Zero to Skip in 5 Seconds

Back in the day...

As in maybe a year ago, if you wanted to watch Jenna Marbles talk to her dogs or Lady Gaga's strange extended music video on Youtube, you took the chance that you would most likely endure a 30 to 60 second commercial beforehand.  For you, that is 30 to 60 seconds of something you may or may not want to watch.  For advertisers, that is just a short spot to grab your attention.

And now...

You see things like this:

But what does that mean for advertisers?

From an obvious standpoint, they now have just 5 seconds to grab your attention and stop your mouse from clicking the "skip this ad now" button.  According to "The New Science of Viral Ads" from the Harvard Business Review, effective online video advertising takes the audience on an "emotional roller coaster" during a 60-second spot.  Also, the article points out the problems advertisers attempt to combat for these types of ads which include:

• brand logos that are too prominent in the commercial
• viewers getting bored
• viewers enjoying the ad but not taking the time to share it with others

What happens now that viewers can skip an ad at 5 seconds?  Attempting to capture the viewer's attention in the time it takes to walk from the Tv to the couch is a challenge all on its own.  As an Advertising and Promotions major, I am fascinated by the demands of getting an audience's attention.  As a person who uses Youtube everyday, I enjoy being able to click to skip and get to the video I want.  However, sometimes, I find myself actually sitting to watch the ad.  What could have possibly grabbed my attention in five minutes?  A lot of time its the music they play, or if I see a movie trailer starting.

My point?  When you attempt to reach your audience, where you thought you were given 60-seconds one day, you may have 5 the next.  As technology advances, people's attention spans shorten.  Even from an article only a year old describing the challenges of a 60-second online spot, advertising has already taken a challenging turn.


Source:  Teixeira, Thales. "The New Science Of Viral Ads." Harvard Business Review 90.3 (2011): 25-27.Business Source Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

The Ad That Chooses You

I have always been fascinated by guerilla marketing.  Although it is not especially prevalent in the U.S., and I was not aware of it until I left my home in Hickville, Connecticut, it has captured my fullest attention.  Of course its attention-grabbing and cool, that is the entire point, besides the more technical definition found in the American Psychological Association Journal:  "The basic tactics of guerilla marketing are to substitute innovation and creativity for the staid and status quo methods of advertising" (Galer-Unti, Regina A. Guerilla advocacy: Using aggressive marketing techniques for health policy change.  Health Promotion Practice, Vol 10(3), Jul 2009, 325-327).


Beyond that, this article talks about a new type of guerilla marketing used in a recent campaign in London, England set up by a not-for-profit organization in the UK called Plan UK.  The overall goal of the organization is to raise money and awareness for children in third-world countries.

To truly target their female audience, the organization set up a new type of outdoor advertisements--an ad that decides who it will show itself to.  Through a high-def camera and advanced facial recognition technology, the ad (pictured above) recognizes the gender of the person and shows the ad only to women.  The point is to show men what it feels like to have their basic choices taken away, something that many girls in third-world countries experience everyday.


Imagine that, advertising so direct that IT chooses YOU.  What can be done with this technology elsewhere?  Gender specific ads for men and women's products on the streets of New York.  Especially for the beauty industry, with advancements to the technology, imagine standing in front of the ad and it telling you the exact products you need?  Industries in the US could truly benefit from following suit with more aggressive guerrilla marketing campaigns.

A good way to psych yourself out

Don't get me wrong here.

I love a good meme that floats around the interwebs and suddenly becomes popular.  I find these ones particularly funny, and new ones have been popping up everyday.  These also sparked a thought for me as well.  For the people who are just starting out in their career paths, sometimes the blunt truth is well, blunt.  I find it interesting that people admit to the difference between what they "think they do" and what they "actually do", and in all cases of these memes, the difference is more than a negative.  So why not strive to be what you actually think you do?  Because someone else has somehow accomplished it, why not you?  You might impress your friends, parents, society, and most importantly, yourself.

"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood." -Khalil Gibran

Why not advance?

From philosophy major to graphic designer to marketing director at a cable company.  That path, as explained by my boss, was a series of events that made him exactly what he is today.  This is a man that says if you are not providing your full energy into your goals at least eight hours a day, then you are completely wasting your time.

The evolution of your career.

The chaos theory when applied to economics: The branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences (Roe, Mark J, Chaos and Evolution in Law and Economics, 109 Harv. L. Rev. 641 1995-1996 ).

The same theory applied to your career:  Its not about where you start, or what society thinks you should be doing, its the events in your that mold you into your career, your energy levels, your relationships with others that lead you to exactly who you are.  However, if you want to become something, such as a social media manager, apply and work towards your goals, every single day.  The bottom line is amongst the chaos of your life, you have control over your goals that cause you to become what everyone (including you) think you should be.  Its the same principle.

Ideas are worthless.

Stick a pin in the "Big Idea"
Can you really value an idea if you haven't done anything about it?  Or for that matter, is there value to an idea if you haven't done it well?  Maybe i was a little late in my "discovery" of Pintrest.com, or rather my interest in Pintrest.  Is it really that important if I can read about "freezer friendly make ahead meals" or view a picture of a cool "look for spring"?

My first thought was, "Who really cares?" And 40 minutes later, while I was writing an idea for a poster design for my internship that was inspired by a photo on the site, I thought, "Oh, wait I do."

With sites like Pintrest, its easy to see website trends moving in a different direction.  Stepping away from Facebook and Twitter, this site takes on an ability to inspire people to actually execute their ideas.  As humans we appreciate the gratifying effect of praise, and being able to receive feedback on something as simple as a "Mason Jar drink dispenser", the encouragement of acting on an idea is given.



Pintrest can inspire you to fulfill your dreams.
I'll admit, it is a bit of an exaggeration.  However, Pintrest users are passing along well-executed ideas on this website, why can't you execute your own ideas in your desired job field?  I asked myself the same question, and I came up with this:  My ideas about my career are completely worthless if I do not execute them, and execute them well.  Otherwise, ideas and interests hold no value.

What is my point?
An article by Sarah Kessler in an article DigitalMash.com said about Pintrest that "It drives more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.  As it has gained in popularity, so too has its unusual design."  As did the entrepreneurs of Pintrest have an idea for a website to inspire others and made it happen, the importance of making your own ideas into reality truly defines the value of those ideas.  Sounds cliché?  After spending almost an hour on this new and popular website, I decided to start looking up 3-D Maya design classes in my area to create new designs for my internship based on ideas I've had.  I may not "pin" them on the internet, but they will certainly pinned in my own future success if done well.

Good things are good.

"Waste not a moment" - Tibor Kalman

When I talk about "doing good stuff"by utilizing the capabilities and unique broad reach social media sites offer, I don't mean McDonald's cutting out the pink slime from their food and attempting to recover on Twitter.  I mean the feel-good, do-it-to-better-the-world kind of movement, that use social media as an outlet to communicate their message.  One particular movement, "Project Unbreakable, is attempting to cut through the "pink slime" of the social media world and get the word out about important issues.

When the Contagiousness of Social Media Helps
As a way of empowerment for sexual abuse victims, Grace Brown, an art student, started the Tumblr entitled "Project Unbreakable- The Beginning of Healing Through Art".  Through this site, rape and sexual abuse victims can post quotes from their attackers and abusers, in hopes to empower others to speak out.  Grace has also been traveling from city to city, photographing those who wish to share their quotes as well.  She uses her site to help spread the word about where she will be next (pictured below).  According to an article about her project on Mashable.com, Grace "plans on photographing survivors for as long as she possibly can. Her goal is to spread light, awareness, and healing for those who have been affected."

The Bottom Line--Keeping Up Can Save Lives
Keeping up with social media trends are deemed beneficial in the advertisement and shedding positive light on negative choices big businesses have made.  However, when it comes to using these trends to simply spread word about horrible and very real situations, awareness is spread.  That being said, for people like Grace Brown and others like her, I really do believe the words of Tibor Kalman, because wasting a moment means wasting resources that can truly work for the betterment of others.


The best part is, as soon as I click "Publish" the word will spread to you, too.