Competition for consumer attention has become more of a battle today than ever before. There have always been thousands of companies advertising their very similar products and services across different media platforms, but today they are not the only ones putting out content. User generated content—whether it be for marketing or personal purposes—is more popular than ever today. This type of content is stealing viewers’ attention from the sponsored content that is put out on new media platforms by businesses. Companies must be more strategic with their marketing in order to catch consumers’ attention in a space where they typically do not like to view advertisements. Consumers are hit with about 625 of these sponsored advertisements per day across all media platforms according to a Media Dynamics Study (Media Matters, 2007). However, media consumers have learned to block out advertisements and only pay attention to the content they are choosing to view, which makes grabbing their attention harder than ever before.

One way advertisers and marketers grab my attention, as a consumer, is by putting out advertisements with a shock factor that make people think and talk about it. During this past Super Bowl, Nationwide aired a commercial that featured a child talking about how he will never be able to learn to ride a bike, to get cooties, to fly, to travel the world, or to get married because he died in an accident. The commercial then goes on to explain that the leading cause of childhood deaths is preventable accidents and how Nationwide wants to help protect you and your family from accidents. I still remember this commercial seven months later because I, like many other viewers, did not expect it to take that dark turn. This advertisement was spoken about in almost all of my Newhouse classes the following day, mentioned by most of my friends, and sparked many social media conversations. Nationwide’s advertisement did a great job grabbing viewer attention and, whether it was intentional or not, keeping their attention by sparking conversations about the advertisement. Twitter went crazy with user-generated content about the commercial, which included memes and tweets that made the brand interact with other brands. For example, a user tweeted this meme with the Nationwide logo poking fun at the fact that Nationwide is killing off your family at a TV event that is typically family-oriented.

Tweets like this (see below) also flooded Twitter poking fun at Nationwide while humanizing the brand.

“Look how amazing kids can be.” – Microsoft “Unless they die.” – Nationwide

— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 2, 2015

Nationwide may not have thought their Make Safe Happen campaign would be taken to so poorly, but their advertising team definitely got my attention due to the shock factor of the original advertisement and the humorous social media uproar that followed. Now I am not saying that Nationwide did a great job with this campaign and got the message across that they had intended, but they did do a great job getting my attention and making me remember their brand because the commercial was talked about days after it had aired.

Another brand whose advertisements captured my attention was Bud Light and their Summer Bucket List campaign. Advertisements from this campaign appeared in my life in the media and in person. I would see the different Summer Bucket List commercials (like the one below) on TV that featured people around my age relaxing and having summer fun.

Then on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook sponsored Summer Bucket List posts would show up on all of my feeds, which led me to click on the hashtag (#UpForWhatever) and see what other users had posted. The way this campaign really caught my attention was the fact that it was put in front of my face in so many different settings–digitally and in person. Over the summer, my friends (who are of age) were drinking Bud Light cans that had the Summer Bucket List hashtag printed on the side followed by a fun activity a younger person drinking Bud Light might do during the summer. In my opinion, the vast majority of advertisements go over viewer’s heads because the only way for them to experience what is happening in the advertisement is if they were to go out of their way to make exactly that happen (which most people would never do 99% of the time) or they were actually a part of the commercial or advertisement. However, Bud Light brought the ideas in their campaign into my, and many other’s, personal life discretely. Usually, when I was with my friends and they were drinking the Bud Lights we would be having some “summer fun” like the people in the advertisements were, which made their message resonate with me more and keep my attention.

Advertisers and marketers constantly compete for viewers’ attention in a cluttered ad space. The fact that there are so many advertisements that a viewer is exposed to on a daily basis has made us desensitized and sometimes even a little annoyed with advertisers attempts to get us to buy into their brands. This has presented the challenge of not only exposing potential customers to the brand via advertisements, but also getting them to pay attention and register what their advertisements are saying. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to create an advertisement that gets people talking in person and on social media. These conversations help these advertisements become noteworthy to people who have not yet seen it and it will force them to make the effort to go see it so they can feel involved in the current conversation. Nationwide accidentally made this happen, maybe not in the most positive light, but they got people to pay attention to them and talk. Another way to get users attention is to call for engagement with the brand in-person and on social media. If I feel involved in a brand, I will be more likely to purchase it over a competitor.