“Advertising attention: a marketing argument or a real performance lever?”, Caroline Hugonenc (Teads)

Attention is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the goal of efficiency. Haleon recently published an article on their tests: out of 26 brands whose campaigns were increased in terms of attention, the effectiveness of online video advertising increased by an average of 41% in a period of one year. We are also getting encouraging results with our clients: a recent test carried out in the form of an AB test by Circana in France with a consumer brand allowed us to note that the area in which campaign to do the best on the attention getting ROI twice as much. high as the best range on visibility indicators.

Such attention represents a distinct improvement over visibility, while we keep efficiency in perspective. Of course, not all features that generate attention necessarily go in the direction of advertising effect, or user experience. This is especially true of forced exposure or noise that actually turns into false friends on a mobile phone: an unavoidable predicament sound on on mobile is really more effective than format sound off which the user chooses to view as “inread”, according to the dentsu Attention Economy study.

The uproar after Meta’s tests of a new, unavoidable format on Instagram reminds us that the race for attention could lead to an increase in the use of ad blockers. Remember that attention is a scarce resource: we should aim to take only the time we need to achieve our goal while respecting the media reader’s contract with the reader or the viewer.

The optimal level of attention will vary according to the media, the goals being sought, etc.

The studies we have done with Dynata and Lumen allow us to measure the minimum amount of attention required on our platform based on the signals: if a few tenths of a second could be enough to remember in action, it takes much more movement. the consideration. In addition, for the same level of attention, ads from brands with high awareness are remembered better than brands with low awareness (+10 percentage points) and categories that require low communication with users register lower levels of attention (-8%) than the level of more attractive categories but which have a greater impact on purchase intentions (+11% points).

From these results, we can begin to set the foundations of a new design based on the marketing objective, the characteristics of the brand, but also the quality of the creation and our abilities to improve its visual impact.

… and creation

Creation is the other big thing missing from the attention debates, even though it can greatly improve campaign performance. In order to maximize the advertising effect on our platform, we must ensure by using eye tracking tools that the branding elements are well seen by users. This could include placing the brand’s logo in the first seconds so that the advertisement is well marked but, also, determining the correct position of the logo, its size or the contrast. It is also about preserving optimal attention by eliminating sections that generate the least communication and preventing information overload that damages the assimilation and understanding of the message .

These changes on average generate an increase in ad recall of 18% and 12% for brand awareness. The same optimization approach should be used for ads broadcast in CTV on television home screens or on pre-rolls broadcast in streaming.

The topic of attention is much wider and more promising than it seems. Advertisers would be advised not to underestimate it and start measuring attention to their digital and CTV campaigns by using the advice Rembrandt gave to engraving apprentices: “Use what you know, and it will help you better understand what you don’t know. “”