggers (where possible). This created a mutually beneficial relationship that is having lasting effects. It’s also important that relationships with bloggers are cultivated, and Jamie’s Italian did just that by organising blogger network events, which resulted in direct engagement between bloggers and brand.
Brands must not underestimate or dismiss the impact that digital is having on the human mind. They must engage both directly and indirectly in order to ensure they’re getting the right attention from their audience, whether that’s through their own channels, other influencers or creating concepts that, quite literally, stop people in the street.