‘Attention metrics identify higher-value ad inventory, improve campaign effectiveness'

Yan Liu, CEO, TVision, explains how marketers can plan and optimize TV advertising by leveraging attention measurement in a cluttered ecosystem. He adds that Attention Guarantee for TV is a huge step forward to bring TV ad buying more in line with the digital experience.

Excerpts:

Can you tell us about attention measurement? What is the concept and how can it benefit marketers? 

Attention measurement helps marketers better understand when and where audiences are paying attention to their ads.  TVision measures and reports behavioural viewing data for television (both linear and connected). This includes what people are watching, who is in the room, as well as if and when they are paying attention.

Attention measurement is especially important in today’s world as people multitask and it has become harder than ever to capture their attention. Traditionally, ad buyers and sellers have bought and sold media based on ratings alone. By transacting on ratings without factoring in attention, the industry is overvaluing ads that may not be seen. By including attention metrics advertisers can identify higher-value ad inventory and improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Advertisers are using TVision data to build smarter, more optimized ad campaigns. They use attention data in the planning process to find highly engaged audiences that match their targeted demographics and develop day-part strategies where they’ll be likely to reach attentive viewers.  Marketers also use TVision data to make sure their campaign creative is effective. With TVision, they measure how well an ad captures audience attention and when the ad begins to lose its effectiveness. Because data is available immediately, advertisers can optimize these campaigns inflight. 

What is the technology and how does it work? 

TVision panellists set up a device near their television that is capable of picking up audio and visual signals.  TVision technology identifies the specific individuals who are in the room while the TV is on. It also captures when individuals are paying attention to the TV.  TVision then uses ACR to match television content with the viewing data on a second-by-second basis. By combining these data sets, the technology is able to measure how audiences pay attention to ads as well as programming across both CTV and linear TV. TVision’s in-home panel is 100% opt-in and privacy-safe. 

Advertisers and media sellers access the data via TVision’s software as a service platform, which enables them to understand how their own content performs, as well as how competitor content performs. 

How does attention-based advertising help understand viewers’ behaviour and deliver an engaged audience? 

When advertisers plan their media campaigns based on Attention data they are focusing their ad spend on opportunities where they can reach engaged viewers who are actually in the room, watching the TV.  Ads work when people pay attention, and as a result, these advertisers see higher levels of brand recall. There is also a much greater correlation between attention and sales, as compared to GRP and sales (see image below). Advertisers are finding that optimizing for attention ensures more effective campaigns overall.

How have clients and agencies responded to this new currency and measurement? 

With TVision’s solutions available in the US, UK, India, and Japan, brands and agencies around the world are embracing Attention as a new currency in their TV advertising campaigns. Major global advertisers such as Pepsi, ABInBev, and Mars have begun to include Attention data in their planning, buying and optimization processes. In Japan, TVision has been adopted by all major networks and agencies, and in the UK Confused.com and Sky are using TVision data, among other large organizations. Global agency Dentsuis one of several firms leading the charge with their focus on the Attention Economy, which is designed to bring Attention measurement to the forefront for effective cross-platform campaign measurement. 

TVision is a founding member of The Attention Council which includes brands, agencies and publishers from around the world who are all focused on using attention data to build smarter campaigns. 

Can you share some examples from the US market of the use case of this currency? 

Recently the major beer manufacturer, Anheuser-Busch completed a campaign with the US media company, A+E Networks. The campaign, which ran in the fourth quarter of 2020, was optimized for viewability and was the first known Attention Guarantee in the market. Anheuser-Busch ads for Budweiser ran across multiple channels, including A&E, History, FYI and Vice.  Budweiser saw an increase of 7.6% in impressions served through the campaign compared to the previous quarter.  You can read more about this story on our website.  

In your report, you’ve mentioned that not all GRPs are equal and that high-attention ads need a lower number of GRPs vs low attention ads. Can you elaborate? 

If you optimize your ad campaign for high attention, you need 3x fewer GRPs to reach the same level of brand awareness. For example, a campaign that reports low attention will require 2200 GRPs to reach 40% recall. But the same ad, optimized to run in high attention environments can reach 40% brand recall at just 600 GRPs.  Brands that want to reduce their overall ad spend can use this approach to maintain the same level of effectiveness, or they can continue at the same ad spend and exponentially increase their effectiveness by 3x.

TVision has run a pilot concept with TAM Media, here in India as well. Please do share the key insights and trends from this pilot. 

TVision ran a pilot program in India to illustrate the value of Attention in TV advertising. The pilot study uses data from our panel in India. The report examines how Attention is impacted by a variety of lenses, such as daypart, genre, as well as pod duration and can be used by advertisers to optimize campaigns for improved brand recall and sales outcomes. 

Advertisers will find some key takeaways in the report such as prime, and late-night dayparts deliver better than average attention across all genres; shorter pod lengths deliver better attention, and shorter ads are more efficient at capturing attention, while longer ads do deliver more total seconds of attention overall. Cricket is a winner across the board as its combination of high attention and high GRPs make it valuable programming for advertisers looking to reach large, engaged audiences. 

The full report can be downloaded from the TVision website. 

What are the key factors of attention that media buyers should keep in mind?

The biggest thing advertisers should keep in mind when thinking about Attention is just how much it varies. Attention varies within daypart, across networks, even across shows and ad pods. Brands need to identify their audience and find the right opportunities to reach that specific audience when the audience is highly engaged. Many factors influence attention to advertisements, including the strength of the creative and whether it contextually matches the programming content. 

Brands that use Attention data to inform their campaigns layer the information on top of GRPs in order to find high quality shows- those shows that deliver attentive viewers, but also reach their target audience. 

You’ve compared data from the US super bowl and IPL India. What are your observations about the same? 

Super Bowl 2021 and the IPL both delivered attention that exceeds industry norms. Ads that aired within the Super Bowl had 61% higher attention than industry norms, while ads that aired throughout the IPL had 41% higher attention than the industry. 

The Super Bowl is America’s biggest advertising night - but that’s the thing, it is just one night. Brands pay upwards of $5 million in order to advertise in the Super Bowl, and they want to make sure it was worth it. 

The unique aspect about as we see it is that  IPL is just as big as the Super Bowl, but its not just one-day attention that it delivers; it delivers high attention spread out over many days, providing more opportunities for brands to advertise.