Large-scale, innovative research maps attention funnel
For years it has been suggested that we should not judge media solely on their reach; qualitative criteria would give a better indication of the effectiveness of communication. Actually, it should be more about "being seen" than "visibility," but in most cases the effect of advertising is still determined by the numbers delivered/realized (reach, impressions, circulation, clicks, etc.). However, there now seems to be a cautious shift where advertisers prefer to substantiate their campaign effectiveness by quality of reach. This gives rise to discussions - there is no real market standard - because how do you reliably measure quality of reach and what are the most appropriate measures for this? As far as online advertising is concerned, the necessary data are available, think of reading time, but for print publications this is not the case and these cannot be registered 'passively' in the same way. Reason for DPG Media to investigate if and how this can be made transparent.
Challenge
Attention determines brand recall, trust and affinity
The objective of the research for DPG Media was to identify the level of attention (viewing time) for commercial expressions and to relate this to impact (brand transfer). To properly answer the research question, a research approach with different titles and channels was chosen. A balanced choice was made from the DPG Media portfolio with general and special interest titles, both print and online and both advertising and branded content.
The viewing time for editorials, advertisements and branded content was recorded by means of (online) eye tracking, then the unconscious impact - trust and affinity - of commercial expressions was measured through an Implicit Reaction Time (IRT) survey, and finally the explicit brand recall was queried with a questionnaire. A total of 85 expressions/brands were tested among a sample of over 1,200 Dutch consumers.
Vision
Solution
Visible ≠ seen
In order to have an effect, messages must be visible, actually seen and viewed long enough to create an effect in the brain. That sounds like an open door, but this process can now be substantiated numerically. The gradient between reach and the number of people who look long enough to remember the brand message is called the attention funnel. Visibility has a statistical relationship with viewing time: the longer ads are visible, the longer they are viewed. Then there is a relationship between viewing time and brand recall: the longer one watches the ad the better one remembers it. As far as ads are concerned, there is a minimum of 1 second: if an ad is viewed for less than 1 second, then hardly any brand effect can be observed. Since in branded content the brand is less prominent, this requires a bit more time: the effect is optimal from 10 seconds, but even with a shorter viewing time brand elements are already noticed and remembered. There also appears to be a positive relationship between viewing time and implicit associations: attention correlates with brand trust ('I trust') and affinity ('for me') in a similar pattern as conscious brand recall. The tested content teaches that 'engaging' editorial content drives attention to ads and thus amplifies impact. Context matters.
Result
Print ads best suited for influencing awareness
The relationship viewing time and brand recall forms a robust and stable unit. The study shows that branded content is an effective tool, thanks to a greater degree of attention effectiveness than online display. Thereby, it does not matter very much through which channel the branded content is presented: both print and online deliver sufficiently long viewing time. Print, and print ads in particular, prove to be particularly effective in generating brand transfer. Compared to online display, print ads are watched on average 4x as long which ultimately delivers 5 to 10 times more impact.
This new, large-scale and innovative research provides more insight into the importance of attention and even offers a measure of effective attention: the Effective Attention Contacts (EAC) rate refers to the portion of the reach that looked at an expression long enough to remember the brand.
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