The Dynamics of Aggregate Attention in Advertising

WARC’s Cathy Taylor talks with Havas’ Jon Waite and Lumen’s Mike Follett about new attention research that details the power of aggregate attention in delivering results.

• The research, which concentrated on display advertising and was performed in partnership with Brand Metrics, looked at 9,000 brand uplift studies, and 11 years of eye-tracking data, providing scale to the understanding of how attention works. 
• Among other findings, the research showed that aggregate attention time, on a user-by-user basis, should be a key unit of analysis – brands should start looking beyond attention per impression to what the attention value is when individual consumers  see a burst of impressions. 
• It also demonstrated how attention needs differ depending on the outcomes a brand is looking for; upper-funnel metrics like awareness can benefit from multiple hits of small attention, but for campaigns more focused on driving sales, slightly higher average attention with slightly less frequency may be a better approach. 

For more insights into attention, check out the new WARC Guide to Attention.

Stay up-to-date with the latest marketing and advertising news with our free daily newsletter.