Attention versus Salience

It’s been said that humans now have the attention span of a goldfish. With so much content coming at audiences, with such velocity – how do brands break through the noise?

I wrote recently about the negative impact of “dull” advertising, but a recent paper by Professor Byron Sharp (preeminent marketing science guru) blew my mind. Sharp says that attention levels do not drive ad effectiveness.

“Attention scores for advertisements do not appear to predict advertising effectiveness. Paying more or optimizing creative for longer attention is unlikely to be worthwhile,” Sharp wrote with colleagues Steven Bellman and Erica Riebe.

What gives?

Media with inherent “attention” properties:

His point is that ad channels have inherent “attention” properties. The combined visual and audio nature of video translates to greater attention than an online display ad. Additionally, Sharp says, consumers process some ad channels in just a few seconds, e.g. billboards.

With those dynamics in mind, exceeding the point of diminishing return in “attention” is a risk. He also posits that chasing attention endangers balanced audience “reach” in brands’ media mix. This is because chasing attention often translates to chasing more loyal prospects, rather than growing more and new audiences.

That said , we believe there is a balance between “attention” and “salience.”  Without some bit of attention, there is no salience.

One solution is to maintain attention on the brand itself – building mental availability.  I am reminded of an insight I learned years ago at Nielsen’s neuroscience lab in Boston. The lab combined self-reporting; fMRI and biometrics to measure ad attention. The MSPCA hired the lab to evaluate its TV creative. The MSPCA knew that cute, playful puppies receive a lot of attention. So they dominated their initial TV ad with puppies. But then, the MSPCA learned that the puppies got too much attention, and viewers didn’t recall the brand or call to action. So the puppies moved to the background and the MSPCA logo moved big, bold, front and center.  In this case, the MSPCA calibrated attention measurement, while maintaining high emotional resonance – and salience.

The key takeaway here is that growing your business is not one metric optimization, but a mix. Attention is important, but not the north star. Emotion-evoking creative is important, but not the only thing. And part of your media mix model algorithm should includes the variables of attention and emotional impact.