Strong Correlation Between TV Viewers' Attention, Marketers' Brand Gains: Survey
- by Wayne Friedman , July 18, 2022
There is a direct “one to one” correlation between TV commercials' "attention" score and marketers' all-important "brand lift" measure, according to a survey from TVision, a TV measurement company and Upwave, an advertising-tech brand-measurement company.
“We found proof of strong correlations,” said the companies, “between the percent of attention.. and lift in aided awareness and ad recall,” TVision measures second-by-second, person-level data about how people watch TV using “eyes on the screen” technology.
"Aided awareness'" is the percentage of respondents aware of a marketer's product, brand, or advertising when asked.
For example, if a campaign reaches 100 million people, which gets a 38% score in “attention” -- instead of 34% -- that means an extra 4 million people recognizing one's brand.
Digging deeper, the research also notes that “attention” can vary greatly between high and low placements depending on daypart, network, and program. For example, programming can show a 43% difference, while networks can show a difference of 23%; and dayparts, 9%.
TVision and Upwave research comes from linear regression analysis of more than 40 national campaigns between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022.
Campaigns from ad categories include those in finance, consumer packaged goods, fast food, automotive, retail, telecommunications, and pharmaceutical.
Hardly a surprising finding, Wayne. Too bad that none of the proposed new national TV rating services will include attentiveness as a basic part of their design.
Thanks Wayne.
An interesting analysis would be what factors increase 'attention'. Is it the time-of-day? People in the room/on the device? Age and gender? Location? The delivery source?
Oh, and what about the quality of the ad itself being a key factor in 'brand lift'? The old saying that poor media investment can derail a campaign, but even the best media investment in the world can't rescue a crappy ad, has never been more apt and true. It might be worth advertisers do some research into what ad content resonates with the target audience.
John, as I'm sure you know, attentiveness to commercials is directly related to demographics---older viewers are considerably more attentive than younger ones---and program content--dramas out pull sitcoms, reality shows and varieties. The degree of ad clutter in the break is also a major factor and this applies to a limited extent to situations where the viewer is watching all by himself or with others. In most of these cases the main avoidance mechanism is leaving the room---which is why older viewers are more attentive to commercials---they tend to stay put to a far greater degree. This is also evident for dramas----they hold more of their viewers in the room.
Very true Ed.
I think that the core drivers of attentiveness have been mentioned with this post. I'd shudder to try to calculate the number of combinations thayt can be considered. The requisite number of data sources to provide both the granularity that advertisers are seeking and the precision they yearn for would be astronomical. Proxies and models could probably provide directional data.
John, there's no problem with data sources to obtain such information. TVision's panel---if expanded somewhat and with all sets per home included---- could easil;y supply all of the information I mentioned---and, probably, a good deal more.
Terrific sound points from Ed and John as always. If we consider the ad "effect" progression via a media vehilce as being from Eyes-On/Ears-On to attention to engagement, the great Roger Baron, FCB, reflecting on engagement said, "It's the creative stupid". So I respectfully suggest the headline is indeed, "hardly surprising" or "Duh!!"