Grabbing the attention of an audience is harder than ever. With the opportunity to mute, skip, fast-forward, switch between tabs and devices, grabbing the attention of a TV or online audience is far from easy . The question is no longer only if your campaign will be remembered, but if it will be watched at tall. It has also been suggested that viewers these days have a shorter attention span than ever before, maybe so, or maybe today’s audiences have higher expectations as to what they choose to dedicate their time to. Either way, the first few seconds are vital to an audience with an average attention span of 8 seconds (Statistics Brain), as it might be what prevents the viewer from skipping the ad.

An advert explaining how great a product is simply won’t do anymore. When watching films, TV shows, and YouTube content we are there to be entertained, not pushed to buy something. We want good stories, humour, impressive skills, and stunning visuals. And if this is not indicated from the first few frames of the advert… Skip. In fact, we skip up to 90% of TV ads and 85% of online ads if given the opportunity.

McVities recently released their new ad for Chocolate Digestives that starts out as predictable: the brand is on screen, the package is opened, but what happens less that five seconds into the video? Kittens!

Managing to surprise viewers is only one of the strategies to distract the audience from clicking that button leaving your ad forever unwatched. The LoveLove office love the latest advertising campaign from Marmite, evolving the well-known love it or hate it strapline, urging users not to forget their jars, ‘Love it. Hate it. Just don’t forget it.’

The TV spot, shot in the manner of a real-life animal-rescue programme, sees the Marmite Rescue Unit remove neglected jars from offenders’ homes before taking them to the Marmite Rehoming Centre. From there, the previously lonely and forgotten jars are ‘adopted’ by Marmite-loving families. Watch it below:

The ability to surprise, suggest and impress goes far further than the explicit display as Guinness showed the world back in 2012 with their revolutionizing ‘Good things come to those who wait’ ad campaign:

Creating a concept that initially appears to not have anything to do with what you are trying to sell means the audience is far more likely to be intrigued and watch the ad all the way to the end where the brand and product appears, linking the emotion to the brand, not the other way around.

In the end, the craziest ideas are more likely to be your best bet. Associations, emotions and spectacle are far more likely to be recognized and remembered than boring, pushy ‘buy, buy, buy’-toned ads. That is why we live for incredible ideas, groundbreaking concepts and stunning visuals.