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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Paid Attention summary
Faris Yakob
Innovative Advertising for a Digital World
15 mins
Table of Contents
Paid Attention
Summary of 6 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 6
Due to rapidly increasing demands on people’s attention, the traditional model of advertising just doesn’t work.
Most of us view advertising as a sophisticated industry. And although that’s true to a certain extent, it’s also worth remembering that the concept behind it is simple: advertising is ultimately about grabbing attention. If you can’t do that, you won’t be able to sell anything to anyone.
But in the modern world, this goal has become increasingly complicated due to the rapid proliferation of content. There are more demands on our attention than ever before!
As Google CEO Eric Schmidt put it, by 2010, the amount of content we created every two days was equal to the amount humanity had produced from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.
Basically, we’ve shifted from a media environment defined by scarcity to one defined by abundance. And for the advertisers, it’s incredibly hard to cut through so much competition to reach an audience.
Making things even more difficult, people’s attention spans are decreasing – which makes the competition that much fiercer.
So, what can advertisers do? For a start, they have to change their strategy from the AIDA model, which follows these four steps: “A” – attention is attracted; “I” – interest is raised; “D” – desire begins; “A” – action is taken, the product is purchased.
At every one of these steps, some people are lost, but the ones who remain will have a greater likelihood of making a purchase. In other words, traditional advertising is about buying attention from the greatest amount of people possible, at the lowest possible cost. This approach used to give marketers the best chance of funneling as many people as possible through to the end of the process.
But in the modern world, this model simply doesn’t work. Attention is just too scarce – you’ll never attract enough people to make it worthwhile.
That’s why the following blinks outline a new approach to advertising for today’s media landscape.
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What is Paid Attention about?
How can you get people interested in your brand in an age of ad-blockers, vanishing attention spans and colossal consumer choice? Paid Attention (2015) discusses the fast-changing media landscape, and maps out strategies for success that reach beyond banner placement and pop-ups.
Best quote from Paid Attention
Counter-intuitively, people know that they love choice but find that they hate making decisions.
—Faris Yakob
Who should read Paid Attention?
- Advertising creatives and executives
- Anyone interested in how digitization is changing consumption and attention
- People puzzled by new concepts of communication and behavior
Categories with Paid Attention
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