Intuitive Experiences: Key to thriving in a world of 3-second attention spans
The mobile marketing landscape is a very dynamic one, with rapid developments, technology, trends, and user behaviour shaping the future course.
For six years, MOBEXX Summit and Awards, Adgully’s flagship event for the mobile industry, has been unraveling the intricacies of the mobile marketing landscape and anticipating emerging trends. In its seventh edition, MOBEXX Summit and Awards 2023 is all set to turn the spotlight on the biggest disruptions in the mobile marketing space, game-changing innovations, emerging trends, strategies, as well as some pressing challenges.
MOBEXX Summit and Awards 2023 saw a panel discussion on “Intuitive Experiences: The Key to Thriving in a World of 3-second Attention Spans”. Chaired by Kunik Patel, Director – Sales, InMobi, the panelists included:
- Anshul Agarwal, Head - Online Growth, Airtel
- Mayank Prabhakar, Head of Digital Marketing, Vivo India
- Rumi Ambastha, AVP- Marketing, Swiss Beauty
At the outset, Kunik Patel observed, “In the era of hyper-connectivity and hyper-personalisation, brands are striving to make their mark while the attention spans of the consumers are dwindling dramatically. So, it is not just driving engagement that is a challenge, but it is also difficult to catch the eye even for a few seconds. This is a time when only thoughtful and intuitive experiences will make a brand truly unforgettable. In this panel session, we will explore how to achieve such seamless journeys by serendipitous discovery on mobile. Three seconds sounds like an exaggeration as we discussed previously, a consumer’s attention span has been lightened to that of a goldfish.”
Rumi Ambastha remarked, “Before I delve into this whole goldfish effect, I would like to talk about this discussion that I was having with my husband on why the attention span of the consumers has gone down to three seconds, on which my husband pointed out a fact, saying ‘Why to blame the consumer?, don’t you think that post-pandemic, as a consumer I have started to respect my time a lot? I have started to realise that my time is a precious commodity. So, if my time is so precious to me, you have to work harder to capture my attention. It’s not that my attention span has gone down, it’s just that I have put a price tag on my time now, so you have to work hard now’. What we concluded post that discussion was that don’t we spend 3 hours plus of our time by watching a good movie? Do we not still watch a stand-up comedy show which is about an hour long on YouTube? Do we still not watch a short film which is about eight to ten minutes? The 3-second attention span just means that we as marketers are not telling the story well. So, instead of passing on the buck on the consumer by saying, they don’t have time or have less attention span, I think they have realised it.”
Ambastha further said, “I have seen ads very recently that have made me stop watching what I was watching, I did not go for that Skip button real fast, and I stopped and watched that ad, which was about 30 seconds long. Therefore, I would like to point out that the problem is here, not there.”
Mayank Prabhakar noted, “If you see the numbers for Mao and Dao for the social apps, for them the numbers have increased drastically. Hence, the consumer is there, he has that time and he is watching. But for me, unfortunately being a marketer, I have to market. I just can’t create a video for him or an entertainment channel for him. Because that’s content that is already there and ultimately we are in the business of marketing and we have to do something, with the consumer being there for the marketer. The challenge that we face now here is the consumer is there, his attention span is there, how can we grab that attention. We went from a static to a gif, then went back to a long format to 30 seconds to 15 seconds to 10 seconds, then coming to 3 seconds. Honestly speaking, if you scroll, how does the difference between a static or a gif or a video, given that in three seconds, you just can’t communicate your story or your brand? S,o what you need in those first three seconds is what grabs his attention and makes the three seconders to a seven to a ten and then to 15. That’s the only way you build your narrative or your production or your content. I think that storytelling to be summarised in three seconds is the key to this.”
Anshul Agarwal noted, “Customer expectations change basis what they are currently having or using. So, as we know, most of the time that the customer spends is on social media apps or OTT apps, where personalisation is superb – if you watch news content on YouTube, such as Geo-Political content, then you will get recommendations for Geo-Political content; if you are watching a certain kind of Reel on Instagram, you will be recommended the similar kind of genre Reels. What has changed is customer expectations. As marketers, the problem is how can we ensure that we also show very personalised content, or it is shown at the time when the customer needs that product. So, more than attention span, I think it is the expectation that is changing, and for marketers, it is challenging because now you have a plethora of data, which is a good thing, but how do you make sense of it? How do you cohortise? How do you find what data points to use and experiment with, that can help us to declutter and talk to a customer more effectively?”
These are edited excerpts. For the complete panel discussion, please watch below:
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