Cathy Taylor, a WARC representative, is joined by Jon Waite from Havas and Mike Follett from Lumen to dive into groundbreaking attention research. They discuss how aggregate attention time can enhance advertising results and why brands should measure attention value per consumer. The conversation reveals that different marketing goals require varied attention strategies—awareness campaigns thrive on frequent small hits, while sales-focused efforts benefit from deeper attention with less frequency. Get ready to rethink how attention shapes your marketing!
The podcast highlights the importance of aggregate attention time as a vital metric for analyzing advertising effectiveness across campaigns.
Experts emphasize that different advertising goals require tailored attention strategies, suggesting a balance between frequency and depth of exposure.
Deep dives
The Evolution of Attention Metrics in Advertising
The podcast discusses how attention metrics have become increasingly relevant in the advertising landscape, particularly in light of challenges like cookie deprecation and rising ad fraud. Experts John Waite and Mike Follett emphasize the need for new measurement strategies to address these issues, citing a shift towards more practical applications in media planning. They highlight the importance of continuous testing and learning to evaluate the effectiveness of attention metrics, with many in the industry acknowledging their value. The anecdote of a conference audience, where nearly everyone has experimented with attention metrics but only one person applied them consistently, underscores the current gap between testing and implementation in media strategies.
Aggregated Attention: A New Perspective
The introduction of aggregated attention marks a significant advancement in measuring advertising effectiveness. Unlike previous studies focusing on individual ad formats, this research examines the cumulative effect of multiple exposures over time. The correlation between aggregate attention time and positive brand outcomes like awareness and purchasing intent is established, illustrating that longer exposure can enhance advertising results. Brands are encouraged to consider how aggregate attention influences campaign planning, transitioning from merely evaluating formats in isolation to understanding how they work together to drive performance.
Frequency and Cost Considerations in Media Buying
The podcast emphasizes the critical relationship between frequency and attention in digital advertising, drawing parallels to traditional media approaches. Experts suggest that reaching audiences with multiple low-attention exposures can effectively build brand recognition, while higher attention on fewer ads may drive purchasing intent. This strategy aligns with the necessity of understanding cost efficiency, where spending more on high-quality ads could yield better results than cheap, low-quality impressions. Furthermore, the conversation touches on the ethical responsibility of advertisers to move away from purely low-cost strategies towards more effective and meaningful media experiences.
Refining Strategies Based on Campaign Objectives
Different advertising goals necessitate distinct strategies for attention and engagement, as highlighted by the experts in the podcast. For awareness and consideration, campaigns may benefit from numerous short attention exposures, while preference and action-driven efforts may require concentrated, high-attention placements. The discussion indicates a shift in digital strategy that aligns with time-tested principles from traditional media, promoting an acknowledgment of the importance of effective planning. As new data continues to emerge, understanding these dynamics will help refine media buying techniques and campaign objectives across varying advertising categories.
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.
