Getting Your Audiences Attention

In the context of advertising, the first hurdle for an advertiser is to obtain the attention of the consumer. This involves two important actions. First, it is important for the advertiser to know where a communication should be place to increase the odds of reaching a particular type of consumer; this is the media decision.
Careful analysis of the consumer use of various media (e.g., what television shows they watch, what route they take to work, and what magazines they read) allows the advertisers to identify those media to which target consumers are most likely to be exposed.

Placing an advertisement in a place where relevant consumers are unlikely to see it assures that the advertising will be ineffective. However, just because a consumer happens to view a television show or read a magazine in which an advertisement is placed does not a guarantee that the consumer will see the advertisement.The consumer may have left the room when the television commercial aired or may not have read the particular part of the magazine in which the advertisement appeared.Advertisers solve this problem by repeating advertising in the same and in different media in order to increase the probability that a given consumer will actually be exposed to the advertising. A key task for the advertiser is to identify those media to which relevant consumers regularly attend and develop a schedule of repetition for the advertisement that maximizes the number of consumers who will be exposed to the advertising message. This is typically the responsibility of the media department in an advertising agency. This could include flyer printing, poster printing, magazine articles, TV adverts or internet advertising.
Exposure to an advertisement whether it is flyer printing or another form still does not mean that a consumer will attend to it. A consumer may simply turn the page of a magazine, or chuck the flyer printing in the bin, or even look away from the television, or click on a banner advertisement on the Internet to make it go away without ever paying attention to the advertisement.

Obtaining the attention of consumers who are, in fact, exposed to an advertisement is a significant challenge for advertisers. Various characteristics of advertisements have been found to increase the likelihood that consumers will attend to an advertisement. Advertisements that include relevant information for the consumer, such as a product benefit that is important to the consumer, are especially likely to attract attention. Information that is new to the consumer is also likely to obtain the attention of the consumer. Various creative devices such as the use of humour, a well-known celebrity, or an especially entertaining presentation also tend to attract attention. If it is flyer printing then maybe a flashy title or fact or quote, or an eye catching image or colour scheme?
 The devices must be used carefully; if they are not well integrated with the primary message of the advertiser, the consumer may attend to the advertisement, but only focus on the creative device (the humour, the identity of the celebrity) rather the intended message of the advertiser.

An especially challenging aspect of advertising revolves around balancing the repetition of an advertisement, which is intended to increase the probability of a consumer being exposed to it, with the likelihood the consumer will attend to the advertisement when exposed. Consumers are less likely to attend to advertisements they have already seen, and the more often an individual consumer has seen an advertisement previously the less likely they are to pay attention to it when exposed again.

This phenomenon is referred to as “advertising wearout.” Wearout can be a particular problem when advertising in markets where the likelihood of advertising exposure varies considerably across consumers. The number of repetitions of the advertisement needed to reach some consumers may be so great that the advertisement wears out among other consumers who are more readily exposed to the advertisement. To combat such wearout, advertisers will often use multiple advertisements that vary in terms of execution or presentation but carry similar messages. Such variation tends to reduce advertising wearout by providing something new to the consumer that serves as the basis for attracting attention.

This problem is combated by constant change of content and angle of direction to the audience. For example you may wish to make a newer version of your flyer printing or poster printing every so often. This can be determined when by trends if you have a peak in profits after the realise of your newest piece of flyer printing then you may wish to wait until you have reached the level you were at before again before making a new addition this stops the effect of advertising wearout.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell