This post was created in partnership with Viant
An ad can generate millions of impressions, spark controversy, or rack up views. But none of those measures alone reveals whether people watched the ad.
That question drove the conversation at ADWEEK Exchange in New York, part of a national roadshow from Viant and ADWEEK exploring how attention data can help marketers evaluate creative, media investments, and business outcomes.
What an AI-generated ad reveals about attention
Yan Liu, CEO of TVision, opened the event by examining the gap between ad exposure and human attention. Americans spend nearly four hours watching television daily, he explained, but only about nine minutes represent actual attention to commercials.
Conventional measurements such as reach, viewability, and completion rates don’t necessarily reveal whether someone was watching.
Liu illustrated the distinction with new data on Coca-Cola’s AI-generated “Holidays Are Coming” commercial, which drew criticism following its 2025 release.
Despite the negative social reaction, the AI-generated ad earned as much real human attention as Coca-Cola’s typical holiday ad, garnering a Creative Attention Score of 101, slightly above Coca-Cola’s average of 100. TVision’s second-by-second measurement also showed attention increasing when the lights turned on and the brand’s logo appeared.
“We’ve been measuring a lot of AI creative these days, and in general, the performance is on par, and sometimes it’s actually better than average creative,” Liu said. “I think that gives us the confidence that the AI creative definitely can help our industry to move forward to capture more attention.”
The findings suggest that negative commentary about AI-generated creative doesn’t necessarily translate into lower audience attention.
For PJ Pereira, co-founder and creative chairman of SILVERSIDE and Pereira O’Dell, the studio involved in producing the campaign, AI presents opportunities to develop and refine creative faster.
“Being able to bring your ideas to life in real time is an incredible gift our generation has been given. But just because you can create something doesn’t mean you know how to make it resonate,” Pereira shared. “Capturing an audience’s attention, making them dream, and creating something that delivers real value for brands takes more than imagination and technology. It takes experience, creative judgment, and a deep understanding of how storytelling and marketing work together. What this data shows us is that when all those disciplines come together, something powerful happens.”
