Just 1.5 seconds is enough for ad recall, new attention study reveals

Distinctive brand assets are key when it comes to ad engagement, according to a new study that VCCP Media claims is the “first of its kind” in measuring the effectiveness of media and creative together.

Hacking the Attention Economy was conducted in collaboration with attention platform Amplified.

The study, revealed at an event this week at VCCP’s London office, found that the majority (85%) of digital ads receive less than 2.5 seconds of attention — the threshold for creating a memorable impression, according to Amplified founder Karen Nelson-Field.

Importantly, however, ads can actually be recalled by viewers after just 1.5 seconds — but only if there are distinctive brand assets.

This key finding, according to the report, suggests that short exposure isn’t necessarily wasted exposure — as long as creative and media are aligned, and distinctive brand assets are deployed.

In a fragmented media landscape, this means 1.5 seconds of active, well-branded attention can be more powerful than 15 seconds of passive exposure.

Specifically, a lack of these assets in digital advertising is resulting in brands incurring a “distinctive asset tariff”. The research calculated that brands are wasting up to 66p in every £1 spent on digital ads, equating to £66bn in lost value globally each year.

Comparing well-branded ads versus unbranded ones, the results show that the best-performing brand in the study delivered a 3.5 times higher return-on-investment when adjusted for attention, compared with its unbranded counterpart.

Even for ads with a limited view time, well-branded assets were 2.5 times more effective in driving outcomes compared with poorly branded ones.

5 attention hacks for brands

In light of the research, VCCP has identified five “hacks” for brands keen to benefit from these findings.

• Audit your assets: Find out what makes a brand truly distinctive, from colour and audio to logo and character.
• Beyond brand love: Brands need emotional storytelling to build associations but also high-reach executions to activate those associations.
• Combining creative and media: The two disciplines need to be planned together.
• Pay attention: Understand how long someone’s attention is being held — then plan, test and optimise accordingly.
• Boardroom-proof it all: To avoid the “distinctive asset tariff”, ensure assets work in digital and prove creative contributes to commercial value.

As part of the research, VCCP conducted a “bad twin” test to explore the use of distinctive brand assets.

It tested video ads from eight of its brands — Bulldog, Cadbury, Domino’s, easyJet, O2, Old El Paso, Sage and White Claw — in real social environments, with and without their distinctive brand assets. Such assets included unique colours, typefaces, sonics, characters, logo prominence and visual device.

Amplified tracked over 20,000 views of 72 digital video ads, analysing metrics including active attention, emotional response, mental availability and short-term advertising strength.

Working smarter

Pointing out that it’s active attention — in other words, when an ad is actually viewed — that matters, not when an ad is “in view”, Nelson-Field said: “This study is the first to prove that just 1.5 seconds of genuine attention is enough to encode memory in a real-world digital feed.

“The good news is, with intelligent asset deployment, you can drive outcomes even in 1.5 seconds. That’s not about doing more; it’s about doing better.”

VCCP Media CEO James Shoreland said the results “point to a new paradigm for media planning and buying”.

He added: “Marketers are rightly focused on media efficiency, but we’re seeing billions in creative inefficiency go unchecked. This report proves that creative and media effectiveness are two sides of the same coin — and attention is the currency which connects them.”

The study was co-authored by Nelson-Field and Will Parrish, VCCP Media’s chief strategy officer.

The full report can be found here.

Everything you wanted to know about attention but were too afraid to ask