This post was created in partnership with Viant
An ad can reach the right screen and still miss the person watching it. So, how can marketers tell which ads earn attention, and use that knowledge to improve their campaigns?
That question shaped ADWEEK Exchange in Dallas, the second stop on a national roadshow from Viant and ADWEEK spanning the country’s leading advertising markets. Speakers examined how to measure attention, what it reveals about creative, and how brands can use it to make smarter media decisions.
How to measure and use attention data
Yan Liu, CEO of TVision, opened with a question the Dallas audience would return to throughout the event: How can marketers properly measure and use attention data to drive better ad performance?
First, marketers need to understand when people are paying attention to their ads. To illustrate this idea, Liu compared one of YouTube’s most-viewed videos, “Johny Johny Yes Papa,” with a scene from the political thriller television series Paradise. The YouTube video had far more views, but the Paradise clip drew 5X more attention.
“This example shows that the reach, impressions, or ratings don’t tell the entire story,” Liu said. “When you think about your media, you need to pair that with a quality signal—which is attention.”
Liu then explained how TVision measures attention. TVision tracks what’s on screen and whether people are watching, second by second. But measurement alone isn’t the ultimate goal. It’s about whether attention translates into results.
In a study involving a subscription brand and a home services brand, he tested this question, comparing attention with conversions. For both brands, conversions rose as attention increased, giving marketers a clearer reason to consider attention when evaluating their media.
How brands are rethinking creative and CTV
Will Lee, CEO of ADWEEK, moved the event forward in a panel with Whitney Magnuson, head of brand and media at Zoom; Scott Ludwig, VP and head of consumer marketing at AT&T; Rebekah Payne, VP of advertising and integrated media at ALSAC, and Chris Vanderhook, COO and co-founder of Viant. Lee began by asking what problem each brand was trying to solve with connected TV (CTV).
