In Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (Back Bay Books, 2002), he relates about the “stickiness” of Sesame Street. This stickiness applies equally to adults- especially when communicating in the B2B environment. How does someone “get” the memo?
The producers of Sesame Street initially believed that there had to be a lot of on-screen action to keep a child’s attention- noise, movement, etc., then the kids would watch. However, they did several tests with groups of kids- some given a room full of nice toys while viewing, and some with no toys. Interestingly enough, the kids with the room full of toys fared equally as the kids with no toys when asked what they had learned from the video. Why?
“Kids don’t watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused.”
Boring material is boring material. Material that is buried in noise is a lot of noise. However, things that are clear- cut and comprehensible will “stick”.