What will be the most captivating moment of 2012?

2011 was a monumental year. But where will we find the most captivating moments of 2012 and why should advertisers take note? Geoff Copps, research & analysis manager at Telegraph Media Group, explores…

What is a captivating moment?

As 2011 drew to a close, I asked people for their stand-out recollections of the year. As you might expect, responses varied enormously. Here’s an obvious one for starters:

“The image of Kate Middleton on that balcony and the crowd stretching back to the horizon as she mouths ‘Wow’. Really a captivating moment.”

I should start by coming clean. When I refer to ‘people’, above, I specifically mean Telegraph readers. They comprise a broad church, one that can be defined as 30-plus affluent consumers, spanning platforms from smartphone to print. Most typically in print, they are baby boomers: 45-plus, asset-rich, astute, politically and culturally switched-on.

Using our 12,000-strong reader research forum, at the Telegraph we have a hotline to this ‘boomer’ generation. Affluent and recession-proof, they are now being recognised by major companies as an increasingly influential portion of the population.

Both Pepsico and General Mills (whose brand portfolio includes the likes of Häagen-Dazs and Cheerios) announced to investors that they will be focusing more on boomers over the next five years. In the US, Wendy’s is set to overtake Burger King in the fast food market, a success that is being attributed by analysts to more effective targeting of older, affluent consumers. Similarly, in the tough UK travel market TUI’s relatively strong 2011 performance has in part been attributed to its ability to appeal to this consumer group.

The fact is that marketers are waking up to the unrivalled spending and family decision-making power of 45-pluses, making them an essential part of any mainstream marketing campaign.

Yet boomer consumers can be a tough audience to impress. So how best, as an advertiser, to communicate your message effectively? Before we address this question, let’s return to those stand-out recollections of the year, of which Kate’s ‘wow’ was just one. Here’s a second, a more private one this time:

“In November, I went to a concert. The programme kicked off with a group called the ‘Dollettes’… This was a portrayal of China in 2011 in much the same way as America would’ve portrayed itself in the boom years – with boundless optimism and an awareness of its importance on the world stage. It was staged by Chinese performers for a Chinese audience from the Albert Hall and compèred by a Chinese TV personality who pointed out that the Chinese audience also viewing the show was not just numbered in millions but hundreds of millions…”

And lastly a third, lying somewhere between public awareness and private experience:

“September… [party political] conference season. The conference because of the news from outside, impossible to ignore. Leafing through to digest reports sandwiched by giddying Eurozone analysis.”

What makes a captivating moment? I

So, what have we here? On the face of it, three very different recollections from an eventful year. What do they have to tell us about how really to make an impact on advertising audiences – especially those most influential and affluent 45-pluses?

I would like to suggest that the answer lies in the two things that all three recollections have in common.

Firstly, all three moments derive their power from context, a keen appreciation of the wider situation of which they are part.

Consider the Kate moment. It wasn’t just a young woman on a balcony. It becomes really affecting only when we acknowledge all that it carried with it: the troubled and at times tragic history of the Royals, the deep history of a nation momentarily at the centre of global attention again and, in particular, the mirror image of that first balcony kiss back in 1981. The moment offered a buoyant fresh start backlit by the wider context.

The Chinese concert and conference coverage work in much the way (though are more personal and therefore require more imaginative effort on our part to fathom). The concert depends on an awareness of the US boom-time comparison in order to turn the realisation of China’s new global pre-eminence into a captivating moment of real import. Similarly, the conference coverage captivates in part through force of comparison – it is the global economic coverage added to the familiar domestic political story that is transformational.

In short, understanding and experience are crucial for generating truly captivating moments.

What makes a captivating moment? II

This conclusion leads me on to the second thing that these three instances (and others like them) have in common: the central role of media in generating captivating moments.

All three involve media interventions: the first comes from an image, turned iconic in newspapers in the days that followed the Royal wedding, on mobile and iPad apps (and also delivered in video form on TV and online). The second recollection was a live but also cinematic experience, beamed thousands of miles across the globe on to screens in Chinese cities. And the third shows the impact of the published word (that “leafing through” line – though whether experienced by the reader in print or on the Telegraph iPad app we can’t be sure).

What these moments also make clear is that each media platform captivates its audience in a different way. TV and online video is more about spectacle, about sound and movement. The published word is more about considered impact, depth and fullness of understanding, and authoritativeness.

This difference was recently articulated by Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow. In his hour-long review of 2011, he described the challenge that had faced broadcast news media: “It’s been a real struggle… I’m not sure that any of us managed to capture [what] confronted Britain, Europe and the wider world… [It is] too big and abstract to comprehend.”

‘Bigness’ and ‘abstractness’ – two qualities that publishers, and national quality news publishers in particular, are best equipped to deliver. Indeed, the final of the three reader recollections above addresses this point directly. Our third reader’s captivating moment is not so much about spectacle as it is about understanding, consideration and (in their own words) the fruits of “analysis”. The published word is just better than other media at conveying such information. Think about the MPs’ expenses revelations of 2009, the WikiLeaks revelations of 2010-11 – as well as all manner of advertising campaigns from finance to utilities to retail.

Advertisers who are looking to deliver specific or relatively complex consumer messages without losing clarity; who are looking to weave a consistent brand ‘narrative’; who are looking to activate feelings of reassurance, authority, trust, established credentials – all of these are areas at which quality news publishers excel.

Why are captivating moments important?

Why should these captivating moments be of interest to advertisers? Because of what harnessing them can do for your brand. Two examples will serve here to illustrate the case.

Over recent years, the new development which has most consistently captivated consumers is the intersection of media and technology. As with the wedding moment, it is easy to see how understanding and experience play a part here. Many young people are largely non-plussed by technological innovations such as the tablet. For 30-pluses who grew up with Pong (1970s) or Podd (1980s), an attentive curiosity arises more naturally. And for those who remember when it took a whole floor of office space to match the processing power now found within one mobile device, the force of comparison and disincentive to take media and technology for granted is stronger still.

In this light, the enthusiastic up-take over 2011 of tablets, e-readers, smartphones and the Telegraph‘s associated apps sounds inevitable. As I’ve written here before, tablets are primarily a 40-plus phenomenon, not a youth one. The Telegraph iPad app captivates audiences and duly has its impact on brands: research shows that brands experienced via our iPad app are especially likely to be seen as ‘market-leading’, ‘attractive’, ‘modern’ and ‘innovative’.

A second brief example comes from the weekend print magazine market. Research has shown that our Saturday Magazine is valued by readers as it creates a trusted, premium environment which is captivating, and in which they can encounter new ideas – and, by extension, advertising. Accordingly, it serves as a weekly source of inspiration and ideas on brands from luxury goods to fashion to furnishings. (Typical reader comments include “I always pick up one or two ideas…” and “I find the advertisements give me food for thought…”).

So truly captivating moments – which arise with most intensity through the coming together of media, consumer experience and understanding – create an environment of heightened receptivity and positivity towards brand messaging. Advertisers should look to harness these qualities.

Where will we find the most captivating moments of 2012?

We hear that people get more cynical with age. This is nonsense. In right-thinking adults, cynicism is a teenage phase, something you grow out of. As the example of 45-plus Telegraph readers shows, in its place arrives an increased capacity for experiencing truly captivating moments that comes through experience and critical information-seeking.

So where will we find the ‘captivating moments’ of 2012? The answer is through media – and in the cross-platform coverage of key events, news, lifestyle topics and new ideas. Among other things, this year we look ahead to leadership elections across the globe (the US, Russia and France to name but three), the Diamond Jubilee, scientific and technological advances from Silicon Valley to CERN, the Euros, the Cultural Olympiad and, of course, the Olympics. At the Telegraph we look forward to another exciting year of cross-platform innovation, content delivery and customer interactions.

Our research has shown that Telegraph audiences’ lives are peppered with captivating moments, provided by our print, iPad, mobile and web offerings. It is by accessing these recurrent instances – thought-provoking, engrossing, focusing readers’ minds on new experiences and messages – that brands can really reach out to consumers.

I make no apologies for being warm and fuzzy. It’s a grim January day outside. I hope I have gone some way towards naming the x that makes certain media, and in particular quality news publishers, an essential part of a truly effective advertising campaign. And all without once using that more familiar, ill-defined word engagement.

Oops.

The Telegraph online reader research forum is facilitated by eDigitalResearch.