According to statistics, about 75% of ads do not bring the benefits that advertisers and brand representatives expect from them. Amplified Intelligence conducted a study and found that only 42% of ad impressions were associated with active attention, and it is more difficult for large brands to quickly attract active audience attention. This suggests that large companies need to use data on people’s attention to optimize their advertising strategy.
In a huge flow of information, the brain quickly decides which content is important to it, and which can wait. Filtering information noise is a protective mechanism that helps a person maintain mental balance without overloading the work of their”main computer”. At the same time, the brain switches from passive attention to active attention due to unconscious mechanisms.
For the advertiser, it is important that the consumer passively looks at the ad. If it is possible to attract such attention, a targeted impact on the potential audience occurs. Active attention is controlled consciously-the subject matter and design of the advertising message should arouse interest in the person who looks at it.
If (when) the advertiser manages to attract the buyer’s attention, it is important that the potential consumer sees the ad and remembers the essence of the message. With great attention, the brain begins to analyze and reason – the consumer compares the product with the offers of competitors, “compares” it with their situation and reality, and makes a purchase decision.
The Australian company Amplified Intelligence specializes in analytics-attention metrics that help determine audience engagement in advertising. The results of a study conducted in collaboration with PepsiCo Europe made it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising in social networks, as well as to determine the overall effectiveness of ads and messages depending on the size of the company and the scale of the brand.
Amplified Intelligence research is based on a method of tracking user attention-the user’s gaze in a natural environment with typical distractions. The machine learning model allows you to analyze and measure the levels and forms of attention to get a metric for evaluating the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. The system records data about active attention when a person looks directly at an ad, passive attention when a person looks at content next to the ad, and lack of attention.
According to the company’s representatives, the study helped determine the quality of audience coverage and the real return on advertising. It was used to establish a link between advertising, ad format, placement platforms, the audience viewing the ad, and, most importantly, the scale and popularity of the brand.
During the study, more than 1,000 people viewed more than 2,300 ads. Active / passive attention or lack of it was recorded every second. The data was collected on four platforms. The effectiveness of advertising was evaluated by analyzing the behavior of study participants and those who did not see the ad.
- Brand size plays an important role in the relationship between attention and advertising results.
- The increase in active attention per second for smaller brands was four times greater than for larger brands.
- Large companies receive more passive attention than small brands.
- This suggests that the size of a brand affects the amount of attention its ads receive on social media.
The study found that PepsiCo performed well in terms of ad frequency and display time, better than its competitors included in the study. But only 42% of the brand’s ads were actively viewed. This can be a problem for companies that place ads on fast-browsing and scrolling platforms. The percentage of ad impressions decreases and the number of people who viewed the ad to the end decreases.
According to Yana Voropai, head of strategy at the WR Digital innovation hub, the results of the study once again confirm the importance of advertisers paying attention to creativity.
– Developing a communication strategy is just as important as preparing a marketing and business strategy, or rather, it is communication and creativity that determine whether you will achieve your highest goals. This becomes especially important, as we can see, in a situation where a person is used to the brand, and the consumer does not expect anything new – it is more difficult to fight for the attention of such a user.
Yana is convinced that overcoming this barrier is extremely important, including from the point of view of the media. Always pay attention to the choice of high-quality placements: high audience, large formats, non-standard mechanics, etc. This doesn’t stop you from working with communication and creativity, but it increases the likelihood of being noticed in a distracted environment.
Daria Tymoshenko, a specialist in the WR Digital strategy department, believes that in addition to the size of the brand, another important indicator should be taken into account-its strength. Analysts have already proved that the volume of sales of goods and services directly depends on the strength of the brand. To calculate the strength, i.e. brand influence, you need two parameters: traffic to the company’s website and the number of queries in the search engine. Knowing the strength of a brand can help you create an effective strategy and determine the effective frequency of marketing communications.
– Our team’s experience confirms that for a small brand, the frequency of advertising can be 3+, and for a large brand-5+. Advertising for a major brand serves more of a similar function-we are here, we are close, and you can trust us. On the contrary, young brands that have just entered the market are forced to use advertising to increase knowledge about a product or service, push them to target actions, and strengthen the loyalty of the target audience. For the consumer, a psychological factor is triggered: in the store, you add a bar of chocolate from a well-known manufacturer to the basket, and not a “black horse” of an unknown brand.
Daria is convinced that when creating creatives for brands of any size, it is important for advertisers to take into account the nuances of active and passive attention. Active attention is characterized by a purposeful study of the advertising message-the user is interested in the product or service. At the second stage of the funnel, which is responsible for interest, the advertiser must demonstrate the main USPS and maximize the” disclosure ” of the product. Therefore, ads often use situational content-they reveal the moments of consumption.
With passive attention, things are a bit more complicated: it’s not the user who is looking for an ad, but the ad finds it and pushes it into the consumer situation. For example, advertising a well-known drink that brings us a holiday. Advertising can introduce you to a festive atmosphere, tell you family stories, or inspire you. But at the same time, there are moments of consumption of the drink in all advertisements-people do not always watch the advertising of this brand to the end, but at the same time they unconsciously buy the product, because it is already associated with any party or holiday. Young brands need to go further: use not only situational content, but also humor, unexpected solutions, and even absurd situations. Anything that can attract the user’s attention and stop their eyes on the ad message.
In 2022, one of the brands that examined consumer attention to advertising using Amplified Intelligence analytics was Omnicom Media Group. Its goal was to measure how closely users are watching ads. We evaluated the time spent on viewing ads and the degree of audience interest. The researchers analyzed a person’s vision-whether they were looking directly at the message or being distracted. The system also recorded passive attention when the eye was close to the ad, but not focused on it. Omnicom Media Group analyzed the data obtained and increased the effectiveness of advertising by 11%, saving advertising budgets by $ 2.5 million per year!
Attention indicators allow you to determine the quality of audience coverage and significantly save on promotion. When developing ads by default, it is assumed that the user will see the message and respond to it in some way (or not respond). However, according to statistics, most people constantly change their focus, are easily distracted, and have difficulty keeping their attention. Understanding the difference between active and passive attention is an advertiser’s working tool that allows you to develop content to solve specific problems, taking into account the goals of the sales funnel.
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