By Nick Maher
You’ve probably heard by now that Gen Z, thanks in part to social media, has on average a shorter attention span than a goldfish. Social media and the digital age have done more than shrink attention spans, they have changed the way we communicate and consume content to its core. Messaging has shifted from long-format storytelling to short-format attention-grabbing. Because of the changing tides in messaging, some people say that the creative spark behind advertising is now gone.
Being of Gen Z myself, I have to admit that I see past the idea of our generation having a shorter attention span than goldfish. If I have an endless stream of content available 24/7 at my fingertips, why would I stop and take in the content that has no meaning behind it? I see it as a double-edged sword. On one hand, yes, it’s harder to grab someone’s attention today than ever before. On the other, I think the younger generation can decipher great work out of the flow of junk that constantly surrounds us. When great advertising connects today, I believe it carries more power than ever before.
Key Insights
With any change, you can either resist and fall behind or embrace it and find new opportunities. Writing for the digital age presents three main opportunities: building brand followings, leveraging new points of purchase, and embracing conversational messaging.
Building Brand Followings
Today’s digital landscape allows brands to amass dedicated followings and evolve from customers to brand advocates. More than just buying from brands, customers are becoming fans. This presents a huge opportunity for brands to authentically engage with their audience.
To effectively leverage opportunities in followings, brands must:
- Match their tone to their audience. Brands must know their customer and align their messaging in a way that connects with their audience.
- A brand that does this well is GoPro. GoPro knows who their audience is — the thrill seeker. They align their social presence with their audience by posting content that the GoPro customer would naturally want in their feed.
- Resonate emotionally — whether through humor, inspiration or relatability.
- Be more than just a brand. In today’s world, customers are expecting brands to have personality, a stance, a cultural presence, or all three.
Changing Points of Purchase
The way people purchase today is radically different from what it was like even 10 years ago. The buying process is now instant, with customers being able to purchase directly from an ad while the product remains at the top of their minds.
This shift has several implications for messaging:
- The traditional call to action is much less important. Shoppers today already know where to buy — they just need the right push.
- With most purchasing being done online, messaging must be concise, compelling and optimized for digital consumption.
- One brand that does this well is Amazon. Most of their digital advertising on social media is simply a picture of the product with the product description in the caption. Short, concise, and an implied call to action for purchasing.
- Social media platforms have quickly evolved into marketplaces. Most main social media platforms now have shopping fully integrated, making well-crafted advertising even more meaningful on those platforms.
Human-Centric Messaging
Out of all the changes that the digital age has brought to advertising, the ability to talk in a human and relatable tone is one of the most exciting — to me, at least. Brands are moving away from corporate jargon and adopting more authentic, relatable voices to connect with their audience on a more meaningful level.
Human-centric messaging opens up these opportunities:
- Rather than using polished and refined marketing copy, brands now have new opportunities to use relatable humor, sarcasm, and real-time engagement with customers.
- Pit Viper Sunglasses (although sometimes uncontrollably wild across their social accounts) is a great example of a brand understanding the humor that their customers want. They frequently engage with customers in humorous ways, securing lifetime customers and building brand advocacy.
- Brands can thrive digitally by having a strong understanding of online memes and trends and integrating them into their messaging, making it more relatable and also connecting with a younger audience.
- Utilizing self-aware advertising or addressing missteps head-on allows brands to build a stronger relationship with their audience.
Why it Matters
At this point, it is imperative for brands and marketers to embrace these shifts. If a brand stays stuck in their ways and refuses to adapt to shorter attention spans and new digital behaviors, they risk being lost in the endless flow of content or being ignored by those they are trying to connect with. On the other hand, those who embrace the change and adopt concise, relatable, and human messaging can create deeper connections with their audience than ever before. Strong storytelling and the proven principles of great advertising will always win, but now it’s also about grabbing attention quickly and keeping it through authenticity.
I welcome the challenge of writing in the digital age and to shorter attention spans. While some say that my generation’s consumption habits have taken the art out of advertising, I disagree. If anything, the way that we engage with content has made strong messaging more important than ever before. When a campaign is truly authentic, creative and well-executed, it stands out from the nonstop flow of content.
How to Win
Rather than seeing shorter attention spans as a limitation, I look beyond that and see opportunities in today’s age to connect with customers that never existed before. Opportunities to be interactive on social media, engage with customers through comments, polls, DMs, and user-generated content. Bite-sized content that floods the digital space allow brands to deliver impactful messages in seconds. Strong messaging with bold visuals, enticing hooks, and captivating storytelling cuts through the noise and makes a lasting impression.
Advertising to shorter attention spans is yet another reason to push creative boundaries and craft messaging that truly resonates with an audience. Today, when many can filter out the junk in seconds, the best work — the work that truly connects — will always shine through.