Attention Is Your Biggest Cost in Marketing

2008 December 8
by Grace Boyle
Our brain only attends to 5% of the information it receives from all available senses. That’s right, 5%. Think about the challenging implications involved in leveraging a marketing campaign or increasing sales when everyone is vying for that small percentage and trying to make the cut.

mobileYouth recently wrote about the neurological concept of gating, a mechanism that enables our brains to function, when tied to youth marketing. Thus the statement, “attention is your biggest cost.” Makes sense. Marketing is directly tied to gating, the “neurological tool for blocking out information such as pain, sensation etc. to avoid overload.” Blocking 95% of products and brand messaging seems daunting to any marketer, however, it doesn’t have to be.

Take a look at this attention awareness test and consider its implications for youth marketing:

Fascinating, isn’t it? Who saw the ‘moonwalking bear’ the first time they watched it? I didn’t. Then I watched it a second time and it was clear as day.

With that being said, I will echo mobileYouth’s simple declaration: be relevant. “Less is more and relevance paramount,” because youth gates the products that stand out to them.

Morale of the story: “Your youth brand may be a moonwalking bear but unless you’re the team in white, you may as well forget it.”

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  • Mig Pascual

    It’s interesting how we can easily miss the details that is right in front of us. As marketers, we have to figure out ways to communicate our message and cut through the clutter. We definitely have to create meaningful messages to stand out and/or engage.

  • Grace Boyle

    @Mig I definitely agree, our brains are each wired differently and especially in today’s world there is so much clutter. I can speak as a marketer and consumer–the relevance and meaningful messages are always the ones who win. Thanks for the insight!

  • Morgan Coudray

    Hey Grace, I just discovered your blog and you got some interesting content! When Graham posted his article on gating, it caught my attention as well. This is the 2nd commercial supposed to raise the public's awareness towards bikers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9QNEQLA&feature=related

  • Grace Boyle

    Morgan, thanks for sharing the video. That commercial is well-crafted as a PSA but also holds you on the edge of your seat! It’s so funny how little we actually pay attention to (in marketing or on the road…)