figure 7

figure 8

Getting attention you don't want
Figures 7 and 8 are examples of creating tension where none need exist; the visitor is thwarted from doing what they came to do. Ouch! Do realize this isn't a problem on all sites or with all audiences. As in all things, the better you know your audience, the better you'll be able to use and place ad content to both their and your advantage.

In most cases, attention getters such as those shown in figures 7 and 8 aren't optimally placed, designed or executed. Slight changes and the response to these things would skyrocket. Instead, the true target audience responds to them as irritations. How do people usually respond to something that's irritating and bothering them? With stress, usually demonstrated by either leaving the site or closing the offending offer.

figure 9

figure 10

The other option is to deal incongruously with online questionnaires such as shown in figures 9 and 10. Incongruous responses are fairly easy to weed out; it simply costs money to do so. The responses that remain aren't coming from your target audience, though. I explained in Intrusive Little Windows or "DeBranding Made Easy" that visitors responding to these types of questionnaires aren't in a conversion mindset, so don't expect to learn how to convert them by asking them any questions.

Getting attention without increasing stress on a web page is much easier than most people might think. Unfortunately, the companies currently doing things properly aren't the ones placing ads on web pages or creating ad delivery technologies.

Let's consider some examples. Remember that these ads, like spam, are often annoying and yet must be effective. They are "annoying" because people most often speak disparagingly about them. They "must be effective" because they are still being used. This is spam with higher production value but with the same basic agenda. Spam floods your inbox and most people despise it. However, if somebody somewhere wasn't buying what's offered in the spam emails, they'd stop in a heartbeat. Therefore, they're effective enough that they continue.

That offered, let's consider some advertising delivery technologies that are basically spam with higher production value.

figure 1

figure 2

figure 3

Blinding you with science
Consider figures 1-3. You've just entered a website and before anything else loads you see figure 1. You're being asked for an account number. A few moments later the image changes to figure 2, another request for an account number. This is followed by figure 3, at which point most people begin to think, "What?"

figure 5 before

figure 5 after

figure 6 before

figure 6 after

These figures are more examples of this concept. This approach is either correct or incorrect depending on the business purpose of your site.

These types of ads literally get in the way of what your higher-level cognitive functions are doing. If the purpose of your site is to drive people to other sites, the examples in figures 1-3 and 5-6 are excellent. If, on the other hand, the purpose of your site is to keep people actively engaged, all that will pass into the consciousness of the majority of website visitors is annoyance and irritation.

Let me first remind you that these ads are getting some kind of desired response. If they weren't, they wouldn't be there. Let me next offer that they are not getting anywhere near the response they could be getting because they're disobeying three rules of the multi-modal system, and these three rules are encased in the "waving my hand to be heard, whispering to be seen" concept.

Here is the concept, bigger than life, so you can pay attention:

Ask for their attention by
Getting their attention in a way they're not
Using their attention

Want an example? Easy to provide. Before the increased font and bold of the above, I wrote: "Here is the concept, bigger than life, so you can pay attention."

This is known as priming.
I was preparing you, the reader, for something.

1. I primed you by telling you where it was in time and space ("Here is the concept"). This demonstrates a trust relationship between advertiser (me) and prospect (you). Letting you know ahead of time that I'm going to present something to you gives you more freedom in the relationship. By giving you more freedom and displaying trust, I've essentially used the multi-modal buffer system to ask for your attention.
   
   
2. I further primed you by writing "bigger than life." This time the priming involved preparing you for what came next so as to further cement the trust relationship. For example, I don't want to shock, annoy or irritate you with something (bold text, large font) you're not prepared for, so by priming you for what I'm going to do I'm getting your attention.
   
   
3. Lastly, I wrote "so you can pay attention." Did you think you were already paying attention simply because you were reading this? Quite correct, you were. More correctly, you were paying attention with certain parts of your mind that you normally use for reading and internalizing information in iMedia columns. The "so you can pay attention" phrase basically told your brain-mind system that it needed to pay attention differently and devote some other and additional resources to the task. Your higher level cognitive resources were already engaged in reading the column, so your multi-modal system kicked in and said, "What else do I have I can throw at this?" and placed cross sensory-attention systems that weren't being used at the bold text above. The message has gone in and gone in deep. You can remember "Ask-Get-Use" because it's simple and direct. It allows you to cooperate with your prospects, something they'll respond to thousand-fold.

Now let me show an example of this done in a way most everyone is familiar with.

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