The Little Gnome’s Naked Butt May Have Made You Look… But, That Doesn’t Mean That It Captured Your Attention. The Advertising World Has Had This Concept Wrong Forever
Getting Attention Is More Than You Think
Attention – This is probably the single most misunderstood word and concept in the world of advertising. I don’t think that advertising people, agencies or CEOs actually understand what they are really trying to accomplish when they attempt to manufacture something that will cut through the rest of the competitive advertising clutter and get
the Attention of their potential customer.
Hence, you see every trick in the book being used–most of it completely wrong, overused, misapplied, etc…
The problem? Nobody actually understands what the word or concept of Attention really means.
But it’s definitely important. Everyone is right on the money there. You need to be able to cut through to the customer. Your marketing and advertising has to capture the marketplaces’ attention. At least… “your marketplace” anyway.
But it has to be done right. You have to be dead on… otherwise the negative results can be devastating.
Remember… the marketplace will see your ad, and if it’s marginal they will ignore it; if it’s great, they’ll pay attention and maybe buy or take some kind of an action. But if it’s bad… they will take extreme notice, make fun of your ad, tell their friends how stupid it was, and so on.
So it’s critical to get it right. Let me show you what real Attention is, and I’ll give you a formula for creating it every time.
You can thank me later when the money starts rolling in.
ATTENTION: When it comes to building or writing advertising, most people start here; they skip strategy altogether. But this content is only about getting Attention, so let’s start there.
Gaining strategic attention means more than simply interrupting people. When you create ads strategically and get people’s attention strategically, you accomplish your business objectives (sales). Everyone in the advertising industry may use the word “attention”; they might even grab your attention, but they don’t understand the psychology behind gaining strategic attention.
For example, most advertising starts with the idea of capturing attention with creative headlines, visuals, or graphics. Hence, most ads are written first to grab attention. The tactical question being asked is, “What will likely get their attention: A headline, a photo, a celebrity, a logo, a brand, a question, a claim?”
Strategic Attention Has Three Elements–Three S’s:
1. Stop. You need to stop people from what they are currently doing. I approach gaining attention from an audible standpoint. When a speaker stands up and begins to talk, you usually stop what you’re doing. You might not pay attention, but you stop.
With your advertising, you have to stop people and get them to go into the store; you have to stop them from reading the other articles or ads and make them read your ad; you have to stop them from changing the channel; you have to stop them from getting up and going to get a sandwich or going to use the restroom—you simply have to stop them.
2. Significance. If the person (spokesman or pitchman) doesn’t say anything that is credible to you in the first five seconds, your attention is gone. When people get stopped, their brain instantaneously goes “Okay, why was this important for me to stop and stay here?” And if you can’t prove significance, then you can’t expect people to give you their attention.
In fact, it’s not physically possible for them to give you attention. You’ve just stopped them for a second, but then their mind instantaneously asks, “Who in the world are you to give me this information? Where’s the credibility of this source?”
3. Support. Adding the right support boosts credibility. You need to offer some credibility or credential that says, “I’m a person who can authoritatively talk to you about this. This source is credible.”
Those three S’s result in people really paying attention. Yet in most advertising, attention is based on just stopping people or purely interrupting people. Any gimmick can do that. But that doesn’t mean you’ve given your attention in the real sense of the word “attention.” It just means you’ve made people stop and look. That’s not the same thing as paying attention.
And if you can accomplish all three S’s instantaneously in one headline or in one photo, that’s awesome. But most people aren’t even thinking about that—they just use a photo that stops people. But if you can use a photo that accomplishes all three of those S’s in getting attention, then you have a very powerful combination.
Support builds credibility. You support your argument or support the claims that you’ve made or the concept that you’re trying to get across. People look at the ad and say, “Okay, that sounds interesting; that relates to me; it’s important to me; it’s valid. So, who also agrees with this? Who’s the one giving me this information?”
You look for testimonials or other credible sources of support. When you hear a testimonial, you ask, “Is this from a credible source?” Marketers have so overused the concept of “doctors and dentists.” Once, just saying “three out of four dentists approve” or “three out of four doctors use Tylenol™” actually worked, but since we’ve abused that source so much in our marketing by making products seemingly come from doctors—by putting smocks on people and making them look like experts or scientists—we now have few legitimate ways to prove our points.
Now every single piece and part of the ad must be credible–not just the strategy, not just the headline, not just the text, not just the photos, not just the fonts, but every single piece of that ad. Every component is critical. You have to say a lot more in less time or space because you don’t have the traditional routes. You can’t just walk up with a Rolex and have people say “Oh, that guy must be rich.” Everybody has a Rolex now.
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