Stop! Hammer time!
How much of their attention is your audience really giving you?
That question is hard to answer. People are being trained at a greater and greater frequency to multi-task. For example, I’m jotting this sentence down while in class. Before you judge…..I had to write it down before I forgot…..I’ll be finishing this post after class tonight.
Okay – I’m back.
So after doing a bit of research it looks like Continuous Partial Attention was a term that came about in 1998-ish and coined by Linda Stone. Its based on the principle that as humans we are able to live in a state of hyper-sensitivity where we’re tuned into, and giving attention to, several different things at once. Mind you, this is different from multi-tasking. Ms. Stone differentiates them by the intention that backs each of those activities. Check out her site if you’d like to read a more complete definition of each.
Continuous Partial Attention is something that I believe is increasing in commonality as we become more and more connected. Have you ever caught yourself driving and texting? What about tweeting and having a conversation? You’re paying attention to both (or all, if there are more than two) activities you’re involved in equally as horribly. There are times when this is fine. Obviously not when you’re driving. Please put your phone down. But can you watch television and scan Twitter, yes. Can you clean your house while listening for the water boiling on the stove and simultaneously take part in a convo via text message? Yeah.
So now that we know this is happening to us its important to understand that this is happening to our customers as well.
Your customers are just as distracted as you are. How in the world do you grab their attention?
Stopability.
Stopability is the ability of your campaign elements to stop your customer/audience in their tracks and pay attention to you. Make them put down their cell phones, push pause on the YouTube video they’re watching or turn down the TV and really watch/read/listen to the content you are putting out there. Knowing what kind of campaign will create stopability for your audience has a lot to do with knowing your audience. For every group of people what makes them stop and pay attention will be different.
Learn as much about your customers as you can. Know what makes them tick. Engage with them, listen to them. You will find ways to make them stop. Maybe its provocative copy and/or images, maybe it’s extra-witty creative, or an innovative design. Use your knowledge of your customer to uncover the best methods to shake your audience from this state of constant partial attention to a fully focussed, all-eyes-on-you state of being.
Oh and please, for the love of all that is profitable…………don’t forget the call to action!