By adaptive - November 19th, 2014

Gaining the attention of an increasingly distracted consumer is at the heart of all great marketing, but so is understanding of their personalities.

Your corporation may have spent a huge quantity of resources developing a new marketing plan, with social media at its centre, but this will be for nought if these messages don’t each their intended audiences.
This is the cold truth that all corporate marketers contend with on a daily basis. Gaining the attention of consumers as they are bombarded with increasing numbers of marketing messages is now vital to ensure high levels of ROI, and a continued commercial relationship with these groups.
YuMe and IPG Media Lab explored how to reach audiences when they are most receptive and attentive, to determine whether attention matters in digital video advertising. The study showed that context plays a key role in the pursuit of attention, and indicators such as device and location influence the degree of openness and engagement with advertising content.
“Since the media industry is highly-fragmented, it is difficult to know when consumers are actually paying attention to ads," says Brian Marx, Digital Marketing Manager, Truvia natural sweetener. "YuMe and IPG Media Lab's research shows the valuable impact high consumer attention has on brand metrics. If we could reach audiences when they are most attentive, those impressions would be of greater value."
Definitions:
  • Receptivity is defined as a passive state of mind that exists before exposure to an ad.
  • Attention is defined as an active behaviour of noticing an ad.
“The study supports a lot of the beliefs we have in the lab around audience behavior,” said Melvin Wilson, Head of Strategy, IPG Media Lab. “Measuring receptivity and attention can help us analyze and drive brand performance in new impactful ways for this industry.”
Key Findings:
  • Context is key to predicting a consumer’s level of receptivity and attention to digital advertising.
  • Receptivity and attention are drivers of brand performance.
  • Advertisers should think beyond the lean-back at home mode as being the only optimal context for reaching attentive audiences.
  • There are a number of actionable ‘sweet spots’ for reaching attentive audiences.
“Starting with the initial findings of this research, clients may soon have the ability to strategically target attentive audiences to increase brand performance,” says Paul Neto, Director of Research, YuMe. “Looking at the research alone, it seems likely that attention will be a valuable metric to measure digital video advertising effectiveness moving forward.”
Attention and receptiveness are then attuned to the mood of the target audience. What is clear from this research is that corporations need to be taking a deeper view of what motivates their customers to buy, as often this can’t be assessed from simply looking at historical sales data. With social media often being driven by emotion, gaining attention needs a multifaceted approach to audience understanding.
Pursuit of Attention Infographic
comments powered by Disqus