Recently I arrived in Slovakia on a cold wet day after a hideous flight with Ryanair (I vow to never fly with them again).  I arrived at my hotel, a Hilton, and was handed a WARM fresh cookie by the concierge.  He has a special draw that keeps the cookies warm and the cookies are replaced every 4 hours so they are always fresh.  What a way to make you feel welcome and to move a bland hotel to a warm and welcoming haven.

I’m old enough to remember a time when brand extension was the exception to the rule, when Ries and Trout told marketers that it broke one of their immutable rules; but nowadays there are few brands that haven’t tried it. However there are still some that when you see them for the first time, they make you smile.

Each year Disneyland uses over 5,000 gallons of paint to maintain the clean appearance of the park

Source: Google Facts

There are no snakes in New Zealand. It’s part of New
Zealand’s bio security to keep snakes out and if a person is aware of a snake,
by law it must be reported.

Source: interestingfacts.net

Further to Anna’s blog of last week about dual-screening (http://www.thevalueengineers.com/2013/03/08/first-there-was-one-then-two-then-three-and-then-one-again/) for me this is just one manifestation of the underlying trend of Continuous Partial Attention (CPA). It is one that impacts on not just ITC categories but will have major implications for everything from advertising to education to family interactions.

How often have you heard parents talking about not understanding how their children can be listening to music, texting, writing an essay, watching a box set of the latest TV series and shouting at their younger siblings all at once? This is the new reality. This is continuous partial attention and its how many of us use our attention today. In fact many people reading this won’t be giving it their full attention. I’m delighted that we got at least some of yours. Grabbing 100% of someone’s attention and holding for 1, 5, 10 mins is something that was always hard but is now increasingly difficult.

And if you are still with me and wondering if CPA isn’t just another word for multi-tasking, there is  a difference

When we multi-task, we are usually trying to be more productive. We’re often doing things that are automatic; that require very little cognitive processing. It’s used to describe a situation where someone is doing two or more things at once before moving onto something else they want to do. To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is a new constant, it driven by the desire not to miss anything - to be connected, to be recognized, and to matter.