Can I Have Your Attention Please?

When I’m flicking through Netflix, Instagram or the BBC news app my brain really does act like a petulant queen, “Entertain me…Inform me…Not good enough…Bored…Next!”.

Content has to be pretty special for my brain to consider it worthy of my attention. But it’s not just me…

"The average person has an attention span of 8 seconds"*. It was 12 seconds in 2000.

"Content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention, and our urge for ‘newness’ causes us to collectively switch between topics more regularly," said Philipp Lorenz-Spreen a participant in a similar study by the Technical University of Denmark.

So, it stands to reason that in the world of employee engagement, effectively landing the multitude of equally relevant business messages can be a challenge. 

Would you like a few tips? Oh, go on then…

Know your onions

You’d be surprised by the number of large organisations that have a limited understanding of their employees – who they are, what channels they use regularly etc. I can’t stress enough how important this is. The more knowledge you have the better you can target your messaging and ultimately, grab attention.

Skip to the end

There is a place for in depth, editorial copy but if you want to get a message across, don’t make a meal out of it. Too much copy is off-putting. Distil the information and invest in a creative copywriter to capture interest, then test it by asking your colleagues to help you refine it.**

The same goes for videos. We’ve produced ‘5 facts’ videos for various clients and they are always successful due to their bitesize appeal.

Be brave, be disruptive

Aim for comms that make people stop and think – "Hang on, this is different/clever/genius/fun"

We regularly produce stunts, games and guerrilla marketing that catch the eye and drive employees to action. 72% of the employees at William Hill played our World Cup game. We were pretty chuffed with that. 

If you’re struggling to get cut-through please get in touch, I’m sure we could help. In fact, why not contact us today…before you get distracted.

*According to a Microsoft study in 2019

**I wrote another two lines here but my colleague Karl told me to take them out and it was a good shout, they were unnecessary.