The premise of this is that people don’t want to watch ads, hence let’s make them shorter. That really isn’t solving the problem. If someone doesn’t want to a bad ad, they don’t want to watch even a second of it, leave alone five seconds of it.
Facebook recently had a competition called ‘Thumbstoppers’, inviting people to create 10-second films for social causes. It was a very interesting project as it’s a challenge in its own right to tell an evocative story in 10 seconds.
At the same time, it doesn’t mean people don’t watch 30 or 60-second commercials anymore. While OTT services like Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime have made television ads redundant to some extent, they haven’t yet reached extinction.
When content is created specifically for shorter attention spans, it is done under the assumption that people don’t have the patience to watch for more time. Or listen to something for longer. Or spend a couple more minutes reading.
I find this truly baffling. It’s as if short attention span is like the sword of Damocles hanging over the creator’s head and with every move they have to question themselves if what they’re making is too long.
The whole concept of advertising made for the ‘Skip ad’ era turned advertising over its head. The premise of this is that people don’t want to watch ads, hence let’s make them shorter. That really isn’t solving the problem. If someone doesn’t want to a bad ad, they don’t want to watch even a second of it, leave alone five seconds of it.
But why make such an assumption in the first place?
Here are a few fallacies, most of them absolute nonsense, that we keep hearing:
No one reads
No one can pay attention for more than two-and-a-half seconds
No one cooks at home
No one sees ads
No one (fill in the blanks)
All of this crap is made up. Or at least most of it.
On the other hand, we don’t mind watching an enjoyable ad more than once.
Contrary to opinion, reading has actually seen a resurgence.
If a good movie is 3 hours long, you will sit through it.
The problem with a lot of this creating for the ‘attention-less’ generation is that most of it slinks away into the night, unnoticed.
In other words, the assumption is that making something shorter in some way negates the fact that it isn’t interesting enough in the first place.
It goes without saying that it’s a challenge to stand out in an overcrowded marketplace. Of course, consumer behavior has changed. In that regard, merely making something shorter doesn’t solve the problem. If it’s boring in long-form, it will be boring in short-form.
Sure, make your message clear. If it can be said in 5 words instead of 5 sentences, shorten it. If the presentation needs just 3 slides, it’s okay. If your podcast needs just 10 minutes, so be it. If your book isn’t of Trollopian length, it doesn’t mean it should not be written. Make it clear, crisp, enjoyable, memorable.
On the other hand, if your podcast still takes an hour after you’ve cut out all the unnecessary stuff, it’s okay. It’s not for the person who doesn’t want to devote an hour listening to your podcast.
If your social media copy needs more words to communicate everything that you need to say, make those words worth reading. Saying in fewer forgettable words is not the solution.
Less is always, always more. Pithy and concise are always in demand.
But creating something forgettable in the name of short attention spans hoping someone will take the bait isn’t quite the solution.
