Paying Attention to Attention

In recent times, there has been an explosion of conversations around Attention and how it needs to be thought of as the missing link to drive Media and Creative effectiveness. Reviewing all the debates, I am left wondering why everyone in the industry seem so surprised, by the fact that people do not pay attention to advertising? And while this discussion has now been subsumed as a challenge to the measurement of Attention in Digital media channels via proxy metrics, did we not have this challenge also with Traditional Media way before?

The key challenge being discussed, is the different approaches used to measure Attention. Traditional media measurement involved people – we monitored behavior and could find out that “1 in 3 TV ads play to empty rooms”. With Digital Media, the proxy for Attention is Viewability (defined by IAB guidelines) – and as any proxy is an approximation. Just because an ad was “in-view” does not mean people “paid attention” – as in, had their eyes on screen. But then, we had the second screening reality for TV as well – just because a person was in the room, did not always mean they were focused on the TV screen.

The key points from the discussion around Digital media channels are -

• Just because an ad was “in-view”, as defined by MRC and IAB, does not mean people were paying attention to it.
• This viewability/attention gap or Attention Elasticity varies by Media Channel – and the channels which are built around capturing attention are the most distracting. (think scroll-based viewing behavior – Facebook, Instagram and TikTok)
• Ads need active attention of at least 2.5s to build memory associations for the brand (the Attention-Memory threshold). And the vast majority of ads are in-view for less than this 2.5s duration.

From all of the discussions around the pros/cons of Viewability and Attention metrics, it is not clear on what the implications are. Specifically, what needs to change, if at all, with how Brands approach creative development and media channel campaign planning?

Measuring Ad Viewability is easy, as it is technology driven - each digital media platform measures behavior metrics like scroll speed, proportion of the video that was in-view and for how many seconds. Measuring Attention is more difficult, as it entails tracking actual viewing behavior, via biometric reads captured via eye-tracking and facial coding and this needs to be done in a research setting. As such Viewability will always remain the metric that is available at scale for all campaigns, and Attention is currently possible on a more ad hoc basis, when specific studies are run. (though teams are looking to arrive at a predictive model for Attention based on multiple behavioral metrics).

Also, both Viewability and Attention are a function of the channel context and how content is consumed - YouTube will register higher Viewability (seconds the ad was in view) than scroll-based channels of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. And Facebook, TikTok, Instagram will register higher Attention (eyes on screen) than YouTube.

Understanding this dichotomy in itself is a very simplistic take on the media reality and should not be used increase/decrease spend on any channel. Each channel has its own unique approach to how people consume content, and they play specific roles in any advertising campaign. What is important is to acknowledge these differences exist and consider the key creative best practices in the development of content for each channel.

These are:

• The crisis of Attention is not that people now have low attention spans, rather it is that they have a low tolerance towards things that are not relevant to them. So, every piece of advertising content has to stand out in the clutter, with a relevant message, so people continue to watch for longer and be clear on ‘what brand, what product and what message’.
• Considering this desired outcome, each media channel have defined creative best practices, to improve the chances of campaign success.
• On scroll-based consumption channels, despite eyes on screen, we must accept that there are very low view-through rates (most videos are viewed for under 3s). This requires early brand and product introduction, with a visual and/or audio hook the piques interest to stop and watch.
• On YouTube, most ads will be pre-roll skippable formats – where people are not looking at the content as they wait for the 5s time to play-out, so they can skip. Audio is an under-utilised element, that when done well, can bring attention back to the screen. Sonic distinctive brand assets are a powerful creative tool for brands to develop and use consistently.

There are also new learnings in 2025 which Brands must consider in how they brief for creative content.

• The latest guidance from Meta, is the concept of “6s is the new 60s” and to build for aggregated attention (link). So, campaigns need to deploy many different short-form videos, and rather than expecting sustained attention to one piece of content, we need to get short duration attention aggregated across multiple pieces of content.
• Learnings shared by Analytic Partners at Cannes 2025, extends this consideration of aggregated attention to ring-fence all media touch-points – calling for brand building with “lot of littles” (link), ensuring consistency of brand expression and cohesiveness of the campaign idea across the consumer journey.

In summary, all that we have always known about the need for creativity to flex within the constraints of the content consumption behavior of each each media channel – is still very relevant and we should not lose focus on this as we continue to weigh the pros and cons of Viewability and Attention related metrics.