The volume and frequency of attention required is different depending on the goal of the advertising campaign ... ⤵
That was one of the most interesting findings to come out of the recent Havas Media Group white paper.
When we start optimising towards attention, some of our long-held beliefs suddenly don’t feel so safe.
For example, the idea of delivering 1+ coverage, which essentially means that each person in your target audience will see the ad at least once.
On paper, that strategy works if every impression delivered is seen, and thus has a similar opportunity to make an impact.
However, when you optimise towards attention metrics, you realise it might take three or four impressions for a consumer to see your ad only once! So 1+ coverage could in fact be 0+ coverage.
Also, different volumes and frequencies are required for different objectives.
For example, if your campaign is aiming to raise brand awareness, then enough attention more times may be better than a lot of attention a few times.
This makes sense because the human mind learns through repetition (lines at school, anyone? I must always optimise towards attention, I must alwa…). So, half a second or a second of attention 10 times delivers aggregate attention, which is great for brand awareness.
However, if you wish to drive purchase intent, then you need significantly more attention per impression, on potentially fewer impressions.
In summary, more fleeting attention more frequently is better for brand awareness, and higher attention per impression is better for purchase intent.
This aligns well with the decades-old research from Daniel Kahneman and his System 1 and System 2 thinking.
System 1 perceives the world around us through our senses and takes in millions of data points without us being consciously aware. So, scanning briefly, even for half a second, if done repeatedly, will build into memory and awareness.
However, if we need to be jolted out of our autopilot System 1 thinking, then System 2, which is slower and more considered, requires more time to create a consideration process.
The white paper was written from the largest ever study into the link between attention to advertising and memory, specifically how attention to advertising leads to brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference, and purchase intent.
The research was conducted by Havas Media Network, Brand Metrics and Lumen Research - I'll pop the download link in the first comment.
Lumen Research | #attention
#advertising #marketing #effectiveness
