Time and Attention are Currency

You open your mailbox and grab a handful of paper. How long does it take you to sort that mail? Do you open each envelope and consider its message, or do some of them get tossed into the trashcan unopened? More than 71 billion dollars were spent on direct mail marketing last year according to the US Postal Service and each of these dollars was spent in the hope that:1. your attention would be gained by the advertiser’s message and2. you would spend time – at least a moment – considering it. Less than one fourth the amount spent on direct mail – 17.3 billion dollars to be exact – was spent on radio advertising in 2010 according to the Radio Advertising Bureau and each of these dollars was spent in the hope that:1. your attention would be gained by the advertiser’s message and2. you would spend time – at least a moment – considering it. More than 131 billion dollars was spent on television advertising in 2010 – not quite twice the amount spent on direct mail, but nearly 8 times as much as was spent on radio – and each of these dollars was spent in the hope that:1. your attention would be gained by the advertiser’s message and2. you would spend time – at least a moment – considering it. Business owners are excited about Facebook and Twitter because these social media outlets offer them potential access to – wait for it – your time and attention.Are you beginning to see a pattern here?Time and attention are currency. Shoppers today are confronted with an unprecedented number of possibilities. Welcome to the 21st century, where shoppers carry the world in their pockets, giving them instant access to everything they want to know. Now what were you saying?A 1978 consumer behavior study by Yankelovich indicated the average American of that time was confronted by more than 2,000 selling messages per day. These “selling messages” included the signage in front of strip centers, posters in windows, point-of-purchase displays in convenience stores, product packaging on shelves, stickers on gas pumps and all the major media, of course. Yankelovich revisited that study in 2008: today’s shopper is confronted by more than 5,000 selling messages per day.Shoppers don’t buy things until they know about them. And they have far too little time to consider all their options. This is why the value of time and attention has risen to unprecedented heights.And it’s also why clarity is the new creativity.If today’s advertisers want to ring the bell, win the prize and cash the check, they must:1. Gain attention2. Speak with impact and3. Prove what they say4. In the fewest possible words. A few final thoughts:1. Radio has weathered the techno-storm better than any other media.2. Following a brief flirtation with the iPod, Americans returned en masse to broadcast radio for exposure to new music and breaking news.3. You can close your eyes, but you cannot close your ears.4. How many hours a week do you spend driving?5. World-class radio ads are cheap to produce.6. It costs big bucks to look good on TV.7. A modest budget for a national advertiser to produce a 30-second TV ad is $350,000. Your TV ads, by comparison, will always look “homemade.”8. But national advertisers have no advantage over local advertisers on radio.9. Advertising agencies can’t pay the bills by producing radio ads. Their profitability – indeed their very existence – depends on their ability to steer advertisers into high production-cost ventures: television and direct mail.10. The smart place for local advertising is usually on the radio.According to the US Census, America is home to 5.91 million businesses with fewer than 100 employees. My life’s work is to help these businesses achieve greater success.Hence, the Monday Morning Memo, 52 weeks a year since 1994.Hence, three New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.Hence, Wizard Academy, a 501c3 nonprofit business school.And now, a new class at Wizard Academy: June 29-30, How to Grow Your Business Using Radio.I’ve spent 30 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to learn what does and doesn’t work. For you, I will compress all of this into 2 days.If someone had done this for me 30 years ago, I could have taken over the world.Come, if you want to make money.Roy H. Williams