“Re-Attention:” The Challenge of Getting Attention Again Once You've Lost It

Getting attention is hard enough.

Getting “re-attention” may even be harder.

Maintaining attention infers that attention is ongoing.

“Re-attention” however suggests that there’s been a break in the level of interest, and that the reasons for this disconnect have to be identified and then reconciled before a relationship can be reestablished.

There can be positive reasons why attention gets lost (a new product attribute grabs attention from an old attribute for example), however it’s easier to conceive of negative ones including consumer ennui, declining value/performance/relevance, complexity, shiny new objects, a product failure, or at some point a negative consumer-developed disposition that isn’t addressed.

Here are some thinking points on attention (or lack of it):

• What are your listeners passionate about and what are they oblivious to, and how does that fit with your station vision?
• What aspects of the station, if they had heightened attention, could increase listening?  
• If attention has been lost or not developed to the desired level, what are the potential reasons and remedies: a personal enthusiastic appeal, initiating a relevant conversation, creating a “second first impression,” promoting a new found benefit/feature that creates an improved end-user experience, using credible testimonials, providing new information that will result in reconsidering a negative predisposition, or...?
• How is attention best maintained once it’s been reestablished?
• How long is “long enough” to see results?
• Is the “gain worth the pain” to get attention back for this particular issue? Sometimes the answer may be “no.”

Jump into the process by thinking about what does and doesn’t get your attention when you listen to your station or a competitor.