Attention Scores Prove the Value of Matching Creative with Appropriate Media Placements, According To New Research from TVision and Realeyes

Low-Attention Creative Performs Best in High Attention Environments; High-Attention Grabbing Creative Wears Out More Quickly

Today TVision, the company measuring every second of TV and CTV viewer engagement, and Realeyes, a leader and pioneer in computer vision and attention and emotion AI, released a new report that provides a blueprint, with real world examples, for marketers to use both pre- and in-flight creative attention metrics to optimize their TV and CTV ad campaign performance.  

As the advertising industry embraces the value of attention in advertising effectiveness, “The CMO Guide For Leveraging Creative For TV Attention Performance” illustrates the intersecting roles of creative quality and media in determining an ad’s ability to break through.  It outlines how a creative’s attention earning power should be factored into media planning decisions for dayparts and programming in order to maximize campaign impact.

As advertisers seek to develop the best media strategy, they first need to understand the strength of their creative. Realeyes’ pre-market Quality Score measures an ad’s ability to capture and retain attention, and encode the brain through an emotional response. As the ad campaign runs, TVision’s in-market Creative Attention Score measures an ad’s ability to break through compared to other ads in its pod. The two tools combined can enable marketers to  identify a much better mix of creative and media excellence, resulting in greater attention and business impact.

“When marketers optimize campaigns for attention based on network or daypart alone, they are underestimating the influence that strong creative can have on an ad’s ability to capture attention,” explains Mikhel Jaatma, CEO at Realeyes. “When marketers measure creative attention pre-flight, and use that data to influence creative selection and media buying strategies, they can  increase the impact of low-performing ads, and gain more value from high-performing ads.”

Report Findings Indicate Creative Strength Should Influence Media Strategies

• High-performing dayparts boost poor-quality creative - Creatives that performed poorly in pre-market testing, according to Realeyes Quality Score, were able to outperform their average rate of attention by .9% in primetime. Conversely, the success of high-quality creative was not as dependent on premium, high-attention dayparts - these ads performed well even in low-attention dayparts. In fact, ads that scored well on Realeyes Quality Score saw .2% lower TVision Creative Attention Scores in primetime than their average rate of attention across all dayparts.
• Poor quality creative needs repeat exposures to wear-in - As ad frequency increases for lower performing ads, their creative attention scores also rise.  These ads can improve their attention score by an average of 5% from the first viewing to the sixth-to-tenth viewing.
• Great creative wears out faster - Creative Attention Scores of high-performing creative wanes by as much as 15% after six to ten views, suggesting that there are optimal volumes for different types of creative. High-scoring ads may not deliver equivalent value throughout the course of their flight. Monitoring campaigns for creative wear-out can help advertisers maximize the value of their media.
  
  

• M&M’s appealing narrative and celebrity spokesperson (Dan Levy) ensured the candy maker retained attention throughout its ad. 
• Samsung’s smart media planning in high attention environments helped the manufacturer overcome a lower pre-market Quality Score.
  
  “We all know that ads only work if viewers pay attention,” explains Yan Liu, CEO of TVision. “But attention is influenced by many factors, including programming, time of day, audience behaviors and importantly, creative quality. By measuring creative pre-flight and again in-flight, marketers can create higher value campaigns that maximize ad budgets. This report suggests a path forward for advertisers seeking to optimize for attention at every point of the campaign.”
  
  

Report methodology:

• The study included 40 :15 and :30 second TV ads that ran in the U.S.
• Ads studied were from major brands including Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Arby’s, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Disney+, Domino’s Pizza, Facebook Groups, Fiji Water, Google, Haribo Gold-Bears, HBO Max, Hershey’s, Hulu, Kit Kat, M&M’s, Microsoft Teams, Mountain Dew, NBC, Netflix, Pepsi, Popeyes, Red-Bull, Samsung, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.
  
  

Download “The CMO Guide For Leveraging Creative For TV Attention Performance”

About TVision 

TVision provides second-by-second, person-level data about how people watch TV – who’s watching, what they’re watching, and how much attention they are paying to both linear and streaming TV. Advertisers, agencies, networks, streaming content providers, measurement companies, and data platforms use TVision data to make more informed media decisions, measure performance, produce content that engages audiences, and benchmark their results against competitors. TVision is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Boston and Tokyo.

About Realeyes

Using front-facing cameras and the latest in computer vision and machine learning technologies, Realeyes measures attention and emotion of opt-in participants as they watch video content online. This empowers brands publishers and technology platforms to inform and optimize their content as well as target the right videos to the right audiences. Realeyes’ technology applies facial coding to predictive, big-data analytics, driving bottom-line business outcomes for brands and publishers. Founded in 2007, Realeyes has offices in New York, London, Tokyo and Budapest. Customers include brands such as Mars Inc, Church & Dwight, Hershey’s and Expedia, agencies Ipsos, MarketCast and Publicis, and media companies such as Google, WarnerMedia and Teads.