• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, December 3, 2003

It's time to head into the home stretch for the 2003. I'm sure you're all a little tired and more than a bit distracted by the holidays as they approach, so let's talk a little about one of my favorite discussion points - attention span.

You've heard me discuss the A.A.D.D of the average Internet user (Advertising Attention Deficit Disorder) and how it can affect your ability to put together a compelling and effective online media campaign, but what impact specifically does this have on the flight and lead time for a campaign?

There are two schools of thought on these types of efforts. The first is the "Buzz-Building Ramp-Up" effort and the second is the "Blitz-Ubiquity" effort (note: these are not the textbook definitions of these two types of campaigns; they are the lay-persons definition of the terms).

The Buzz-Building theory states that you must start small, and harness the community and crescendo into an all-out roadblock at the time of release or the desired time of action. This is the model that applies to many entertainment efforts with established fan-bases, especially those within the Movie and Record industries. The concept works well because for a very small amount of initial dollars you can create viral efforts that are picked up on and spread willingly by hardcore fans and aficionados. The concept is based on giving something unique, and of value, to those who desire it most, and rewarding them emotionally for their fanaticism and persistence. In the movie industry, this has been applied with great success to such fanatical releases as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.

The Blitz-Theory revolves around identifying a target audience and completely surrounding them with your message at the time of the desired action. This blitz does not always build off of a community; as in most cases these are for items or releases that do not have a built-in community of people who are already anticipating these efforts. In the movie industry this is mostly applied to seasonal offerings and one-off comedies such as Scary Movie 3 and a host of others.

The Buzz-Building effort is certainly more effective in general as it already has a built-in fan-base. It is also inclusive of the Blitz model, but it does require lots of upfront planning to be implemented. Buzz Building efforts are comprised of affiliate efforts, viral efforts, newsgroups and other opportunities that reside outside of the more traditional "banners and buttons" of online advertising. These efforts are more comparable to those guerilla offline methods of advertising including wild-postings and group events such as happenings and flash mobs. For the online efforts to be the most effective, it's increasingly more exciting to integrate the two together and carry a message back and forth across media. Though this is the goal, there are very few examples of agencies that are doing this effectively.

In both of these models, the question arises, "How long in advance of the release should I be advertising?" The reason we can answer this questions is because we can anticipate the reaction time and attention span of our audience.

From my experience, the Blitz portion of these efforts should be no longer than seven days prior to the release, depending on the type of action you are looking to create. Traffic driving is immediate, so the response will be instantaneous. The blitz should typically happen the day of the desired action rather than in advance. For DVDs and music, which are the definition of an impulse buy, the lead-time should be closer to 3-5 days. This builds excitement and will create some "appointment purchases" whereby the consumer will mark their calendar when a new release is out. For Theatrical movie releases, the lead-time can afford to be slightly longer as this reaction is a more social reaction and will certainly be planned in advance, most likely as a group with friends or family. This is a different type of appointment viewing and is planned for accordingly.

Overall, the lead times for immediate action-oriented efforts are smaller when the purchase-decision is shorter. This obviously does not hold as true for larger decisions such as automobiles and other big-ticket items.

What are your thoughts?