• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 25, 2020

Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), whose agencies have long been proponents of developing proprietary advertising and media attention metrics, has announced it is working with TV audience measurement firm TVision to develop “attention planning capabilities” based on its proprietary “engagement metrics.”

DAN says the project is part of an initiative it launched in 2019 to develop an “attention economy” approach to planning and buying media.

DAN’s Carat unit has been a pioneer in the field and an early developer of proprietary attention-based research products such as its “ForeTel” research, which was part of its original position to differentiate itself from other media services agencies when it entered the U.S. a quarter century ago.

DAN already has been working with TVision’s existing products and services on an “ad hoc” basis, a spokesperson said, adding that the new arrangement is an “agency-level deal that will make their data available to all agencies, planners and buyers.”

It also is the first time DAN agencies plan to incorporate TVision’s data “universally” into its agency-wide planning processes and tools.

“This is a big step for the network as this means we will be prioritizing broad adoption of our attention metrics,” the company said in a statement.

DAN did not explain why it is leaning into TVision’s method of persons-level TV engagement measurement so heavily vs. a wide variety of new and emerging platforms for measuring people’s attention to advertising and media, including companies like RealEyes, TripleLift, etc., but TVision appears to have achieved a level of syndicated research status more akin to the kind of currency measurement agencies and advertisers historically use to plan and buy media.

DAN said the agreement will enable it to leverage “TVision’s data, in parallel with proprietary insights tools to plan TV/OTT campaigns based on attention metrics for the first time,” and that it will also work with TVision to create its own, proprietary “attention model and metrics, “incorporating data from partners measuring attention across additional devices.”