Marketing in the Attention Economy

Earlier this fall I shared a three part podcast series about the “attention economy” and its implications for schools. These were titled Podcast174: Relevance in the Attention Economy Part 1: Key Ideas, Podcast187: Implications of the Attention Economy for Schools (Part 2 of 3), and Podcast190: Implications of the Attention Economy for Schools (Part 3 of 3.) The primary motivator for this thinking thread was Michael Goldhaber’s 1997 article, “The Attention Economy and the Net.”

This morning my wife and kids showed me (via our DVR) a new advertisement on television for freecreditreport.com that was hilarious. A late teens / early twenties young man was singing with his band in his parents’ basement, bemoaning the fact that he hadn’t realized what his now wife’s poor credit score would do to their ability to get a mortgage for their own home. I searched for this video on YouTube and didn’t find it (yet) but did find a previous ad from the same group, with the same actors:

Advertisements like these are very effective, in my view, because they are funny, creative, and also make some important points that get you thinking. Can’t the knowledge products our students create at school to meet curriculum standards achieve similar results? It takes time and effort, but I think the answer is “yes.”

The third standard of the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) include, under the standard 3 (“Technology productivity tools”) the following:

• Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
• Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

How are your students developing and refining their own capacities for creativity at school, in the learning tasks and assessment activities you require and/or invite them to complete? This advertisement on YouTube provides a tangible example of how a serious message can be shared in a memorable way, using creativity, music, and digital communication tools.