M&M World gets our attention

Waiting for our room in a New York hotel, I was struck by the recent additions to the Times Square screaming signage noise, but how effective they are…and how this is a harbinger of things to come as traditional media continues to decline.

When billions are at stake as they are with TV, radio, newspapers and magazines run by people quite adept at the psychology of gaining and holding our attention, they’ll undoubtedly do a lot more than reality shows as more of us tune them out.

But will this attention acumen translate to Internet properties? I’m not so sure since there is an inherent equality of attention-getting when your site or blog is a click away from, say, MTV’s or CNN’s and an audience can be grabbed and held for slot less investment than a press, broadcast network or gigantic, animated billboard in Times Square.