Captivating Audiences NOT Captive Audiences

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

We have reported before about the “myth of the captive audience” – in that particular article Devang Raiyani in Bombay, India explored the term in regards to retail media and here too, Stuart Armstrong, President, EnQii North America explores the same topic.

His focus is very much – it’s about Captivating Audiences NOT a Captive Audience!

He starts by saying “Contrary to what many marketers would like to believe, there is no such thing as a “captive audience” anymore. In fact, in today’s digitized world, the term is misleading and even lazy. It implies that an audience has no choice but to watch what you push onto their retinas and into their brains. As such, it gives short shrift to the importance of relevant, quality content…”

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3 Responses to “Captivating Audiences NOT Captive Audiences”

  1. JR Woolsey CEO Says:

    The point is, a captivating audience implies dwell time, find the dwell build your network, your audience will watch many have lazy eyes, however most OOH company’s are missing the basic understanding of marketing dwell time, keep it simple.

    Woolsey -Au bon droit

  2. Dave Sprogis - CEO CineCast Says:

    Woolsey has it right, dwell time is critical; the best time to reach someone is when they are waiting. People waiting at the check-out are hungry for stimulation – what else explains the success of The National Enquirer? Why squander this opportunity by giving it to magazines?

    In the author’s case of a retailer, opportunity to improve margin through “choice” vs. “select” meet is far less valuable than the opportunity to reduce “shrink” on prepared foods by discounting them at the check-out toward the end of the day. Example, “savory oven-roasted chicken meets after-work mom at the register”, bagger fetches and bags it before the credit card transaction is complete. This is targeted – responsive to times of day (needs of the customer) and inventory levels (needs of the retailer).

  3. Stephen Ghigliotty Says:

    Creating compelling content without compromise is still the major link here. There is no easy solution there, even factoring in template libraries amd dynamic feeds. We don’t have standards to leverage yet.

    And to think of the wacky off shore solutions I have heard! Yep, the best lines for SNL were written in China last week…

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