It is a common complaint of both advertisers and parents that today’s populace has the attention span of a goldfish. Multiple studies have shown that people’s ability to pay attention has been decreasing. A recent study showed that the average person’s attention span is now actually less than even a goldfish’s. This lack of an attention span makes it very difficult for advertisers to get consumers’ attention. Research has shown people today are paying less attention to advertisements, particularly affected are online and print advertisements.

 Another factor that plays into whether the consumer pays attention to an ad is the quality and uniqueness of the advertisement. If the ad is high-quality and original the consumer is more likely to see the ad and register it versus a low-quality cliché ad which is likely to not even be seen. This means that it is not just important to get your ad in front of a bunch of eyeballs but to have something of actual quality to show those eyeballs.

One of the easiest ways to boost an ad’s quality is for the ad to provide some information the consumer is interested in. You often see this in the print medium through sponsored articles. These articles do have relevant information for those interested in the topic but usually have a sales pitch for a product or service contained implicitly or explicitly within. Sponsored articles are highly effective but unfortunately, this ad type does not carry well over to other mediums. You cannot exactly have a piece of long-form writing on a billboard by the side of the highway.

However, modern telecommunications technology does allow digital signage to display information that is extremely relevant to the consumer. It is now possible to integrate live information into your advertisements. For example, you could have an advertisement that highlights your brand and tells the consumer what the weather forecast for the day is. While they might not be innately interested in your brand the consumer is likely to be interested in the weather. This carries over to a variety of other types of information. You could display live scores of the local sports teams in a beer ad, have live stock quotes for a bank advertisement or have traffic updates displayed with a car ad. All these options will draw consumers’ attention as they are interested in the live updates and therefore their attention will also be drawn to your advertisement.