from-scroll-to-soul-intellectually-engaging-content-creation

In our hyper-digital world, we live inside a digital ecosystem of infinite scroll. People swipe thousands of feeds per day, skim captions, watch endless videos, and hover over quotes or ads without even a minute passing by. The pace is rapid, and attention spans are shorter than they ever have been. As a performance marketer in Dubai, I can share first-hand experience of how this illustrates the behavioural shift in how brands must now think about content creation. 

Shorter and shorter attention spans today provide audiences less time to engage with anything before looking to communicate some kind of meaning, entertainment or solution online. This means that for every piece of content every brand engages with, their role must be timely unless humanly possible — and deeper than peculiar pleasure.

Content Transcends Trends and Visuals: Engaging the Human Mind

Exemplary content does not come from audio-visual capture, trending material, or around-the-corner timing. Exemplary content comes from deciphering human emotion, knowing what their states of mental engagement are from day to day, and what to consider where the Amygdala and empathy triggers may occur in the minds of your audience. As a digital marketer in Dubai, I’ve learned that exploring audience engagement, listening to people, and observing the subtlety of behavioural change and effect, is the foundation of positive messaging—the only real key driving conversions and return on investment at scale, through storytelling and words at heart. Knowing your audience’s unspoken needs reveals why so much online content feels hollow and disposable — it lacks genuine connection. When we slow down and apply thought, we create content that feels nourishing in a noisy world.

Moving Away from the “Viral or Bust” Mentality

Here’s the deal: brands seem to settle for viral as a finishing point. But “viral” has nothing to do with being valuable. While the likes, views, and clicks created confusion, there is also the realisation that creating a real connection is work and is going to take some time. A digital marketing freelancer based in Dubai, who is possibly deeply connected to the purpose of connection, will not focus on making their audience consume more, but to make their audience stop — stop to think, stop to feel, stop to remember.

The goal is to make the audience feel something and then inspire action that goes beyond one scroll. This is the “Soul” in “Scroll to Soul” — content made to leave a non-permanent mark on how someone feels or thinks, even just a little bit, wherever it can.

The Layer of Trust & Value

Trust is the foundation of a healthy relationship; whether it’s between individuals, a brand, or a neighbourhood. Trust is the tool that holds us together in society, and at the end of the day, loyalty is built upon trust. Trust and value are the foundation of marketing, where they are also visual.