The Attention Economy: To Reach Consumers, Keep Things Short And Sweet

The arrival of the internet brought about many changes, but one of those was a reduction in the consumption of long-form literature and stories and even in-depth articles. These days, social media has made short-form content the dominant way consumers ingest information.

How generations of people process sensory inputs and the duration of their attention spans has always fascinated me, coming from a mobile advertising background. Many people no longer bother to read articles from start to finish, preferring instead to look at the article summary, which can sometimes just be a misleading attention-grabbing prompt. Scrolling down a social media feed with its various data and information available in a split second before we move on to the next gives us a form of dopamine hit in the brain, similar to the bells and sounds of a slot machine.

This deluge of information has created an attention economy, where brands fight for an increasingly limited resource — consumers’ attention.

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A way to let loose

In the cryptocurrency world, tokens of animals and pets like dogs, cats, frogs and others are trading in millions of dollars per day. Gamers and other Gen Z just say “gm,” instead of a complete “good morning.” Punctuation is also sometimes too much to ask for, and some social media posts are just cryptic without a complete thought.

I do get some of it. We live in a dog-eat-dog economy, where most people work hard to make a living. When we sit down and consume social media or play games, we want to let our hair loose. Call it a sort of revenge or swing to the other side. Our work and school days are filled with rules. When we sit down to look and post in social media, play games or buy crypto, some of us just want the quick dopamine release to feel good.

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Implications for brands and investors

So what does this mean for companies and investors?

It means that if your company is still trying to attract buyers and customers solely through traditional methods such as long-form articles and videos, while you might appeal to an older crowd, you might miss out on Gen Z and younger audiences. However, this is also true for many of us from experience. How many of us would continue to watch a YouTube ad to its completion without turning it off? Not many. This is why they keep YouTube ads short and also prevent you from turning them off in some instances.

Although broadband speeds were already quite fast during the time I was at Vungle, even now, mobile advertisers are careful to place ads that are just short enough to avoid people’s natural tendency to close them. There are issues such as: Do you allow people to close these ads before these run completely, or do you let these mobile ads run fully and not allow them to be closed? One runs the risk of angering advertisers; the other runs the risk of annoying users. Although broadband networks are fast now, it is still better to keep these ads simple and low bandwidth, or auto-adjust the type of resolution and duration depending on what network they are using.

Investors might want to check how their portfolio and desired target companies are trying to reach out to their customer base. Older consumers may still prefer grammatically correct, properly formed statements and three-act story types, while younger audiences often just want to cut to the chase. For people who spend a lot of time on social media, even Boomers and Millennials, their minds may already be conditioned to look for shorter ads.

Conclusion

As companies try to improve and tailor their products and services for younger people and even older people with shorter attention spans, they should take note of these changes to stay ahead of their competition. And investors looking for companies that will be more likely to stay relevant for the next generation should pay attention to how the companies they invest in reach consumers in the race for their attention.

Related content:

• Gen Z Taps TikTok for Financial Advice: What to Do Instead
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