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SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016 PHILLY AD NEWS

COLUMN | BY CHRISTOPHER LUKACH

Reputation
management
IN THE ATTENTION-DEFICIT AGE
Let me simulate for you the kind of conversation in which I often find myself:
FRIEND: DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE PATIENT WHO DIED AT XYZ HOSPITAL?
ME: HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
FRIEND: DONT KNOW.
ME: WHEN WAS IT?

FRIED RAT

BUILD YOUR EFFORTS

AROUND DIRECT,

FRIEND: DONT KNOW. JUST SAW THE

HEADLINE.

CONCISE MESSAGES,

ME: WHAT DID THE HOSPITAL SAY?

AND HELP YOUR

FRIEND: DIDNT CATCH THAT. BUT ISNT

IT JUST TERRIBLE? THEY SHOULD BE
ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES.

eye-opening study confirming what many in

our field have suspected nearly three out of
five social media users share articles on social
media without reading through the article. Yes,
60 percent of Facebook users have, at least once,
shared information to which theyve applied no
critical thinking and no more than a few seconds
of attention. (Hey, Im one of them.)
This is typical of modern information
consumption, one of the studys co-authors said.
People are more willing to share an article than
read it.
Couple this with the fact that people are more
likely to believe content validated by their friends,
and you have a dangerous recipe for brands
struggling to weather reputation management
challenges.

SPOKESPERSONS DO
THE SAME.

More than a half-century ago, the academician

Clay Schoenfeld posited a theory that still
can be found today in just about every college
communications textbook. Schoenfelds 30-330 formula presented three types of readers and
how they process information, beginning with
the 30-second reader, for whom you have a finite
amount of time to secure their attention.
Academicians for decades have noted that
Schoenfelds concept of a 30-second reader may
have been a bit generous; recent findings from
Microsoft Research and the University of Hamburg
give users an attention span of somewhere between
two and 10 seconds, respectively. But I believe the
real reason Schoenfelds theory has grown dusty is
not the shrinking nature of attention spans; rather,
its about the changing ways users process and act
upon information.
Schoenfeld suggested you had just seconds
to garner your readers attention to entice
them into further reading and engagement. The
challenge of todays reader is not that their short
attention spans are keeping them from content
altogether, as Schoenfeld once suggested. Its that
their limited attention spans are forcing them into
snap judgments devoid of critical thinking.

Consider this real-life example:

Last summer, a Facebook user posted a photo of
an oddly shaped piece of chicken from the threepiece tenders meal he purchased at a Compton,
CA., KFC, noting it looked like a fried rat. With a
little help from the Reddit community, the photo
went viral. More than 130,000 people shared the
photo, exposing the Facebook post to millions.
Add to that the hundreds of thousands of shares
via credible media outlets. The Reuters news
service posted the article framing the headline as
a question KFC served fried rat?
You can almost hear the question being posed
by the three-second readers across the globe:
Did you hear that KFC served someone a rat?
Isnt that terrible?
Analysis complete. Opinion formed.
(Rest assured, KFC did not serve a rat; it fell
victim to an unfortunate photo.)
Would this have happened in Schoenfelds era
one of slower conclusions and more critical
thought? The three-second readers exposed to
the KFC story werent making a judgment as to
whether or not the story maintained their interest
as in Schoenfelds formula; they were forming an
CONTINUED ON P. 26

CHRISTOPHER
LUKACH, APR
IS PRESIDENT OF ANNE KLEIN
COMMUNICATIONS GROUP. AKCG IS THE
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE OF
IPREX GLOBAL PUBLIC
RELATIONS AND
COMMUNICATION

SHARING WITHOUT READING

In June, researchers from Columbia University
and the French National Institute published an

25

PHILLY AD NEWS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

BERNIE PRAZENICA TAKES THE

HELM OF THE PHILLY AD CLUB
CONTINUED FROM P. 13

to break through and become an even stronger

organization. Our goal should be to engage our
membership more directly and to focus on using
the club to benefit everyone.

MAKING YOUR VOICE HEARD

I call on the entire Greater Philadelphia
communications industry to make your voice
heard as we begin planning for our intended
advocacy efforts. There are many ways for us
to tell our story but we need your input to be
effective. We hope to reach out to city officials, the
American Advertising Federation, as well as other
industry related professional associations, and to
actively engage YOUR businesses to the fullest.
I hope you will be there to help when we come
knocking!
This is all possible due to the dedication of our
volunteers, sponsors, and partner businesses.
Thank you all for your endless contributions to the
Philly Ad Club both in the past and in the future.
Your ideas, spectacular energy, and continuous
devotion inspire us all to maintain the Philly Ad
Club as the very best resource for advertising and
communications professionals across the Greater
Philadelphia region.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES
TO MENTOR THE NEXT
GENERATION
CONTINUED FROM P. 9

So how can organizations better thrive in a

world of shorter attention spans and diminished
critical thinking?
Incorporate the sensational the
unfounded into your crisis planning. The
best way to mitigate the impact of a crisis is to
have a thoughtful, actionable crisis plan in place.
And in an era where unsubstantiated rumors
and misinformation can spread at lightningfast speeds, we cannot prepare only for those
scenarios likely to happen. With misinformation
permeating the culture faster than ever, scenarios
that may have seemed far-fetched years ago now
are well within the realm of possibility.
HARNESS THE POWER OF PITHY. Harkening
back to Schoenfeld, you need to construct your
message to appeal to the shortest of attention
spans. If superficial readership can get you into
a mess, you cant expect verbosity to bail you
out. Build your efforts around direct, concise
messages, and help your spokespersons do the
same.
EMOTION TRUMPS LOGIC; KNOW WHEN
TO USE WHICH. Snap judgments from threesecond readers usually are motivated by emotion,
not logic. Logic requires critical thinking; critical
thinking requires analysis; analysis requires time.
While logic works on more engaged audiences
Schoenfelds three-minute and 30-minute readers
emotional cues work best in the fleeting worlds
of Twitter and Facebook feeds.

ONE APPROACH: LADDERING

TALENTED INNOVATORS
CONTINUED FROM P. 11

Ive had the pleasure of mentoring two people

through the Philly Ad Club. Over the years my first
mentee has become not only a good friend, but a
colleague. She is now in a significant leadership
role at one of the largest agencies in the area and
while I continue to act as a sounding board to her
when I can, I just as often rely on her for input
and counsel. I found the experience incredibly
positive and rewarding, and believe its fair to
say they did, too. - Katy Thorbahn, Partner &
Managing Director, SHINY
The mentoring program is not only a great
way to help students/young professionals learn
about our industry, but is an excellent way for the
mentor to develop their coaching skills and give
back to the community - Ted Pacitti, VP/GM
Comcast Spotlight, Philadelphia.

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT IN
THE ATTENTION-DEFICIT AGE
CONTINUED FROM P. 25

opinion with significant and very real bottomline implications for the company. They scrolled
through their Facebook feeds, they scanned the
headline, applied it in the framework of what they
already thought of the company, the source of the
information as well as the friend who shared the
information, and quickly problematically
reached their conclusion. The, they acted upon the
conclusion with a share.

technology allows teachers to maintain higher

levels when monitoring their students progress.
Mission control also offers more tools to address
individual skill issues and get students back on
the path to success.
The Liguori Academy staff tracks students
progress in real-time. That data, he said, is
instantly shared with teachers along with
constructive suggestions regarding how to
approach the learning challenge at hand. Little
problems are caught before they become big
problems.
Its not just cool technology its effective
technology. I believe strongly in the power and
promise that the Liguori Academy can bring to
kids who will be in the workforce in the future. I
have personally donated my time and money to
helping Liguori Academy launch their school in
Philadelphia in September 2016, and have offered
to match donations made at the following link
with the goal of sponsoring at least 50 students
this year. To learn more about the program
and to help Stan reach his goal, click www.
liguoriacademy.org/donate

To really understand this talent pipeline Im

referring to, think of some of the people we see as
having changed our industry and our world
for the better. Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Larry
Ellison, Howard Schultz and Ralph Lauren: they
all had something in common not just that they
were innovators who truly thought differently.
One major thing they all had in common is that
they all grew up poor. But despite this, each of
them had something that allowed them entrance
into success a ladder if you will.
This, Stan says, is where technology comes in.
State-of-the-art technology, he noted, enables
teachers to continuously monitor students work,
track their efforts and offer immediate, specific
and deep remediation in real-time, every day,
every minute.
You know about Big Data and the technology
we have to mine it. In Philadelphia, we have
the opportunity to offer a ladder to kids who
have become disengaged in their current school
settings because failure has set it. This ladder
should be familiar to everyone in advertising
because it involves a mix of technology and
communication, which is central to the way we
advance our own business, he notes.

LIGUORI ACADEMY
Last year Stan was introduced to the Liguori
Academy, a private school in Philadelphia which
uses this high tech, high touch process and
offers kids a real opportunity to achieve success.
Deep remediation with mission control

26

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JOBS

JOBS
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