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The
Search For Congealed Attention
By David Hanson, Pres. H2M
When you hear the declaration that broadcast television is
dead, you might want read a recent Advertising Age article
titled, Reality Check, in which the headline was “Cancel
the funeral.” Apparently, 30 second spot rates on networks
are at an all-time high and viewers have returned to the fall
season in record numbers. I have to admit, most of what’s
on television is crap and I can’t, for the life of me,
understand why millions of people watch Dancing With The Stars
each week, but again, that’s the beauty of free choice.
The ‘crap’ factor, however, is multiplied by a
million-fold on the Internet, where any dope on the planet
can post whatever he or she likes. If I look in a printed
(god forbid) TV Guide for a program about a 'Mayan Princess',
I’ll have a quick idea of whether there is anything
historically interesting coming up or not. If I quick searched
'Mayan Princess' on the web, however, I’d just as likely
wind up with “Mayan Babes Doing Naughty Sex Temple Sacrifices”
instead of anything close to what I am looking for. So, ok,
the Net is a way of life  now
for old and young and has been for over 15 years. Big deal.
My mother who is 90 is using email. And we thought we were
so hip. Most 15 year olds today don't remember life without
the net. Let's get over it. The cell phone, Internet and the
Podcast, text messaging and short codes are the latest greatest
mediums we hear about and that’s all well and good,
but what about the quality of entertainment? It's the quality
of our entertainment that holds peoples attention to any one
medium. Most of these new mediums and channels (YouTube.com)
are novelties, fads and some will make it to trends and then
mainstream mediums, but not many.
Small business is what makes up most of the US economy. And
what business looks for are the places where attention is
congealed at cost-effective prices.
We just witnessed a huge glob of attention congealing at Youtube.com–so
much attention, in fact, that Google spent a billion dollars
or so buying that blob. Of course, the pundits are already
saying that this ownership change will alter the cool cache
of YouTube, and someone else will startup and just take that
blob of curious attention somewhere else. Such is the law
of the new media.
The base issue for marketers is to try to grab attention
where it congeals in cost-effective-to-reach places before
that attention moves off to the next latest and greatest
fad or trend. In this day and age of short attention spans,
I’ll
still put our clients money on the “sure thing”
rather than the next trendy guess. Most small businesses
don’t
have the resources to chase fleeting attention across Podcast's
and mobile phones etc. They need a deliverable mass of congealed
attention that delivers an audience with consistency. The
problem isn't the 'death of the tv commercial". That's missing
the forest for the tree.  The issue is that with so many media
choices available, it is difficult to attract a substantial
audience for any one vehicle. Our agency is as savvy as anyone
else when it comes to the tools and mediums of the new media,
but we’re
also good stewards of our client’s money and won’t
recommend chasing an audience that ‘might’ be
somewhere or not. We’ll trial these new mediums but
we’ll
most likely bank on the biggest mass of congealed attention
money can buy, and right now a lot of that still remains
in mass media.
You might try to make the case that most people are now purchasing
online. Sure they are, but just remember they are “buying”
online, which is only the last link of the client/ customer
brand journey. Priceline.com brands on network television,
but people buy their airline tickets from them online. Don’t
confuse the steps in the buying process and miss where the
heavy lifting is still being done. Priceline.com buys the
congealed attention on network television to drive people
online. Not the other way around. So again, try not to get
all excited about these great new mediums coming ‘online’.
Remember, what you’re really looking for are the places
where the attention of those you wish to sell is congealed
the most cost-effectively, be it network television, a website
or the back of a park bench.
dave@h2m.biz
© 2003-2006 H2M Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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© 2003-2006 H2M Inc. All Rights Reserved
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