A dog with colored spots. A dog wearing running shoes. A dog with a gas mask.

In Capturing Attention by Triggering the Mind, marketing expert Max Sutherland, PhD uses ads with these three dogs to show one way that advertising can capture the attention of consumer eyeballs that are more likely to whiz by an ad than to stop and look:

The formula is simple. Take any familiar object and change it somehow so that the ID scanner in the mind’s eye instantly identifies it but at the same time says ‘hang on a second….something’s wrong’… When something doesn’t quite fit, [the mind] ceases the automatic processing and the bell is rung to recruit additional attention and processing.

While Sutherland’s article doesn’t specifically point to attention deficit disorder as a root challenge for advertisers, the parallels are obvious. Consumer eyeballs in an advertising space are programmed to keep skimming. It takes something special to make them stop.

But Sutherland emphasizes that stopping to pay attention isn’t enough:

Remember that getting attention is one thing. Registering the brand is quite another. Too many ads go for attention but fail to register the brand.

This is an essential second point.

For ADDexecs in business, Sutherland’s observations are useful two ways:

1. We learn more about how our own brains work, and can try new techniques for capturing and directing our own attention when it might wander, and

2. We learn how we can design our own advertising (or other communications) to cut through ADD in the marketplace (or in our own colleagues).

We’ll visit some more of Sutherland’s articles in the near future, to highlight their application to the business life of adults with attention deficit disorder. Meanwhile, we encourage you to check out Sutherland’s website Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer.