Singapore – Consumer awareness, recall, and consideration are all strongly influenced by core attention metrics, with increasein the majority of outcomes also occur quickly, with most seeing a lift prior to 10% of an ad having been watched. This is according to the latest report from attention measurement and optimisation platform Playground xyz.
The report notes that on average, it takes 1.4 seconds of consumer attention to drive a 10% lift in brand awareness at the top of the engagement funnel. For mid-funnel results, however, a longer attention threshold is required: 1.6 seconds for consideration and 3.9 seconds for prompted recall. The level of lift achieved also differs significantly per outcome.
In addition, the takeaway for brands here is that attention plays an integral role in moving consumers toward a purchase – but not all attentive seconds are created equally. The Optimal Attention threshold can help define how much attention is needed, depending on the target outcome and whether a campaign is targeting upper, mid, or lower-funnel results.
The report also stated that the thresholds for Optimal Attention were notably different depending on what creative was used – versus the platform that content appeared on (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube), which had less impact on performance. Ultimately, the way attention is paid to a specific creative – rather than the ad environment – is what determines the lift in specific brand outcomes.
Unlike traditional methods, neuroimaging doesn’t rely on conscious responses – it measures the brain’s activity as consumers encounter advertising. And in the study, brain activity data supports the pivotal role of brand creative. Results from over 150 lab sessions indicate that creative content significantly influences memory encoding; which, in turn, impacts critical marketing goals such as brand loyalty and sales.
Lastly, larger brands with a baseline awareness above 75% are almost 1.5 times more likely to get lift with an Optimal Attention threshold of below 2 seconds. They’re also almost twice as likely to have an Optimal Attention threshold below 1 second. This is probably the consequence of pre-existing brand recognition and the use of distinctive assets (e.g. strong visuals, unique colors or audio jingles). Both of these require less attention to “jog” the mind of the consumer, triggering strong responses.
Rob Hall, founder and CEO at Playground xyz said, “Our new dataset is the best evidence we have, to date, that explicitly shows that different brand outcomes and creative executions ‘convert’ attention differently. Brands can be empowered to craft more impactful campaigns by understanding how exactly attention affects customers at different stages of the marketing funnel. This, along with greater investment in strong creative development, can powerfully influence specific consumer behaviors, and help amplify measurable results.”
