Turn attention into action and creative into action
In the brand panel that followed, marketing leaders discussed how attention data could inform media, creative, and business decisions. Moderated by Will Lee, CEO of ADWEEK, the panel featured Danielle Sporkin, SVP of media and marketing services at Ferrero; Dai Kageyama, SVP of marketing at The Hartz Mountain Corporation; Holly Dunn, head of North America investment at Havas Media Network; and Chris Vanderhook, COO and co-founder of Viant.
At Ferrero, brands such as Nutella, Kinder, and Tic Tac have different marketing needs. Sporkin said CTV can build awareness, drive engagement, and support purchases, with retailer data helping connect advertising to conversion.
Hartz, a pet care and supplies manufacturer, faces a related challenge in understanding CTV’s impact. Kageyama said the company uses retail media to reach younger pet owners but has struggled to isolate CTV’s contribution when multiple campaigns run simultaneously.
“It’s very difficult to really understand, OK, what did CTV do for you?” Kageyama explained. To address that challenge, Hartz brought retail media planning, execution, and reporting in-house to make faster decisions.
For Dunn, the growing supply of streaming inventory makes attention data increasingly valuable. “Not every impression is equal,” she noted. She emphasized that the context of an ad and the environment in which it appears matter when making media investment decisions.
Vanderhook emphasized that marketers need attention data they can act on. “They want two things: one, tie it out to outcomes,” he said. “And then two, don’t make me fight internally within the brand to activate on attention.”
He pointed out that automating those decisions would make it easier for marketers to act on attention data and improve campaign performance.
The discussion also turned to how brands are adapting their creative strategies to connect with different audiences as media options multiply.
“We no longer just think about creating a TV commercial. We think about creating a creative umbrella, and then all the different assets that fit underneath that umbrella,” Sporkin said.
She described Ferrero’s approach as precision at scale, developing major campaigns alongside creative tailored to different audiences. For Kinder Joy, that means targeting grandparents with one message and Harry Potter fans with another, for example.
Kageyama also emphasized the importance of emotional authenticity in creative, particularly the moments that resonate with pet owners, such as a dog wagging its tail or a cat eagerly enjoying a treat. He said those moments reflect the content pet owners naturally share on social media.
