8 seconds is the length of time a bull rider is required to stay on the bull to warrant a score. 8 seconds is also the amount of time Microsoft Canada1 says we have to capture and retain a person's attention.
We here at MobileDigital imagine that 8 seconds is a very long time on the back of a bull. Strangely so is 8 seconds looking at a phone screen without touching to move to another screen. Try it, look at one screen on your mobile and count to 8, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, 4 Mississippi, 5 Mississippi, 6 Mississippi, 7 Mississippi and 8.
By about 3 seconds, most of us become glaringly aware of just how fast our cognitive capabilities are. Just performing this simple exercise will assist you in your mobile mind shift. We are different animals when we are on our phone, attention greedy, wanting to always be entertained, interested and absorbed as much as possible in what Mary Meeker2 refers to as the mobile moment. We also want the time we spend, no matter how precisely short a mobile moment is, to be gaining as much value from the moment as is possible.
According to Mary Meeker, we pick up our phones and have between 150 and 200 mobile moments a day. There is real competition for screen time. The significant challenges for creative and messaging teams are in that period past the 3 seconds, the 4-8 second period, to take any interest created, create context relevance and value and then drive to a call to action.
This is the mobile mind shift challenge for creatives, designers and marketers, how we get our message in front of an active mobile user, how do we get our message in, make it interesting enough to get them absorbed, drive a call to action, all at the same time making sure that this interaction is attributed as a valuable and authentic mobile moment.
