Disruption can be annoying for consumers, but it can also help marketers to grab attention.

The prevalence of multiscreening means that getting information to our audiences requires speed and brevity. So, in navigating the complex world of online content, the trick is to find disruption that people can relate to.

In the first video of the Context Is Everything* series of interviews, professor of marketing Isabelle Szmigin discusses disruption and "perceptual vigilance"—i.e., the way consumers navigate their way through the messages they do and do not want to receive.

Szmigin details how to cut through the online clutter with user experiences that resonate.

One option for getting noticed is to shock users into noticing us by breaking their flow; another way could be to play into their expectations, for example by using context. Szmigin explains how people respond to interruptions to their expected experiences, and what marketers can do to capitalize on those responses.

*The Context is Everything series of videos presents highlights of discussions with neuroscientists, linguists, and behavioral psychologists about how people react to video messages in the digital environment. The series is a project of video intelligence platform vi, which connects publishers, content providers, and brands through video storytelling.