Our brains can’t keep up.
The average consumer is being overwhelmed by 6,000 to 10,000 advertisements daily. What makes this tsunami all the more exhausting is that only about a quarter of those messages will be relevant.
What’s even more distressing to advertisers is that of the “relevance universe,” less than a hundred ads hit their consciousness.
From 10,000 to a hundred is a one percent chance of breaking through. Adtech should really be called “casino tech.” So, it’s no wonder communication experts have dubbed the current environment as the “attention economy” – where the battle to capture our focus is relentless. And getting more intense.
Has the industry been keeping up by advancing its attention tool kit? Not so much. “Impact metrics” – is a discipline that has not kept up even as the number of advertisements we see every day have nearly doubled. Undertone is changing that, and dramatically so, by adding a broader set of sensory metrics to the decades-old eye-tracking methodology with its new “Attention Trace” metric in collaboration with System1, a global marketing research and effectiveness company. The metric better measures the way messages smack onto the windshield of perception in the busy and overwhelming ad environment.
Unlike simple and traditional eye-tracking methods, “Attention Trace” captures two key elements of attention: sight AND sound. This human-centered approach complements machine-captured performance data of engagement by adding additional detail and meaning. It also uses second-by-second mapping as consumers engage with creatives. Brands can use the metric to validate that their creatives are attention-getting and optimize campaigns to emphasize attention-getting moments and eliminate unnecessary communication elements.
But what are those moments that grab attention?
To capture people’s attention, ads need to deliver something for viewers. In a recent study conducted by Lucid for Undertone, 86% of consumers said they are open to the idea that an online, mobile, or video ad can be a “Good Ad”. And while 85% of consumers said they are often able to focus while they browse online, use apps or watch videos, they pay most attention to ads that give them new ideas, are unique or make them feel happy. The survey also showed that mobile phones continue to be the most engaging medium, with one third of Gen Z and Millennials preferring ads on mobile apps and web.
Several clients across varying verticals had “first-looks” at the metric ahead of its official release in Q4 2022. Undertone looks forward to deploying its new offering for the remainder of the year and into 2023 as brands demand actionable insights to drive campaign optimization and deliver outcomes. The metric enhances Undertone’s existing System1 study for its high-impact campaigns and can also be used as a standalone.
To learn more about Undertone’s “Attention Trace” metric, please contact [email protected].
* The survey was conducted online by global research firm, Lucid, between August 19, 2022, and August 23, 2022. 1,000 participants were surveyed ranging from age 18 to 70 across the U.S., with distribution matched to the general population by gender and age.
