Millennials Only Have a 5 To 6 Second Attention Span For Ads (cnbc.com) 174
Reader schwit1 writes: If you're an advertiser who wants to market a product to millennials, you're going to have to make it quick. A new study by comScore revealed online ads targeted toward millennials have to be around 5 to 6 seconds to be effective, a sharp contrast from the traditional 30-second commercial seen on TV. "The length of time of an episode or a viewing period is really important and has got to be short, otherwise you just won't keep the attention of millennials," comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni told CNBC's "Squawk Alley." The format of advertising may have to be radically changed to reach millennials, he suggested. "You're going to have to make your case literally in a matter of seconds and make sure you grab somebody's attention, Fulgoni said.
Exception... (Score:1)
T&A
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Why would they have ads for my Time and Attendance system? Oh, you meant THAT T&A! Never mind.
Re: Exception... (Score:1)
My motto is: If they can afford ads they don't need my money.
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T&A
That's called multi-tasking, the focus shifts every 5-6 seconds from Tits to Ass then back again.
Six seconds later, it's all over, the monitor.
29... 28... Goodbye (Score:2, Insightful)
As far as I'm concerned, you get 15 seconds. If your ads aren't over in 15 seconds and my video hasn't started yet, I'm clicking away.
Re:29... 28... Goodbye (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as I'm concerned, you get nothing. I block ALL ads.
Re:29... 28... Goodbye (Score:5, Insightful)
I didn't used to block all ads, but than they started hiding content behind them and the malicious ads and all of the other horrible shit the ad companies allow.. Now I figure fuck them and their money. I used to have no issue with ads on a page I was viewing but as soon as you think you can be abusive with them.. All bets are off.
Re:29... 28... Goodbye (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been here for a looooong time. After midnight in a quiet lab, somewhere around 1999. Hopped over to Yahoo, and I got a blaring Chevy Silverado ad. Auto-play flash, full volume. It was right then that I began figuring out how to disable flash and do click-to-play. That quickly lead into adblocking as well, and that's history. I do not suffer abusive relationships.
Since then, I've been immensely happy with my web experience. When I try to use other people's machines, it just hurts. The pop-ups, adware, browser hijacks....I don't know how they can actually live like that. It's the digital equivalent of a meth making trailer park run by carnies.
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Best fucking analogy ever!
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I also block all ads.
We have a local newspaper where i live, i pay the "voluntary" $6 a week for the paper. I do this for two reasons:
1) i want to read those ads, they are all local companies and i want to see what grocery deals there are available, etc.
2) i like to support the young kids getting up and doing somethign with their time.
I dont mind some ads, but just because it is basically "free" to the advertiser doesnts give them a right to saturate me with them.
Re:29... 28... Goodbye (Score:5, Interesting)
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I've been induated (sic) with ads for so long that I automatically phase them out unless it is something I am interested in. On ad spammy sites like click through articles I don't even see ad banners anymore. For unskippable video ads I just move over to another browser tab until it is over.
If you use Firefox, may I recommend NoScript? Your brain does a great job at filtering what you see, but your computer is not designed to filter the way you like it to and bad things can and do happen inside of the operating system.
Don't just focus on the visual abuse, pay some attention to the computational abuse too. NoScript can help with that.
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Millenial attention span, in general.. (Score:5, Funny)
..is around 5 to 6 seconds. At least, mine is.
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I'll be 48 in a couple of days.
My attention span for ads is zero.
MythTV auto commercial skipping FTW!
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I'm surprised it's as long as 5 to 6 seconds. I'm gen X and my attention span for ads rounds down to zero.
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Youtube will force 5 seconds of ad viewing before showing you the video. Since YT is one of the larger delivery platforms for ads I doubt this is a 5-6 second attention span as much as you have 5-6 seconds to make your ad compelling enough that someone won't click the skip ad link.
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Does it? The large majority of youtube links won't play for me - something to do with my ad-blocker and/ or NoScript. It's not something I've wasted time trying to figure out.
Is it? That may be why most content linked to on youtube doesn't work. Oh well, youtube's loss.
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OK, I got bored after the first couple of words. Can anyone fill me in on if there was anything worthwhile after that?
But seriously, haven't most people developed a "baby filter" so far as TV ads are concerned. What I mean is the self-preservation shield that parents have where they can just screen out all the random noise that comes from their children - while being alert to any signs of distress.
For advertisements, I generally haven't a clue what was being advertised 5 minutes ago, an hour ago, yester
I'm way older, I have zero attention for ads. (Score:5, Interesting)
Fuck ads. Fuck people who make boring, standard advertising. You are worth none of my time.
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Re: I'm way older, I have zero attention for ads. (Score:2)
No. Screw the whole concept of advertiaement
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I Agree. Stop disrespecting people's time.
Ban Advertisements -- you eyes, ears, brain, and environment will thank you getting rid of the visual and audio vomit.
--
Ads are immoral -- yes that was cynical sarcasm.
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Re: I'm way older, I have zero attention for ads (Score:2)
That does not make any sense. The information function of ads have long been replaced by the concept of search engines.
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This, I'm a Gen-X, and I have 0 second attention for ads, be it on TV or internet. I started "surfing the net" in early 90s when there was no ads, and now even on some "news" webpages where 75% is ads and the article is 10 lines, my attention goes on these 10 lines and 0 on the ads. After reading the paragraph and closing the tab, if someone asks me what were all the ads in the top/bottom/left/right columns, I would have no clue.
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poor millenials (Score:2, Interesting)
I hear so much of this: millennials this, millennials that, can poor millennials ever catch a break? They have inherited a shitty economy, a weird climate, a never ending war on so called 'terrorism'. They are under impression that all that can really help them is more collectivist action because they got convinced that free market capitalism is all that is wrong with the world though they rarely actually experienced free market anything.
Millennials only have 5 to 6 second attention span for ads... guess
Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
It's not a matter of attention span but the time it takes to remind yourself "I wouldn't have time for this and I'm broke anyway."
Re:Perhaps - their adblockers are that bad? (Score:2, Informative)
I seldom see ads and I don't watch TV. I'm also not a millennial - a baby boomer actually. So if they are really watching ads for 5 seconds, then they still have a lot to learn about adblockers. Bah, kids these days. Now get off my lawn.
Re:Perhaps (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not a matter of attention span but the time it takes to remind yourself "I wouldn't have time for this and I'm broke anyway."
If I recall correctly 4 (or is it 5?) seconds is the time you have to endure a commercial on YouTube before you can skip the ad so a 5-6 second attention span sounds about right. If I were trying to advertise under those time constraints the first two thirds of the ad would consist of a loud commanding voice saying: "Do you need X? Well then get off your ass and buy Y!" or something to that effect. The remainder of the ad time would be consumed by a voice quickly blurting out the following: "And here is an extra second of ad for you to skip so you don't feel cheated.". The problem with all these ad services is that they don't show me what I'm interested in even when they manage to cram their message into a 4-5 second package. I sit there watching documentaries about sword fighting, medieval history, Classical history, palaeontology, relativistic space travel, documentaries about all manner of phenomena in space, .... etc. I'm usually logged in on YouTube so you'd think Google ingenious advertising algorithms would be able to target ads at my interests given my very specific YouTube viewing history. You'd think I'd be flooded with ads trying to sell me swords, armour, history books, the collective works of Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, trips to Florida or French Guiana to tour the NASA/ESA space ports but nooooooo... I get ads for ridiculous online games, Chinese pop music, Illumibowl toilet lights....
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All of those things you named, you knew about already. With the ads, you now now of the existence of the other things, too. Technically, they're succeeding.
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All of those things you named, you knew about already. With the ads, you now now of the existence of the other things, too. Technically, they're succeeding.
The measure of success for an ad is if it shows me something I'm interested in. An ad that tries to sell me stuff that I don't want is a waste of the advertisers money no matter how well I remember it.
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ads for ridiculous online games, Chinese pop music, Illumibowl toilet lights....
At least you get toilet lights and other ads... which is already better than seeing the same shampoo ads 5 times.
Doesn't everyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I couldn't, either, which is why I subscribed to Youtube Red. I know some people find it expensive, but Youtube is virtually my only source of visual media consumption, so with that consideration it's a no-brainer.
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No. (Score:5, Informative)
5 to 6 seconds for ads?
WTF is wrong with them?
No. Ads get maybe half a second while I'm finding the blocking script that they made it past.
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I only use Adblock plus because ublock origin didn't get the video ads. IMO Adblock plus is better but everyone is different. Probably depends on what sites you access.
More BS (Score:2)
More than me, and I'm a lot older than that. Time to stop trying to millennials in a a bucket. People are people and millennials are not a special case.
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"Time to stop trying to PUT millennials in a a bucket."
Look, i broke a couple fingers and typing is tough... Respond to the intention not the typos....
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I have zero. (Score:5, Insightful)
I literally don't care about your ads. I'll mute them the second they come on. And if I remember an ad, I go out of my way to NOT purchase their product.
"Hmm, I heard big mac today. I'm craving a big mac. Guess I'm not going."
Re:I have zero. (Score:5, Insightful)
I literally don't care about your ads. I'll mute them the second they come on. And if I remember an ad, I go out of my way to NOT purchase their product.
Well, to be fair, that's a kind of caring. It's just not the kind they want. I feel precisely the same way. Anyone who shits on my mind with an advertising jingle or some pictures of fake food passed off as something they're selling deserves only my contempt, not my dollars.
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If sufficient numbers of people felt that way, Pepsi would take out annoying ads "supporting" Coca-cola (provided local laws allowed it).
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If sufficient numbers of people felt that way, Pepsi would take out annoying ads "supporting" Coca-cola
That sort of thing has been done. In the 1980 USA presidential campaign, won by Reagan, the opposing Democrats braodcast clips from Reagan's old films, as they were so cringeworthy.
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If sufficient numbers of people felt that way, Pepsi would take out annoying ads "supporting" Coca-cola (provided local laws allowed it).
To the best of my understanding, which I admit is limited, that's illegal. My understanding is that you can only use your competitors' trademarks for the explicit purpose of comparison or critique. Maybe a lawyer or someone who's actually bothered to read the law could comment :p
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People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
– Banksy
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That's exactly what I do. Especially the super annoying banner planes on the coast on a summer weekend. I make a point to remember the product so I'll never ever buy it, or turn it on in case it's for a radio station or TV show.
Ads? (Score:5, Funny)
Millennials have a 6 second attention span for anything. Including writi
Not a millennial thing (Score:4, Informative)
I have a 0 second attention span for ads, because advertisement sucks and is a waste of time and space. The brands I remember being shoved in my face? I go out of my way to pay more for something else because FUCK advertisers.
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True, I don't understand ads sometimes... for cars or perfumes or powder laundry or whatever food, they have 0 impact on my decision to buy or not these things.
Could have just left off "For Ads"... (Score:5, Interesting)
Could have just left off "For Ads"...
Just saying...
Me too, or less (Score:1)
The time it takes to reach for the remote. On the computer, 0.5s to skip the few that get through the stack of ad blockers.
Blipverts (Score:5, Interesting)
So, Blipverts are the future? This explains why Youtube is killing the 30-second ad in favor of shorter ads, though.
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So, Blipverts are the future?
I gotta remember to throw some plastic sheets over the couch...
Re:Blipverts (Score:4, Interesting)
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Nice. I was really hoping to see Max Headroom pop back up for the modern era. When watching that show I distinctly remember thinking: "Wait a minute, how can corporations be more powerful than the government?". I wish i could go back to that innocence.....
All this time the corporations were thinking the same thing, but with different inflection.
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So, Blipverts are the future? This explains why Youtube is killing the 30-second ad in favor of shorter ads, though.
Have you seen the 5 second advert for the advert on Youtube? I think I first saw it with Jason Borne. Matt Damon punched someone and then the logo flashed up. I thought "shit that was a short trailer" but then it said "trailer follows".
WTF it was an advert for an advert.
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Is it really attention span (Score:2)
Still more than I've got. (Score:2)
5 or 6 seconds for an ad is way more attention than I give them. I guess it will take a while before they learn to become "ad blind."
in the dark old days... (Score:2)
There was no alternative.
I don't think it's that we had a long attention span. I didn't. It's that we had no choice what so ever. It wasn't the length of the ad, it was how many you'd have to ignore at a time.
We coped though. I always amazed myself with how much homewo
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Some kind of retro food fad. The hipsters are all over it.
Wrong conclusion (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a 6 second attention span for ads before they get bored and move on, it's a 6 second tolerance of ads before the annoyance is worth the effort of avoiding the ad.
But they already know that, which is why they play games with making the ads harder to avoid or skip instead of making short and clever attention-getting spots. They want to burn that brand into your head before you can press or click anything.
Its why we have fights over commercial-skipping DVRs, why we have banners across the bottom of the screen, and why we have product placement.
Re:Wrong conclusion (Score:4, Insightful)
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Every time I'm tempted to hate millennials, I think about it and realize that (with minor changes due to technology) I was just like them. Then I confidently go ahead and hate them with the kind of confident loathing that comes from self-knowledge.
I don't have the patience to wait 20 years for them to catch up with me.
No Time (Score:5, Insightful)
Not having the patience for ads is not the same as having a short attention span. Maybe millennials are just a little more savvy than former generations and realize that all marketing is toxic horseshit.
This story actually makes me optimistic for future generations.
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Well the study isn't linked and there is no citation. The summary alludes to how ridiculous the claim is though. You cannot compare a 30 second television spot in the middle of a show that a viewer is engaged in and listening to with an online advertisement. They are two different things.
I suspect this isn't at all related to millennials. Probably more of a people thing.
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You're probably right. I have no time for advertisements. I pay extra for my media just to make sure I don't get any advertisements. I don't even like it when there is a promo for another movie or show at the beginning of the movie or show I want to watch.
There's no way to eliminate advertising and marketing generally from our lives. Anyone who tells you they have done it is lying, because marketing is ubiquitous. But I
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Billboards and other things in the world may not waste your time, but they warp your worldview and control your mind.
Remember that famous Apple "Big Brother" advertisement? You may not have even seen it, but yes, you remember it. I'll bet you could tell me the slogans of twenty different companies and sing me the jingles of twenty more. You can identify the latest model Lexus from the
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Not having the patience for ads is not the same as having a short attention span. Maybe millennials are just a little more savvy than former generations and realize that all marketing is toxic horseshit.
That sad thing is this is more true than people realize. They've dressed it up better these days but in the 50's, Fred Flintstone was smoking Winstons in a cartoon commercial. Camels: "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette." And we thought this was perfectly socially acceptable at one point!
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In the future, all ads will be like this one [flickr.com].
5 to 6 second attention span (Score:1)
Another reason it was so easy for Trump to win. He kept his tweets short and sweet. He's a man of our times!
Millenials only and a missing link? (Score:3)
I'm Gen-X. I also have a very short span and impatient for many things like ads.
Also, this /. story is missing a link to the story. :P
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What did I say earlier, baby?
One Word (Score:2)
Blipverts [youtube.com]
Millennials have that long an attention span? (Score:5, Interesting)
NOBODY has that long an attention span. (Score:3)
I'm quite a bit older than millennials, and I sure don't have a 5-6 second attention span for ads.
Same. I'm in my 40s and cannot tolerate video ads. If I watch some interesting video on Facebook that fades in an ad I'll scroll down right away. If I watch something that I've DVR'd I'll mash the FF button through ads. If I'm on a web page that starts playing a video ad I'll immediately close the page. If I'm watching a YouTube video I'll immediate click the Skip Ad button once it becomes available. (I've noticed some new ads last only the amount of time the button isn't available.) I don't go to gas stati
Sure... (Score:2)
Why blame millenials? (Score:1)
The only people paying attention to ads these days are the advertisers. I'm ancient by millenial standards, and 5-6 seconds is how long it takes me to find the skip/kill/mute button.
That can't be true. (Score:2)
Mine is far less than that for ads. In fact, my attention is almost immediately lost as I hunt through AdBlock settings to figure out how the ad got past my ad blocker.
Allow me... (Score:2)
If you are advertising, chances are whatever you are offering isn't much of a deal. You're bigger and louder than your competition? Chances are you are offering an inferior product for a superior price. Which brings us to the second problem with advertising: the stupid scams you people pull just to put a little jingle in your pocket. You want to know why people block everything these days? Well, you already know the reason: it's you, or if it isn't you, it's ten of your friends. Come on, you know that you u
tl;dr (Score:2)
"If you're an advertiser who wants to market a product to millennials, you're going to have to make it quick. A new study by comScore revealed online ads targeted toward millennials have to b
*evil Willow voice* Bored now!
Dying generation (Score:1)
It doesn't mattter (Score:2)
None of them have jobs, or money to buy anything. Wait a few years until their baby-boomer parents die and leave them a little money. Then they'll start paying attention to ads.
Stockholm syndrome victims envy? (Score:2)
Web browsing is completely different, we don't have to take that nonsense anymore and we dont. And the youn
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Stockholm syndrome would require you to eventually at least get used to the situation. And advertising doesn't allow this, by definition, because getting used to something also entails not paying attention to it anymore. And advertising wants exactly that from you. So they became more obnoxious, more intrusive, more in-your-face every time you eventually got used to them.
Even my dad, who is going to be 70 in a few years, who pretty much existed with ads for his whole life, even he is still bitching about ad
That's pretty good! (Score:2)
I have a 0 second attention span for ads. (Score:4, Informative)
Your company is not entitled to my time, bandwidth, nor attention.
On browsers: uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger.
On my home network: pfSense firewall sits between Comcast and everything else. pfBlockerng + DNSBL
They are configured with multiple host list sources, it's the best thing I've ever done for adblocking. It stops all the shit from getting on my SmartTV which is locked down and auto-updates but it doesn't fucking play ads in the youtube app or anywhere else but TV from the antenna.
Sauce? (Score:2)
Millennials also have a 5 to 6 second attention span when remembering to included the article source [cnbc.com] in their Slashdot submissions, too.
P.S. "Reader schwit1 writes..." ... is obviously the new way of expressing "copy and paste".
Nice for them (Score:2)
I was born in the fifties of last century and I have none whatsoever.
On a positive note (Score:2)
Superbowl commercials are going to be a lot cheaper if you're only doing 5-6 second time slots.
Assuming anyone will continue watching it that is.
It's easy and logical to disregard ads... (Score:2)
I, otoh, have zero tolerance for ads (Score:2)
When you get older, you notice that your time is limited. You trying to waste my time peddling your shit makes you my enemy. You're trying to steal the most precious asset I have and you will be fought tooth and nail.
Hello. My name is Opportunist, you killed my time, prepare to die.
The kids are awfully slow (Score:2)
I'm 65 and my attention span for ads is around 2 seconds (i.e., the amount of time it takes me to figure out it's an ad).
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Just for interesting's sake are you related to the Munchkin guy?
Regardless, you have a great last name (mine is Jackson too).
I "almost" agree with you.
I have a span of 0.1 seconds; I have to know an ad first.
Well exactly 5 seconds on Youtube.
"Rushes to click ignore ad."
Is WIX the "you need a website" company?
I especially ignore what I call clickbait ads.
I don't need a website; using WIX or anything else.