Attention: stop playing a numbers game and focus on positive

Opinion

The industry’s scramble to enter the current attention economy is pointless, unless we start focussing on positive attention, writes the MD of Invibes Advertising.

For a while now, the attention economy has been under the advertising industry’s spotlight, and for a good reason. The potential for attention to shape digital advertising is huge. From offering a more qualitative campaign metric than impressions, long-standing industry standard, to environmental benefits and even a potential to improve consumers attitude towards advertising.

But many of these benefits could be all but lost to the wind if the industry doesn’t focus more specifically on qualitative measures when looking at attention.

The main downfall in the current race for attention is that not all attention is made equal, in the same way that not all impressions and ad experiences are. Sure, a brand might be able to boast impressive attention metrics like high attentive seconds calculated using view rate, view time and dwell time, but quality has to matter too.

I’ve got a lot of time for what attention as a metric stands for, but we’ve got to bring in some kind of value hierarchy to attention or it could lose the gravitas it currently holds. This is why at Invibes we focus on positive attention, an additional qualitative measure of combined attention and positive ad experience contributing to business outcomes, and it’s where I think — I hope — the industry will progress, too, if we want the future of attention to be truly beneficial.

Here are some key reasons why the industry needs to start focussing on positive attention now.

Positive attention = campaign efficiency

Shifting to positive attention benefits campaign efficiency through quality over quantity. Rather than trying to gain any audience attention possible, making a concerted effort to generate positive attention means the right audiences engage with ads more positively and meaningfully. Which is also of course great for building and protecting brand image and recall as an added bonus.

Reducing campaign carbon footprint

We all know that the ad industry needs to do more to address sustainability especially in the midst of eye-watering stats being produced, such as a single ad impression produces as much as 1g of equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e), which is about about the weight of a paperclip.

With positive attention, there is potential to cut emissions across the whole industry. The idea works again with quality-over-quantity campaign efficiency. According to Playground xyz, ads that drive higher attention can reduce carbon emissions by 63%. And this is for attention generally; if the focus shifts to positive attention, the numbers are going to look even better.

Ad UX holds even higher importance in the cost-of-living crisis

We’ve been talking about this for a while at Invibes; consumers tightening their budgets means brands need to work harder to deliver the best ad experiences. A major part of positive attention is about ad experience. Adopting an ‘audience-first’ mentality, moving to reduce low-quality ads and improve user experience (UX) to generate higher-quality ad experiences and drive positive attention will increase engagement, brand perception and subsequently, return on investment.

Impact of AI

Of course, artificial intelligence is a huge topic across the industry, especially generative AI and what it means for advertising. One AI-fuelled possibility is simply more ads. Where brands are able to work more efficiently by using AI, it could lead to a more cluttered advertising landscape. Working to achieve positive attention is a way to cut through the noise by delivering non-intrusive but impactful advertising while protecting brand suitability and likeability through better ad experiences.

Neurodiversity and evolving user behaviours

Research conducted by The Policy Institute, The Centre for Attention Studies, and King’s College London found that nearly half of the British public surveyed felt their attention spans were getting worse. This is no surprise as we consume more short-form online content.

Awareness of neurodiversity has also never been higher. The Donaldson Trust estimates that one in seven people are neurodivergent, but the ad industry still has a way to go in understanding this market. Prioritising positive attention encourages brands to relook at ad experience.

This is a great opportunity to consider more inclusive creatives that will create better UX for the neurodiverse community, as well as driving brands to stand out from the crowd and capture the wider audiences in a more meaningful way.

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All in all, while the scope of attention is overwhelmingly promising, it has an even bigger potential to be maximised through positive attention.

As an industry we need to reprioritise to focus on delivering truly effective advertising and not just play a numbers game. The way forward is with positive attention, and the time to do that is now.

Caroline Lidington is managing director UK at Invibes Advertising and former sales director at lastminute.com.