The Brandcast

Earlier this week I read a research article on Medialifemagazine.com entitled “Connecting in This Age of Disconnects.” In it, Damian Thompson of MEC MediaLab Europe, Middle East and Africa talks about partial attention among young people and how this affects advertisers. Multi-taskers, he says, need marketing and media that pulls them into engagement, rather than that which pushes them into a concept.

Mr. Thompson defines partial attention as “a state where you’re dealing with a primary task, all the while scanning the background in case something more interesting or important appears.” He claims that young people are more apt to be in this mindset because they have less responsibility and more time than their elders. In addition, Mr. Thompson argues that these Millennials have grown up in a largely digital time, where being “connected” equals a level of social acceptance. I was struck by the veracity of this new term, but I couldn’t help but think, are the younger generations the only offenders of near-constant distraction? Is this not also applicable to Generation X and the Baby
Boomers?

It’s not our fault, really. We blame technology for creating countless ways for us to stay connected, and our days for being too short for all we need to accomplish. It’s as if we are programmed to keep moving, wired to take it all in, and then some. As a society, we’ve come to accept that multi-tasking is simply a way of life, that interruptions are commonplace, and that the only silence we may hear all day happens in those few moments prior to drifting off to sleep.

As marketers, however, we strive for engagement with our consumers. We want the Wow Factor, the A-Ha Moment, the Lightbulb-Above-The-Head Method. There is no doubt that our task becomes more difficult when our audience is a partially attentive public prone to easy distraction, but I think the solution here is a simple one. If we hit the calculated bulls-eye with our target market and demographics, this “pull” becomes inherent, a natural effect. There is no magic formula here, only carefully crafted planning and implementation, the “inside and out” knowledge of both your product and your message. It is this theory that truly levels the proverbial playing field for both large and small brands, giving the advantage to the more pertinent campaign rather than the broader message or bigger budget. Make your message relevant, and you will connect in this disjointed world. Make your message count, and you will be duly noted by our discerning (and busy!) American public.

Editors note: This article was written by Alicia, who does not have a user name quite yet–but deserves a mention!