Attention Economics: ‘Attractiveness’

Who is Olivia Munn?

Now, whether or not you instantly recognized this woman as an actor, I feel confident that I havecaptured your attention, and piqued your interest in ‘who’ this woman is.Why? Because she is attractive. These images are screenshots taken from a ‘trailer’ for the upcoming HBO series ‘Newsroom’, from Aaron Sorkin. Munn plays the role of Sloan Sabbith, but she is not the ‘star’ of the show. That honor goes to Jeff Daniels, who plays Will McAvoy, a Brian Williams-like figure.

Munn is, however, the ‘star’ of the Youtube video I saw as I scrolled down my Subscriptions page. She is at least 70% of the reasonI chose to click on the video. The other  30% is my interest in what new programs HBO is producing.

So, at the first level of Attention Economics is the ability to ‘grab the eye’, the gaze being one of the most powerful forms ofpaying attention. Olivia Munn accomplishes this very well.

There have thus far been four videos uploaded to HBO’s Youtube channel. The first was posted 3 days ago, and has gotten about 1200 views. The screenshot displays she show’s star, Jeff Daniels. The next two videos- posted 2 days, and 1 day ago respectively- display Olivia Munn, and have together gotten almost 2000 views. Interestingly, less than a day ago (as of this writing) another preview was posting (again showing the ‘star’ Daniels) and has gotten about 250 views. But add up the two videos showing Daniels, and you get about 1450 views, much fewer than the ones with Munn as the ‘screenshot’ (which can be chosen by the uploader.) I daresay the reason for this is simply the difference between ‘noticeability’, and ‘attractiveness,’ with Daniels being the former, Munn the latter. No disrespect to the looks of a seasoned actor, but Munn is the main incentive to ‘click in.’

The second level of Attention Economics is the ability to ‘hold the gaze’ once one has it. This is much harder. It requires thatthe object that caught the eye (and now has one’s attention) now provide a reason to continue paying it. In other words, once youhave the floor, you’d better be a good speaker. ‘Newsroom’ does not disappoint in this regard:

In the words of HBO:

  “…From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball,  comes The Newsroom,  a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor (played by Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston), the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.”

It is clear that ‘Newsroom’ should be a success. It has all of the elements required to grab, and hold the initial attention of the tv-viewing public. It has  the proper  ‘platform’ or ‘stage’ in HBO (who has branded itself as the place for quality programming), and a hard-hitting and highly-relevant premise (cable news), and the potential to recieve level-1 attention through the online ‘sharing’ economy. The Munn-screenshot  trailers should strongly infuence the last phenomenon. It premieres next Sunday, on 6.24.2012. I’ll be there. ‘Newsroom’ has caught my attention, for now at least…