ARF President & CEO, Scott McDonald hosted a lively and provocative discussion on attention metrics, how valid they are and if they do in fact measure “attention” and predict outcomes. Marc Guldimann of Adelaide called these metrics fit for purpose. Dr. Duane Varan of MediaScience, however, noted that attention metrics do not measure what vendors are saying they do.
The ARF Cognition Council presented an event focused on advertising within news content and context effects in programmatic buying. The first panel presented research on the effectiveness of advertising within news content on television and online, drawing from available qualitative, quantitative, and neuroscience evidence. The second panel delved into the potential opportunity for the context in which an ad is placed to be used in programmatic buying as the third-party cookie becomes less important.
The ARF’s Town Hall, Part 2, on the value of time in advertising highlighted the thinking of buy-side leaders, Denise Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer, AbbVie, Joanne Leong, VP, Director, Global Media Partnerships, Dentsu Aegis Network, and Christina (Chrissie) Hanson, Global Chief Strategy Officer, OMD Worldwide on the ideas presented at last week’s Town Hall. Additionally, Scott McDonald, Ph.D., President & CEO, ARF, shared findings from an ARF Attention Survey, as well as providing his feedback on the issues and challenges relating to attention metrics. The ensuing discussion focused on the use of attention as a major currency metric and the business implications of the latest time-duration research. Cesar Brea, Partner, Bain & Company, served as the moderator and introduced the Town Hall by discussing the reasons why the industry is very interested in an attention-based currency as a basis for investment.
On June 7, 2023, attention economy experts came together in NYC to share case studies and participate in engaging discussions on the attention measurement landscape. Plus, attendees heard a recap of the issues debated at AUDIENCExSCIENCE and an update on Phase I of the ARF Attention Validation Initiative, an empirically based evaluation of the rapidly developing market for attention measurement and prediction.
Member Only AccessMaggie Zhang of NBC Universal invited all the presenters back to a wrap-up session called “Attribution Pivot,” where she asked what challenges marketers are facing and how they are meeting them. Each provided insight into important attribution challenges that they as a marketer or their client is facing. Limitations include lacking the ability to do A/B testing, privacy issues and the looming issue of cookie depreciation. It is also difficult to determine long-term lift, such as lifetime value.
Zach Kubin of Adelaide began the session by explaining how reach has become increasingly fragmented. Digital, viewability and ACR tell an incomplete story, which makes it difficult to assess the quality of the media brands are buying. Adelaide combines all the available metrics into their own algorithm, which they call the Attention Metric (AU). Filip Pujic of Audi gave details from the car company’s use case, where it integrated AU using Adelaide’s algorithm into programmatic bidding, driving positive business outcomes. Audi will conduct a follow-up study to validate the results they have received.
This panel discussion, moderated by Circana’s Michael Ellgass, discussed the current state and emerging opportunities in retail media, including measurement as well as organizational issues. The following are edited highlights from their conversation.
Brian Wieser’s keynote address covered four trends that are affecting the media and advertising industries: industry consolidation, the rise of ad-free TV, the emergence of new e-commerce marketers and procurement. After his presentation, Scott McDonald probed him further about his observations about the state of the media and advertising marketplace in 2023. His key points on these four trends and highlights of Brian’s conversation with Scott appear below.
The winner of the 2023 Erwin Ephron Demystification Award is Artie Bulgrin, veteran ESPN researcher, and a friend and mentee of Erwin Ephron himself. This lifetime achievement award is part of the overall ARF Great Mind Awards program, which celebrates those in media or advertising research who demonstrate outstanding business acumen. Duane Varan, the 2022 award winner, CEO, MediaScience, introduced Artie. Duane hailed his colleague’s unparalleled approach to collaboration, saying Artie was instrumental in the creation of Project Blueprint, the Disney Media & Advertising Lab, research on new ad formats and even mobile when it was new. Over the years, he has also mentored several research professionals, many who are operating in the industry today.
In her overview on the current status of TV measurement, Andrea Zapata of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) made the case for why media companies need to evolve to committing to new partners and processes that push the industry forward. Moving forward for WBD meant identifying the right partners with reliable and accurate capabilities that leverage multi-currency approaches, and Andrea provided WBD’s methodology behind their “rigorous evaluation” of vendors. Advising that “different doesn’t always mean wrong,” she outlined the five key areas of focus that allowed for transparency to potential partners as well as confidence in recommendations made to leadership.