I believe culturally we are moving into an evolution of the internet and social media where audiences pay more attention and engage with brands that provide them with opportunities to have lived experiences via the content they see on their screens.

Mobile social apps have grown as our culture’s dominant form of consuming brand communications, thus brands do not disregard that any opportunity to reach one viewer is an opportunity to grow their business. As online presence across these technologies became a necessity in order to reach their audiences, brands and agencies shifted to producing larger qualities of content in order to catch more of our limited attention on our mobile screens.

Their goal being, be seen more often to increase engagement and position their brands as more relevant in the cultural spheres of their audiences. Yet, at our visit with Special Guest, their team shared that only 5% of all branded content on Facebook has over 1,000 views. The speed at which content is being pumped out has resulted in an oversaturation of content available than any person could possibly engage. More and more, the trend of people spending less of their attention engaging with content will lead the industry to question the significance of analytical KPIs as worthwhile metrics for audience engagement.

Audiences on these platforms are already motivated to engage with brands that inspire authentic human experiences they can relate to or hope to associate and emulate. This human truth as to why we give our attention to certain brands offers a pathway for future brand communications.

Ultimately, we are now in need of digital content that expands our collective opportunity to mobilize our desires for lived experiences that connect us deeper to who we are inspired to be.  

Moving forward, brands and agencies will have to have to leverage networks of connected digital content to create opportunities for their target audiences to share lived experiences in the world around them through their mobile devices. These are opportunities for analog experiences that engage our immediate attention beyond our screens. These are experiences that use intuitively integrated content across platforms in order to enhance experiences with other people in the spaces brands inspire us to be.

@benkitoko
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