Content and the Attention Economy.

Nobel Prize winning political scientist Herbert A. Simon coined the term “attention economy” to describe how the abundance of information creates a “poverty of attention” more than forty years ago. In other words, before social media supercharged our scrolling and changed how we process information forever.

According to Facebook, users spend an average of 1.7 seconds on piece of content when accessed from a mobile and an average of 2.5 seconds when accessed from a desktop. For Gen Z audiences, the combined average drops to 1.3 seconds. While these stats have left many wringing their hands, much can be processed in a short space of time. According to Nielson Research, impressions lasting 1-2 seconds amount to 38% of brand recall, 23% of brand awareness and 25% of purchase intent. The value is evident. The question is, how can we make our content as compelling and memorable as possible?