The term was originally coined by Colin Cherry, a cognitive scientist at Imperial College London in the 1950’s. And in more scientific terms, refers to our ability to focus our attention on a single stimulus whilst filtering out a range of other stimuli, such as noise. (Spotler, online)

(I know you are probably wondering how on earth does this relate to photography marketing???)

After reading about this incredibly cool study, I began to think about how that relates to photography, specifically marketing.

And then the light bulb went off. Most of the success in our photography business is due to the fact that we are able to stand out in a crowded market, to connect with our clients.  

Understanding how our potential clients could focus on us and somehow manage to ignore the sea of other photographers that might do the same job – became the center of my focus.

Using the original study as my premise, I began to analyze my clients that were the ‘guests’ at the cocktail party and the other photographers that are the ‘cacophony and background noise’ that my clients ignore while only focusing on my business. 

These potential clients can only see me. They only want to book me. And they aren’t just clients, they are ideal clients.

But why?  Because we understood our customers so deeply we could position ourselves as the photographer they wanted to work with by serving them with relevant information they wanted. As it related to their photography needs, we could speak directly to them through storytelling, strong images and integrity. We engaged with them and invited them into our ‘cocktail party’. Our marketing strategy was all about them.

And they only had eyes for us. I find this fascinating. 

We began to use the Cocktail Party Effect – as the photography marketing roadmap in our business. 

This is just a surface level description of what my discovery was. This is the basis of my easy marketing framework. It all starts here…Welcome!