• by Joe Mandese , December 18, 2024

As the year winds down, I think it would be apt to say that 2024 was the "Year of Attention Metrics" -- at least as far as the ad industry's research intelligencers are concerned, if not its media planners and buyers.

And based on news breaking this morning, it is going out with a bang.

Nielsen is partnering with Realeyes, a highly regarded advertising attention-measurement service within the research community, to add attention measurement to Nielsen's portfolio of ad effectiveness and "outcomes"-based research.

To date, much of the year's advertising attention-measurement action has taken place at industry events like the Advertising Research Foundation's and Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement summits and conferences, but it seems the attention is turning to partnerships with big media measurement firms like Nielsen, that want to partner with and add attention as insights that will increasingly become relevant to planners and buyers.

I find Nielsen's deal with Realeyes particularly telling, and a strong vote of confidence for the quality of its methodology, because Nielsen doesn't collaborate with just anyone. The deal is tantamount to calling Realeyes "currency-grade," although there is no official industry body for that, not even the U.S. JIC.

Nielsen's deal with Realeyes is interesting for another reason: The company previously operated a Nielsen Neuro division that utilized a variety of biometric and neuromarketing methodologies to measure attention -- as well as proxies for it -- paid to advertising and media content.

A Nielsen spokesperson confirmed Nielsen no longer utilizes neuroscientific measures, and that the deal with Realeyes is a partnership to begin offering "creative evaluation" alongside its brand and sales lift measurement services.

"This new offering captures and analyzes both attention patterns and mental engagement, whether with standalone creatives or within a media context," the spokesperson explains, adding, "By understanding exactly what captures and holds audience attention and comprehension, clients can refine their content, identify impactful influencers, and tailor campaigns to align seamlessly with specific media platforms and target audiences, boosting brand perceptions and sales conversion."

Realeyes methodology utilizes to approaches to measure attention -- human-based and AI-powered prediction -- and Nielsen eventually plans to leverage Realeyes' data collection to build Nielsen's own, proprietary attention analysis and benchmarks as part of its outcomes-based measurement services.

"With millions of data points collected in surveys, Realeyes created predictive models and built AI-powered predictions," she said, adding, "At this stage, while Realeyes’ AI-powered predictions are still evolving, Nielsen analysts will review and QA the prediction insights before delivery. The delivery can be a standalone piece or in conjunction with Nielsen's existing solutions, e.g. brand lift, sales lift."

In other words, it's a good time for planners and buyers to start paying attention to it.