The 2018 State of Attention Report, has revealed a number of key findings that will help marketers boost their ability to cut through distractions and engage with modern audiences. The findings are:
People are becoming more selective – 42% are more selective on the content they consume compared to a year ago
They key to engaging content is compelling story and visuals – 85% said a strong narrative is critical in maintaining audience engagement while 73% said the use of animated visuals is effective in keeping the audience engaged.
Nearly 9 in 10 respondents said a strong narrative or the story behind what’s being presented is critical in maintaining their engagement of their audience. There are so many implications for digital marketers and how an advertisement speaks measures when communicated in a visual manner. It is hard to dispute the face that striking or narrative advertisements are far more likely to be remembered. A prime example is the ‘a big ad’ by Carlton Draught that uses imagery and narrative that has captured audiences’ attention for over 9 years.
There are now 2.4 billion Millenials in the world according to the UN population division, making up a third of the global population. This means they are the most important group to cater to when seeking the attention of business audiences.
It has been found that there more Millenials (80%) than Gen Xers (68%) or Boomers (59%) shifted their focus away from the speaker during the most recent presentation or sales pitch they saw live.
The consequences of this is inevitably the shift to using more digital platforms where there are a myriad of designs curated for pleasure and that are easy on the eye. There needs to be newer ways to adapt to the attention span on Millenials as they are the future.
What do you think about this? Is your attention span decreasing as years go by? Can you read a book without getting distracted now?
Fifi's blog 
I don’t think my attention span is decreasing but content needs to be both visually appealing and engaging to keep my attention. Today we are so bombarded by so much content that only the most interesting will get the attention of the consumer. I definitely still read books and won’t get distracted by traditional media but if I’m viewing digital content, if it doesn’t look good or isn’t visually stimulation my attention will drift.
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