Skippable is Chill

Last week I read an article in Adweek: “9 Particularly Interesting Digital Marketing Stats from this Week”.   As a social media marketer—someone constantly trying to get eyeballs and keep them blinking, open, engaged—I stopped on this one:

“3. Skippable is chill

Last month, LaunchLeap surveyed U.S. millennial internet users about YouTube ads and found that 59 percent skip branded clips as soon as they can. Meanwhile, 29 percent said they watch YouTube ads until completion. The Montreal-based online survey company also found that 11 percent of the Gen Y crowd were blocking YouTube spots with ad blockers.” 

Skippable is chill.  It’s becoming a reflex.  A given.  Consumers don’t like ads, they don’t trust them, they don’t put up with them, they proactively block them.  It’s something I know well and think about with every piece of content I put out.

The task becomes—as a brand looking to connect with consumers and drive their allegiance—finding ways to make ads not feel like ads, to make the message feel valuable, thoughtful, considerate of consumers’ limited time and short attention spans. 

How do we revolutionize the way we market to consumers online to drive trust and engagement?  How do we stop putting messages out there just because we have the budgets to do so?

From our discussion last week in class, we know consumers, hands-down, trust their friends and family the most.  This is where leveraging the power of social media becomes most exciting.  As digital marketers, we need to do a better job of counseling clients that if we want a message to truly stick with a target consumer, to resonate, we need to find ways to get into the hearts and minds of the people who matter most to that consumer—the people that consumer talks to, turns to, and trusts every day.