Understanding changes and preferences in how your audience consumes information is the foundation of good advertising. Yet when it comes to training, most agencies still are adhering to a model that is as outdated as a media plan comprised totally of 30-second spots on three networks.
Think about the typical learning and development module—long, dull e-learning courses that employees plow through one click at a time, a monotony of text pages broken up with the occasional interactive activity. Now look at the people you are training. More than likely, the majority of them are millennials, a group that has brought a whole new meaning to the concept of short attention spans.
According to a 2012 study commissioned by Time Inc., millennials switch media types 27 times every nonworking hour. Few things hold their focus for long, so they prefer information and communication in small chunks. They are comfortable with jumping around in the information and communication realms and are nonlinear learners.