Sorry to say it, but your media message has to be invited into the party, or it will be ignored.
Denied. Deleted. Diluted. Drummed out. Dumped.
The sheer volume of media content being pumped into the digital landscape today is immense. Most of it is drab, dull and weak. Consequently, we have been trained to ignore it. We automatically tune out.
We have become much better at excluding media than receiving it. We TiVO commercials, ignore print and outdoor ads and subscribe to satellite radio so that we don’t have to listen to those annoying 30-second spots. Right? Well OK. Not everybody. SOME of us still absorb SOME traditional media. But not nearly as many of us pay nearly as much attention. Most sophisticated marketing departments now develop ‘integrated’ marketing campaigns – which are a mix of old and new.
But my point today is that we are becoming neurologically numb to any media that is uninvited and / or unwanted. Psychologists today are talking about IFS – Information Fatigue Syndrome, and DAD – Divided Attention Disorder, and Cognitive Overload. I’m not kidding. These are real terms – coined to describe the disruptive influence of too much media. The brain simply can’t process the amount of information that floods our environment daily. So, we screen out most of it.
And we really only digest the media that arrives ‘by invitation only.’
