“Attention” measurement grabbed the limelight on the opening day of the ARF Audiencexscience Conference Tuesday, but it was Havas Media Group Global Head of Activation Jon
Waite who may have raised the most crucial question, asserting that the term “impressions” has become a nebulous term in the audience measurement industry.
Lumen Research
Managing Director Mike Follett underlined the value of attention metrics and TVision Insights Manager of Data & Analytics Kelsey Hanlon concurred, noting, “Attention is a quality metric that
is predictive.”
A panel led by Jon Watts, managing director the ARF’s Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), could not agree on whether attention
should become a media currency in an evolving, potentially multiple currency marketplace, though it was that it has become an invaluable media planning tool.
CBS Chief
Research and Analytics Officer Radha Subramanyam prudently expressed caution on the dilemma of, “lumping media attributes with creative messages in relation to brand goals and lifecycle of an ad
campaign.”
Havas' Waite, together with Caroline Hugonenc, senior vice president-research & insights of Teads, reminded the ARF conference’s virtual audience
that attention, whether for content or ads, was a precious resource for consumers and “does not happen in a vacuum.”
“Attention seconds per thousand viewable
impressions,” or content rendered counts, vary widely by media platform, format, daypart, and program genre and engaging media content really matters. Quality journalism counts, with news
driving the highest engagement from its audiences along with attention to ads played in that environment.
Dentsu Vice President-Director of Global Media Partnerships
Joanne Leong outlined how the agency is bringing an understanding of attentive seconds by media platform, format, duration, context, brand, target group and creative message type to planning and
buying as related to predicted outcomes. The foundation being Cost-per-Thousand Effective Attentive Seconds, or CPMEAS.
Adelaide CEO Marc Guldimann and NBA Senior Director-Data
Science Lead Erik Nylen suggested that attention offers a consistent measure across all media that is predictive of brand outcomes, and increasingly offers scalable depth that
“impressions” do not have.
To add understanding to the value relationship between creative attention and media qualities, Realeyes’s Max Kalehoff and
TVision’s Tristan Webster fused creative pre-testing and in-market ad attention.
Their findings underlined the value of media environment and the context of a
programing/editorial related to attention for an ad. In fact, a low performance ad can produce “good” attention scores if placed in premium environments, whereas high performing ads
tend to wear out relatively quickly.
In his keynote, producer and Fordham and New York University professor Evan Shapiro highlighted the “Trillion Dollar Death
Stars” in the media universe that are driving the supply-side of the business: Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, and Alphabet.
Using marvelous cartographic maps
– the relative size of the “Death Stars” that touch every other business, even against major media corporations – he noted the key attributes to survival are: utility, consumer
value, audience superstars, subscription versus ad revenue balance, influence on Gen Y, Z and A, diversity of products/services, and corporate flexibility or “flywheel.”
As a company that, “Takes your privacy and sells it to others,” he appears cold on Meta’s future and considers Roku and Netflix as likely M&A targets in the near
future. His stars: Amazon and Disney.