Professor Karen Nelson-Field PhD presented on How Advertising Attracts Attention at Mumbrella’s MSIX conference.

1. How
Advertising
Attracts
Attention.Professor Karen Nelson-Field

2. We build
our own
technology to
directly improve
the validity of
the marketing
research we do.
PhD Trained
Marketing Researchers
Media, Content diffusion, Modelling, Consumer
behaviour, Advertising effectiveness,
Mathematics
+
Computer Science
Engineers
Software engineering, Mathematics, Machine
Learning , Computer vision, Product design,
App development, System architecture, VR

4. Why the attention on
ATTENTION?

5. Simple.
There’s a genuine and logical
argument need for a
comparable cross platform
impression measure.
Attention is a universally
applicable, cut-through metric.
Reflects vast modal
differences.
Scalable and passively
collected.

6. “ “Attention is the allocation
of mental resources.
Before consumers can be
affected by advertising
messages, they need to
first be paying attention.
Thales Tiexeira
Professor Marketing Harvard
Attention lets information in,
memory holds it in place.
Without the former, the
latter doesn't exist.
Dr Jared Cooney-Horvarth
Cognitive Neuroscientist Uni Melb

7. “
AdAge: Fox Wants
'Attention' To Be
New Language For
TV Ads 2018
Ad Attention
Research:
Effectiveness
hinges on more
than just reach
2017
Do not pay for
impressions,
pay for
attention.
2002
Attention is rising to attention as the
trading future.
The Economist
introduces multi
platform attention
buy for its clients
2015

8. But there is attention and then there is
attention
▪ Eyes on screen, eyes off screen,
eyes on screen AND on ad
▪ In-situ viewing (natural)
▪ Scalable for sample size
▪ Anchored to Sales/Product choice
▪ Passive collection
▪ Dwell time/time spent in view
▪ Goggles or Lab settings
▪ Restricted sample size
▪ Anchored to Recall or Likeability
▪ Self declared attention
VS

9. We see vast differences in attention declared by
HUMANS versus attention measured by MACHINE
We found half over-reported attention by 42% and half
under-reported by avg. 36%

10. Biased and Subjective
measurement can
mean the difference
between ‘any result’
and the
‘right result’.

11. 1. Download Collection App.
Collects facial footage and
viewing metrics.
Intercepts natural ad load.
Tracks test ad viewability metrics.
2. View Test
Platform or
Programming.
Viewing occurs
in a natural
environment.
3. Go to
Virtual
Store.
Discrete choice
used as an
anchor to
attention.
4. Data
Pushed to
Analytics
Framework.
Sec by sec
attention and
viewability
metrics at view
level.
Our collection process is natural
and in real-time

12. What we mean by in-situ viewing
We capture attention across BOTH media platform and viewing device
…...PLUS

13. We also capture inward facing
information
COVERAGE
% of screen covered by ad
PIXELS
% of ad on screen
TIME
time spent in view
SCREEN SIZE
size of viewing screen

14. And Brand
Quality
Purpose built annotation tool for
objective measurement
Metric 1: Brand Frequency
Metric 2: Brand Entry Timing
Metric 3: Total Brand Duration
Metric 4: Brand Prominence
(size)

15. Machine based annotation allows us to rate executions on their
branding quality at scale and quickly.
And minimises any potential error of human coding of this information.

16. Strong emotion drives forwarding of emails (Berger and
Milkman 2012).
Longer life span of ‘memes’ (Bell and Sternberg 2001).
Emotions are a driver of brand favourability (Heath 2009).
Greater concentrated attention (Teixeira, et al. 2011).
And emotions: long noted as a conductor for further
cognitive and behavioural reactions.

17. Positive
High Arousal Low Arousal
Hilarity Amusement
Inspiration Calmness
Astonishment Surprise
Exhilaration Happiness
Negative
High Arousal Low Arousal
Disgust Discomfort
Sadness Boredom
Shock Irritation
Anger Frustration
But for now, defaulted to tested
Arousal/Valence Grid (2013 Nelson-Field)

18. - Products with Ekman 6 training data available.
- Paul Ekman 1971 – Emotions constants across
cultures.
- Research not about behavioural outcomes
(sales).
- Ekman 6 not balanced across arousal and
valance.
- We are not alone: “Silicon Valley Thinks
Everyone Feels the Same Six Emotions”.
Why didn’t we integrate an ’off the shelf’
emotions SDK?
Because measurement issues
aren’t restricted to attention.

19. Working towards our own ML
trained emotions model.
(watch this space)

20. Just because it’s tech,
doesn’t mean it’s the best
measurement or
construct.
Look for both,
good construct and good
collection method in
copy-testing.

21. Device
Media Platform
Ad Coverage
Ad Pixels
View Time
Screen Size
Product Choice
Brand Quality
Emotions
NEW: Sound on/Sound Off
NEW: Search and online buying
ALL Considered with Attention.
Research Questions - Copy Testing

22. SCALE SO FAR
70,000 TEST AD VIEWS, 44 STUDIES, 3 COUNTRIES
125,310 mins of viewing
37.5 million facial data points to train our attention model

23. What have we
LEARNED?

24. Media choice matters a lot to attention
Visibility differs significantly by platform and device.
Attention can vary sig cross platform, regardless of ad
quality (creative held constant).
Coverage Variation avg. 10-100% Pixels Variation avg. 51-100%
As such huge difference to the amount of attention advertising attracts.

25. High Arousal content helps too
LOW AROUSAL HIGH AROUSAL
STAS
Avg.
Attention
per second
STAS
Avg.
Attention
per second
128 50 167 58
Prevalence 78% Prevalence 22%
- High Arousal content delivers more ATTENTION and SALES than La content.
- Although High Arousal content is rare.
- No real surprise, this is all consistent with previous work.

26. “
BUT the influence
emotion has on attention
is SIGNIFICANTLY less
than the influence of
platform choice
(about half).

27. At 5 frames per second we can dig
deeper into the exact attention
grabbing moments.
What does this detail tell us about the factors that
drive attention and its ability to produce a sales
impact?

28. “
We see attention
spikes are typically
triggered by emotion,
but not all high
attention translates
to a sale.

29. -5
5
15
25
35
45
55
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Second
Lipton
Active Attention (%) SalesDifferential
Transposed our aggregated
STAS to a second by second
Sales Differential against
attention.
% uplift propensity to buy at
active/non attention.
What was happening when
this uplift was greatest?
Attention and Sales
second by second
When attention spikes,
sales also go up here.But why not here?

30. This is a high arousal, high attention moment, but what brand is this?
A common potential reason:

31. Mere presence of branding
at attention peaks increases
the chance of buying.
Attention without branding still
increases the chance of
buying.
And branding without
attention helps, but
significantly limits opportunity.

32. Sales are amplified
when attention
peaks and branding
are aligned.

33. But we can take it one
step further.
- BRAND SIZE MATTERS MOST:
100% of higher performing ads (median
split by STAS) showed the brand twice
the size.
- BRAND EARLY ALSO IMPORTANT
With sec by sec analysis you can
brand at the RIGHT TIME not
simply ALL THE TIME.

34. E! NEWSFLASH
An over-reliance on
emotions hits advertisers
where it hurts.
1- Emotions have less of an
impact on attention than media
choice.
2- Emotions have less of an
impact on the sale than good
branding.
Obsess less on whether
content will ‘go viral’ and
start obsessing over
whether the RIGHT content
is VISIBLE.

35. An Attention Hierarchy formed
EFFECTIVE ATTENTION =
((Ad Visibility + Ha Emotion) = Attention Spike) + Quality Branding -> Sales

36. Others are starting
to recognise that
logos at high
attention points
are valuable.

37. Ha
Emotions
Ad Visibility
Quality
Branding
Only Ad Visibility + Ha
Emotions = misattributed to
competitor.
Effective
Attention
Model
Only Quality Branding + Ha
Emotions = ad hardly visible.
Only Ad Visibility + Quality
Branding = limited cut through.
Beware the dysfunction – all 3 maximise the
attention opportunity

38. 1. Beware, not all attention measurement is equal.
2. More attention can be gained by choosing the right media
upfront than by building emotive creative, but emotion
does help.
3. Branding at high attention points significantly improves the
chance of a sale. Do sec by sec copy testing.
4. Brand prominence is the most important brand quality
element.
Make every attention opportunity count, they are rare.