Catching the eye: how to do it in the digital space

Marketing is not a new concept. For thousands of years human beings have employed a variety of tactics to entice the interest of potential buyers. It’s called catching the eye — and it’s a fine art.

In many ways, marketing is in our DNA. To achieve success in business one must learn to attract positive attention. It’s survival of the fittest in the corporate jungle. Only those willing to evolve will achieve long-term prosperity.

The marketing process is swiftly becoming more interactive. Billboards and print ads often appear boring in comparison to more communicative mediums such as touch devices and digital signage. In an environment where a brand or product can open a dialogue with a potential buyer why would anyone take a ‘one way’ approach?

Despite this, many people in the marketing game continue to apply broadcast standards to new platforms. All too often digital signage is simply used to transmit advertising that would otherwise be positioned on a billboard.

Static and unintuitive, these solutions often do little more to entice the shopper than their predecessors — leaving advertising or sales personnel feeling aggravated or discouraged.

The image orientation of digital advertising is also under considered. Consumers are consistently bombarded by displays set to a landscape format. Making a simple change to a portrait orientation can often have a major impact on buyer responsiveness and attention.

Touch solutions are infrequently labeled as such. Without a clear indication of how to interact with the platform many consumers simply walk on by – failing to benefit from this unique technology.

In these situations the marketer loses out on a sales opportunity and valuable buyer data that could be leveraged to improve service offerings or products. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of an unwillingness to evolve, to move with the times.

Therein lies the challenge. In a world where cutting edge advertising technology is freely available and constantly changing people are scrambling to implement modern solutions without applying adequate consideration to the content and dynamics required to realise success.

The result is a setting that is advanced and exciting, and yet unintuitive and slightly clumsy from a consumer perspective.

To benefit from new technology, attitudes towards these platforms must evolve. Consumers have come to expect more than just a static broadcast approach to advertising – they desire interaction.