Can you count the number of passes!!!

This post is a fairly technical post regarding the use of inattention blindness in advertising. You must have encountered situations of optical illusion in ads this is primarily that. This post has been written by our very own geeky - Zaid Ahmed

Inattentional blindness also known as perceptual blindness is a psychological lack of attention and is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight. Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists Arien Mack and the late Irvin Rock. They conducted experiments which proved the inability of human mind to process anything that is not the specific and direct focus of attention at that moment and people who had their attention focused on one thing often failed to notice an unexpected object, even when it appeared right in the middle of their field of vision. So to understand it clearly let us take a test.

So why is this phenomenon relevant to us?

As marketers, we should be aware of the fact that human brain is on auto pilot 85% of the time, so one should be sure the ads and marketing messages for their targeted consumers doesn't fall victim to inattentional blindness when we are trying to get our marketing message across.

Banner ads on the homepages are other example of inattentional blindness and by now we all are immune to it they no longer command our focus and attention. And that’s the reason why click through rates have dropped drastically of late. Same is the case for other ads too. Consumers often ignore a company’s latest news, offers and ads.  So capturing consumer’s attention to marketing message should be the goal of every marketer.

Few suggestions for the same:

1.  The advertisements should be displayed when the targeted audience is not doing anything important, or else to attract attention it has to overcome the defenses of unconscious mind, because when people are surfing online and are zoned into finding something specific and important to them, they become blind to everything else. Hence investing in TV advertisement is far more beneficial. Same with the YouTube ads that run before playing the video. People are always more likely to pay attention when they’re not doing something important.

2.    The advertisement should be relevant: When your customer is busy with something or having problem in one direction he or she won’t reject something that could add a value to their goal. Hence the ad banners online should be very helpful if they are relevant to the search for example if I am searching for new cars a advertising banner of driving school will be something I might look

3.    Use contrast is another way of grabbing attention some of the ways to make your ads stand out are bright colors, loud patterns, and things that are in motion, are all eye-catching features. But remember not to make it over the top and annoying.

      4.     Leverage multi-channel marketing: using one approach to reach your audience is not            a good idea. Use all different means to reach your potential customers - email marketing            social media, mobile marketing, etc.