Are you paying for the right kind of attention?

There’s an adage in advertising: high quality media grabs attention, but high-quality content retains it.

That has traditionally been the case when running big brand campaigns on TV, but in a fragmented media market, where eyeballs and ad spend is shifting away from TV into mobile devices and desktop – an omnichannel approach is not only required to win the attention wars, but also convert them into sales.

The attention economy is a term that has been kicking around since the 70s.

Psychologist and economist Herbert A. Simon first coined the term, noting the link between an information overload and the scarcity of attention, which he argued created a poverty of attention.

In 1997, the internet prophet and author of Reinventing Technology, Michael Goldhaber, furthered our understanding of attention for the internet age, effectively suggesting that those who controlled attention could cash in on it.

Fast forward to today and the value of attention is no more apparent than in the advertising industry, which is globally worth north of $900 billion with countless brands, publishers, social media platforms and others fighting for attention to sell ads, products, services and content every minute of the day.

‍Redefining attention

‍The industry’s understanding of the role of attention in media and advertising has significantly sharpened in the past 15 years, led by ad effectiveness luminaries such as Peter Field, Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Rob Brittain and Orlando Bloom, to name a few.

Nelson-Field, the founder of the consultancy Amplified Intelligence, has spent the past 17 years redefining how brands deliver successful marketing and media outcomes through the guise of human attention.

Nelson-Field and her peers have long argued – recently through a Triple Opportunity of Attention Study – that higher attention media platforms can turbocharge the effectiveness of advertising creativity on business effects, such as excess share of voice, sometimes by as much as 65%. Marketers should not base media investments on the cost of reach (CPMs) but rather consider each platform’s attention qualities.

This year Yahoo partnered with Amplified Intelligence and OMG for a study called ‘Hierarchy of Attention & Outcomes’ – measuring the impact of 8,768 ad impressions from six US and Australian brands on more than 2,000 people.

Taking our understanding of the role of attention a step further, it compared the effectiveness of different ads by device (CTV, Desktop and mobile), the digital environment (domains), ad formats, creative and the size of the brand, painting a complex matrix of what works best across multiple factors, and why.

It found that a 30-second video ad on CTV reigned supreme on the attention front across all devices – with strong active and passive attention.

On TV, a 30 second spot had an average of 9.7 seconds of active attention and 4.4 seconds of passive attention, well above mobile (1.2 seconds active and 9.6 seconds passive) and desktop (0.6 seconds active and 6.2 seconds passive).

This was more than double the attention than other ad formats, such as digital half page and leader boards.

Running video spots on CTV are highly effective for capturing attention and have a wide attention elasticity, which is the range of active attention seconds that create an opportunity for the ad’s creative to get to work.

All the messages point to this being a great time for advertisers to take advantage of this outsized attention opportunity, with Analytic Partners data showing CTV is currently up to 30% underutilised in marketing plans compared to the ROI it generates.

Just as important is where the ad is placed, with the same creative placed in high performing domains, such as news or sport often outperforming lifestyle and entertainment domains where viewers’ attention tends to be more fleeting.

Interestingly, the same ad format can perform differently depending on the combination of domain and devices.

While connected TV grabs viewers’ attention for longer, people are 26% more likely to buy a product or service on a mobile device, followed by desktop, which shows that marketers need to take an omnichannel approach for ads to work up and down the funnel.

‍Not all brands created equal

‍The strength of branding in the creative also plays a pivotal role. No amount of attention can compensate for a brand missing in action during an ad. In other words, strong branding during the active attention phase can significantly improve brand awareness and conversion rates.

That said, not all brands are created equal. Strong brand ads like Nike, Apple, Telstra and Woolworths can perform just as well through passive attention, while smaller and lesser-known brands rely much more on showing up during active attention, which stands to reason given the job they need to do to build salience with their audience.

In recent years media owners have been scrambling to prove their platforms are the most effective amid accelerating fragmentation and commercial pressure.

This attention arms race has been exacerbated by a flight of investment away from linear TV – circa $300 million last year alone – into digital channels, including social media and CTV, which now encompasses streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon alongside domestic TV networks.

Although different media owners with vested agendas will all talk up the effectiveness of their channels, the reality is that marketers should take an agnostic approach to media planning, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each channel, ad format, digital environment and creative.

If you’re a smaller brand consider the channels that give you those extra attention seconds, and if you’re looking for conversions mobile and desktop are going to be the key platforms to generate those sales, where advertising and commerce sit side by side. 

While attention is just one metric, take the time to consider how it can help you achieve the business objectives you need to hit, because with careful consideration it will supercharge your campaign effectiveness.

‍Key takeaways

‍Rather than looking to stretch media budgets further by investing in low CPM platforms, marketers should take a two-pronged approach:

• Influence attention by which formats drive the highest active attention (CTV), which digital environments can provide the most attention elasticity, and focus on how highly emotive creative that can turn on the dial.
• Overlay this with a full funnel plan that uses mobile to influence purchases, strong branding and play to a brand’s market size.