The media agency world seems to be in agreement that attention metrics can be an important metric to factor into planning and executing campaigns for clients. In some cases, clients are even pushing their media agencies to adopt attention metrics at a faster clip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the ways in which attention metrics are being put to use by media shops is heading in different directions, depending on the holding company media agencies. To oversimplify, it boils down to whether they\u2019re using it as a KPI or a currency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How a media agency answers that question leads some in the industry to worry that standardization of attention terminology and practices will prove elusive, and thereby become an impediment to further adoption and understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be some conflict in some holding companies to use attention to leverage better CPMs with platforms and publishers,\u201d said Max Kalehoff, vp of marketing and growth at RealEyes, an attention metrics provider. \u201cHowever, the real prize is in better outcomes for advertisers and better experiences for consumers (not lower-cost CPMs). Attention is a highly powerful signal, though unlikely to become a hard currency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like there are two distinct factions \u2013 the first comprised of agencies who started using attention for research and planning. They\u2019ve been more active at Cannes and CES and thus seen as having a leadership position in the space,\u201d said Marc Guldimann, CEO of Adelaide, one of several firms providing attention metric tools to agencies, media companies and marketers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second faction has been more focused on using attention to drive efficiency via measurement and activation. While they\u2019ve been quieter, it\u2019s notable that these agencies have measured and optimized hundreds of campaigns and one has already started offering attention-based guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is how each holding company has approached the incorporation of attention into the flow of work for clients:<\/p>\n
Dentsu<\/strong><\/p>\n Five years ago, Dentsu launched a research practice around attention, studying it carefully before starting to apply it \u2014 and just last week the media agency network conducted internal and external training to help spread the gospel of attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much like Omnicom, its attention efforts flow predominantly through its centralized data platform, M1, and partners include Lumen Research and Amplified Intelligence. Joanne Leong, senior vp of global partnerships there, explained that following \u201cin the wild\u201d tests of thousands of panelists working with Lumen, Dentsu has generated two sets of outputs: a database of norms and benchmarks that helps to find CPM efficiencies through gains in attention uplift and a predictive model that gets applied to impression-level data to determine better recall. Dentsu is also doing some testing around guarantees around attention.<\/p>\n As that becomes a bigger part of the planning process, Leong believes standardization is key. \u201cIn order for attention to be this bigger thing in the industry, I think that there needs to be standards in place, because then you can have the buy side and the sell side talking the same language,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Havas Media<\/strong><\/p>\n The French owned holding company has put multiple efforts around attention into play, some in North America and some on a global scale out of Europe, but focused more on leveraging attention as a KPI than a currency. Working predominantly with Lumen in Europe and Adelaide here in the U.S.<\/a>, Havas is molding attention into its broader \u201cmeaningful media\u201d MX planning process \u2014 coming up with a meaningful attention unit, said Mike Bregman, chief data officer at Havas Media Group North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it\u2019s content and connections, which was the original premise of the meaningful experience,\u201d he said, adding that Havas is bringing this to clients before they ask about it. \u201cWe\u2019re now trying to figure out how to create quantitative measures around that, and attention is the starting block of how we get there as an agency.\u201d<\/p>\n IPG<\/strong><\/p>\n While IPG hasn\u2019t taken a holding-company-wide approach, MediaHub (which was just folded into Mediabrands) has actively engaged attention metrics for clients including the NBA. Ed McElvain, evp of P3 at Mediahub, overseeing digital and data-driven buying, previously told Digiday the shop is also working to incorporate attention into the programmatic buying process<\/a>. \u201cIt allows the traders to focus on other attributes of the campaign that we want to look at, like contextual alignment, supply path and bid pricing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Omnicom<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n As IPG did with Mediahub, Omnicom Media Group is letting its OMD media agency lead the charge<\/a> on operationalizing and scaling attention, led by OMD CEO Chrissie Hanson (who most recently was chief strategy officer). All attention work flows through Omni, the holding company\u2019s marketing orchestration platform, as Dentsu does with M1. But that\u2019s where the similarities end. Hanson noted that OMD has put attention to use in 11 markets, across 13 categories and 25 brands. \u201cThat\u2019s how we operationalize the work,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause what we have shown is that optimizing to attention lifts KPIs<\/strong>, it improves performance, and it reduces waste. It is a planning metric that does deliver value consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n Britt Cushing, OMD\u2019s managing director and head of communications planning, added that the agency\u2019s attention requirement calculator, leveraged through Omni, takes into consideration elements such as brand maturity, newness of the creative message and clutter in the ad\u2019s environment to pick the best possible outcome. \u201cWe do need to take that extra step within Omni to have the attention requirement calculator [understand] that nuance specific to the brand\u2019s campaign,\u201d said Cushing.<\/p>\n Publicis<\/strong><\/p>\n Although Publicis didn\u2019t make an executive available to talk about its efforts on attention, several sources reached for this story said Publicis will \u201clikely will surprise with thoroughness when they do\u201d declare their efforts in the area. A Publicis Media rep would only say, \u201cIn a world that\u2019s so laser focused on driving business outcomes, we\u2019re actively evolving to metrics that are less media centric (counting things) to more consumer action centric (selling things).\u201d<\/p>\n WPP<\/strong><\/p>\n Attention is primarily being put to use through media agency network GroupM\u2019s EssenceMediacom and Xaxis platform, said a source within GroupM who declined to speak for attribution, who noted the company has focused less on getting press attention and more on getting attention to work successfully in the buy-sell process. Xaxis Switzerland has been using Adelaide\u2019s attention data to create a customized attention algorithm that enabled media purchases to be optimized for attention \u2014 but much of the learnings are being shared across global teams within GroupM. The focus, said the source, is to get closer to activation based on attention-based values. \u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the traditional holdcos, other agency groups are actively working with firms like Lumen or Amplified Intelligence, and the ARF may end up getting involved in helping the attention industry hammer out standardization. <\/p>\n But ultimately what attention work within holding companies might end up accomplishing is the further breaking down of media and creative silos. Because attention doesn\u2019t work if it doesn\u2019t work closely with the creative process. <\/p>\n As one of the sources for this story told Digiday, a Carl\u2019s Jr. burger ad featuring women in bikinis may generate a lot of attention \u2014 but it won\u2019t necessarily sell burgers.<\/p>\n Mobile app marketing platform Liftoff contends in a\u00a0new mobile ad report<\/a>\u00a0that longer video ads do better than shorter ones. The company analyzed some 1 trillion impressions across 240 million installs in the last year across five verticals \u2013 gaming, e-commerce, finance, entertainment and dating\/social. Turns out there is a sweet spot for how long the video ad should run, in order to optimize mobile user acquisition and engagement. \u2014 Antoinette Siu<\/em><\/p>\n More stats:<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many relatively new large businesses rooted in the technology industry who are likely continuing to scale up their spending on external services as they mature. Agencies\u2019 newer offerings related to data and business transformation are also undoubtedly driving revenue growth, as these are critical areas of focus for agencies\u2019 primary clients. As time progresses, these activities offer the potential for agencies to more meaningfully broaden their client bases to include individuals not presently overseen by chief marketing officers. Finally, expanding principal-based trading solutions and other managed services offered by agencies are also becoming increasingly important across the industry, as marketers \u2013 now better versed in the pros and cons of such products \u2013 seem increasingly willing to embrace them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Independent analyst Brian Wieser explaining in his newsletter the factors that could influence future growth among agency holding companies.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\nColor by numbers<\/h2>\n
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