Environments Study: One Second of Attention has More Outcome Value in Some Contexts than in Others

Through my firm Bill Harvey Consulting I was recently part of a research team commissioned by Meta to understand distinct video environments and the typical consumer behaviors and brand outcomes associated with each The team conducting the experimental study was led by Realeyes and also included representatives from Eye Square under the direction of Metaamp8217s Ads Research Lead Sophie MacintyreFifteen different contexts were studied for each of five brands in as many verticals creating a 75cell randomized experiment In each cell respondents using their own smartphones were able to choose what to look at within the context type assigned in that cell The study looked across 16835 ad impressions from 6076 participantsThese were the 15 different placement types testedamp8220Feedamp8221 amp8211 Vertically scrolling feed with ad units less than full screen and ads in between contentPlacements Facebook Feed Instagram Feed Twitter Feedamp8220Short Formamp8221 amp8211 Vertically or horizontally scrolling feed with full screen ads in between contentPlacements Facebook Stories Instagram Stories Instagram Reels Snapchat Stories TikTok Brand Takeover TikTok Feed TikTok Topview YouTube Shortsamp8220Streamamp8221 amp8211 Television program or user generated video viewed in online video player with ad appearing before or within the programvideo preroll or midrollPlacements Facebook InStream Hulu Pre ampamp Mid Roll YouTube Nonskippable YouTube SkippableNote placements with an asterisk had some or all unskippable timeThe stream type environment had more seconds of attention than short form or feed but for all of the outcome measures except for ad recall amp8211 ie recalling the creative amp8211 which was somewhat more correlated with attention there was no significant difference in outcomes across the three typesThe value of one second of attention was higher in feed and short form than in stream Thatamp8217s why the higher average seconds of attention in stream was equalized in terms of three of the four outcome measuresHow would one explain why feed and short form are able to do more with less Neuroscience research has shown that ads seen in scrolling conditions require less time to generate recall than those seen in stationary conditions Given this as well as the higher engagement we saw in feed and short form environments we suggest that the user behavior characteristic of these experiences is amp8220sortingamp8221 while scrolling through ads and content the user is cognitively focused on paying concentrated attention so as to be able to scroll down and decide as quickly as possible deciding again and again to rejectpass by items until something strikes oneamp8217s fancy In that heightened state of concentration fewer seconds of attention would be needed to decide whether or not an item is appealing This suggests that the degree or nature of attention is what makes the difference between stream and the other two major digital environment typesThe main conclusion of this study is that seconds of attention is not the right measure to use across context types because certain context types exert strong effects which constrain attention seconds without appearing to reduce the outcomes measured except for ad recall The most appropriate use of attention seconds would be to distinguish alternative placements and alternative creative executions within feed within short form and within stream where the effects of the type are equalized across the alternativesIn my view this conclusion has many important implications In order to fulfil the desire for an attentiveness measure that can be applied as a yardstick across all types of media environments that ultimate measure of attention would need to be sensitive to all aspects of attention including audio as well as visual active as well as passive forced vs unforced probably on a continuous rather than binary scale and might need to measure saccadic movements as well as fixations Still attention would remain a necessary but not sufficient measure of advertising success and so future studies ought to also measure emotion attitude shiftpersuasion and actual incremental sales effect In the end as a prebuy tool especially for programmatic digital attention should be combined with other proven sales effect predictors in order to maximize positive business effects not just fleeting attention successesAn Important tactical conclusion from the study is that creative executions in digital need to be front loaded so that both the video and audio establish both attention and brand identity in the first two seconds This suggests that 15s and 30s with strong TV reach behind them can be cut down for use in digital to reprise the experience of the whole story when an iconic moment from those ads appear in the first couple of seconds of a 5 or 6 second ad Some readers may recall the famous Imagery Transfer studies done by radio to prove that radio can bring back the visual experience remembered from having seen the ad before on TV This is now applicable today also to digital where the window of attention is shortened and intensified rather than the visuals being taken away entirely as in the case of radioThe characteristic profiles of attention over time that we saw in different digital environments has been pointed out before by other attention researchers When Metaamp8217s Sophie MacIntyre and myself presented these findings at ARF AUDIENCExSCIENCE 2023 and at ARF ATTENTION 2023 other measurement companies in the audience commented enthusiastically on the high level of agreement between our overall findings and their own We were heartened to receive such positive feedback and take this as an indication of the robustness of this studyMusing upon the feed and short form attention profiles Iamp8217ve hypothesized that digital might excel at retaining current brand users and increasing their usage rate a supposition which appears to be supported by the Nielsen NCS Five Keys update report of 2023 as Iamp8217ve analyzed hereThe report amp8220Decoding Digital Video Environmentsamp8221 contains a discussion of outstanding research questions which recommends that it will be crucial to measure attention qualities not just attention duration amp8211 for example attention to UX elements like the skip button during forced time Several methods were tested to break out this phenomenon after the fact but in the end none were fully satisfactory and this shall need to be addressed by a future studyThe amount of insight contained in the complete report is far more extensive compared to what we are able to report in this space and the complete report is available from the IAB website herePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of 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Environments Study: One Second of Attention has More Outcome Value in Some Contexts than in Others

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