A CNBC ad-block challenge article caught my attention this week. First, it reminded me of a Microsoft study that reported the effects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain. The study indicated people now generally lose concentration after 8 seconds. That’s right. You have 8 seconds for your message / content to not only capture interest, but also convey the value of your brand and product.
To make it even more challenging, you might not get 8 seconds. DVRs were the training wheels customers used to learn how to skip commercials. Now, the growth of ad-blocking software is putting even more power in the customer’s hands to avoid the bombardment of mindless, uninteresting and irrelevant content.
The worst is when websites require customers to watch the same video over and over and over and over. When all your customer wanted was to watch a video clip and likely a few more after it. I personally don’t understand how any brand or product thinks repeating an ad over and over every 15 - 30 seconds is effective. At best, it will annoy the vast majority of people and likely turn them off of your brand and product.
Is the solution to opt-in to content? In the article, Syl Saller, Diageo's chief marketing officer, is on-point when it comes to getting customers to opt-in, “to make the kind of content that's enjoyable or useful or entertaining. You have to be relevant to people in order to get seen and that's certainly where we're headed.” Yes!
The thinkTrendless approach will help you get relevant. One of the first steps is uncovering and listening to the customer’s voice (VOC). How the customer talks about your company, brand and product to others (WOM). Listening to the VOC leads to identifying the critical experience touchpoints where your customers engage with your brand and product in addition to the solution it enables in their lives (told through the stories). The thinkTrendless approach creates a key when to engage your customers with what message and through which channel.
The touchpoints will be everything from brick and mortar stores to physical items such as a car, a conversation with a friend (WOM), or a virtual touchpoint on the web accessed through an app or on a browser. Identifying these toucpoints also sheds light on the effectiveness from one touchpoint to the next (Omni channel). The key is letting the customer tell their story as unaided as possible to see what is driving their decisions, interests, and when they need your content. Will your current efforts make the cut?
thinkTrendless, Jeff