Attention is the new currency not click-through rates, says AOL’s David Shing
Measuring by click-through rates should be a thing of the past, with “attention” the new currency for brand marketers, according to AOL’s digital evangelist David Shing.
Speaking at MediaCom’s Beyond Advertising event in London Yesterday Shing said children are now “born connected” and that the rise of social media has meant everyone is now one click away from each other’s inner, personal thoughts. “The new form of personal expression is the new form of entertainment,” he said.
However, Shing said people are still focusing on the wrong kinds of measurement. “There is still a land grab for Likes on Facebook and that’s a rubbish concept,” he said.
The industry has evolved from focusing on curated content a few years ago, to curated conversations today, and marketers must adjust their KPIs accordingly, according to Shing.
“Those winning in the social space are those that treat their audience like VIPs. We want to gather people’s attention – attention is the KPI that all brand marketers will be judged on. Attention is the new currency - forget click-through-rates- that’s done,” he said.
“There is mass confusion out there. There are more ways to distribute through links than actual publications. People have changed the way they live, eat, the way they are entertained and gather information. We have to catch up with them. We must think bigger and faster,” said Shing.
To adapt to changing digital behaviours and hold people’s attention brands must focus on utility, especially when it comes to mobile, according to Shing. “That means it must be useful, and please don’t call it the second or third screen – it’s the first screen. How many of you walked in here with a TV screen?” he added.
The days of build an app and they will come are long gone and there is now a 70 per cent chance that any person that downloads an app will only use it once. Instead focus should be on building a great experience on mobile and for that experimentation is necessary, according to Shing. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication when it comes to mobile," he said.
Meanwhile he called for more brands to adopt richer ad formats, which can incorporate social, commerce, video and apps within them to provide contextual experiences for consumers.
He dismissed the term ‘native advertising’ because it only renders an ad contextual to a specific site it is on. "For people to have consistent brand experience it must be contextual across all sites – I call it harmonious ads,” he added.
Earlier this month AOL revealed it was dropping the GoViral video network brand name two years after buying the company for $100m, relaunching it as part of a new global content business called Be On.
Be On will also include production arm AOL Studios, which makes the AOL Music sessions featuring acts including Adele and Florence and the Machine.
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