There was a time before Tivo when people got their information from television ads and infomercials, even managing to remain calm when their favorite soaps cut to ads every now and then. Legend has it that some even considered these recurring advertisements an integral, enjoyable part of the whole 'lounge about watching TV' routine, without which the experience felt incomplete. Bizarre, I know.

Fast forward a few generations and consumers now are nothing like the good patient folk of yore. We hardly have the time or the inclination to patiently sift through advertisement banners or those infuriating pop-outs that spring up and surprise us when we least expect them. We'd rather type in what we want ourselves, open the first few links that show up, pick the product off the best one and get back to more important stuff like YouTube writing blogs at work.

 Micro Attention Spans are no joke, as this infographic from Wyzowl helpfully points out. We're also reliably informed that this is lesser than a goldfish's attention span by approximately one whole second. That does sound a bit serious, doesn't it? So, if you're a marketer, how exactly do you account for and adapt to these diminishing trends in people's attention spans?

Rich media advertising - The first phase of an intelligent internet marketing strategy, where you optimize your ads for a wide audience. Your mobile audience, in particular, are notoriously less patient than the ones that browse your site, and it's important to keep in mind that they're not going to look at your ads or notifications for longer than 4-5 seconds, before getting back to whatever they were originally doing (A posh term for this would be multitasking). Mobile phones are the ultimate companion device, and it's crucial to tailor your content appropriately to cater to this second screen syndrome.