• by Joe Mandese , January 15, 2025

"Here's somewhere cool we thought would be a good place to start," Michael Cera's fictional agency chief says in the 2023 movie "Dream Scenario," pitching a potential influencer who has the ability to appear in people's dreams.

"Sprite," he continues, suggesting a brand integration with one of the shop's social-media accounts.

"We thought it could be fun if maybe they like tweet a new photo of you every night holding a can with a fun little caption. And to just really manifest that connection in people's minds and to hopefully alter the phenomenon -- at least temporarily -- to make people dream about you and the product together."

That big idea was hilarious fiction, of course, but according to a just-released study, it actually is the stuff dreams are made of for many young Americans.

The study, fielded by edgy digital agency The Media Image (TMI) January 2-3 among 1,101 Americans 18 to 35, found more than half have had a dream that was influenced by an ad or included "ad-like" content.

In case you think you're dreaming, the findings get even better -- or worse -- depending on your KPI:

• 61% said they’ve had dreams that include ad-like content in the past year.

• 38% have such dreams between once a month and every day.

Here's the rub: ad-like dreams are sorely in need of a good attribution model. Heck, we can call it "multi-consciousness attribution" capable of measuring the impact dream ads have on waking conversions.

The study found only a third (34%) of respondents said their dreams encouraged them to make a purchase, while 66% did not convert.

In other words, dream ads have decent reach and frequency, but a lousy ROI.

Actually TMI did not ask that question, but it cited a 2021 American Marketing Association study finding that 77% of marketers planned to deploy dream marketing techniques within the next three years.

That might seem like good timing given some additional findings from TMI's just-completed study, including that 41% would be willing to see dream ads if it meant they could get discounts on products or services.

And despite the fact that 41% also believe ads already are actively infiltrating their dreams, 68% said they would not pay to keep their dreams completely free of ads, while 32% would be willing to pay for a "dream-ad-blocker."

Interestingly, that's much better than the ad-supported split on most premium streaming services, including Netflix, Max, and Disney+, but puts the ad-supported dream market on par with Paramount+'s 69/31 split, according to eMarketer estimates.

If adding dreams to your media mix sounds like a pipe dream, you probably didn't spend much time in the exhibit halls at the recent CES conference in Vegas.