SAN FRANCISCO — GE’s Katrina Craigwell and Facebook’s Michelle Klein advocated for the PR industry to invest in visually-stunning content to capture audience attention at the 3rd Innovation Summit today in San Francisco.

The morning keynote, moderated by Hill + Knowlton’s US CEO Beth Balsam, looked toward the future of engagement that includes the power of the ‘first three-seconds’ to secure audience attention, the oncoming infusion of virtual reality and the evolving insights derived data-led marketing. 

“PR pros should invest in ‘thumb-stopping content’ — companies have a three-second window to get people’s attention,” Klein said.

Among the ways to do that, the speakers unsurprisingly championed authenticity and investing in visually-stunning content that can live across Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube, to name a few.    

For instance, GE hired a Creator in Residence to shoot three-months of video that would engage a new audience and nurture young talent; GE also brought Instagram influencers onto their factory floors to showcase its “beautiful machines” and content. She pointed out $1.8bn has been invested in virtual reality over the last 18 months.

“Don’t tell your story alone,” Craigwell said.“It’s not about driving people to our website – it’s about showing up where the audience is.”

Klein said at Facebook, they are frequently reminded “the journey is 1% done” because it “keeps our teams humble and focused on users.”