neuro/biometrics

Dimensionalizing the Value of Brands in an Attention Economy

  • Summary by Caroline McBride, Pernod-Ricard, Young Pros Officer

On September 20th, 2023, expert researchers delivered a set of presentations and participated in a panel discussion at an event curated by the Cognition Council’s Long Term Effectiveness Working Group. Panelists shared previous work on consumers’ responsiveness to the first few seconds of an ad, followed by the Cognition Council’s analysis of the combination of two disparate data sets – Kantar’s BrandZ, an ongoing study of the brand equity of leading global brands, and a custom MMA neuroscientific study of over 800 respondents’ reactions to 24 ads. This analysis focused on the effect of brand relevance on cognitive processing (specifically cognitive load and motivation) of ads at varying scroll speeds in a feed-based environment.

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Attention and Ad Impact: The Evolution of Attention Metrics

  • ARF Knowledge at Hand, CMO Brief

The proliferation of media platforms, with increases in multi-tasking, has made finding ways to get consumers to pay attention to advertising more important than ever. In response, researchers have developed new methods to assess attention and the ARF has found that they can provide more direct and more accurate measurements. However, as these metrics are constantly evolving, there are open questions regarding their validity and reliability. Further, as researchers are using the term “attention” in different ways, clarity about what is meant by attention and how it is being measured is crucial.

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The Attention Measurement Validation Initiative: Literature Review

Attention metrics are at a pivotal point in our industry. They are moving from the lab into the marketplace. Being at the forefront of such research, the ARF is studying 23 attention measurement providers. The goals of the study are to better understand the different tools being used, their validity, reproducibility and rightful application—whether in evaluating ad creative or the media environment. In the first phase of the project, ARF researchers produced a literature review, which itself is illuminating and adds much needed context. We now offer this review to our members. In addition, the first phase will also include a comparative analysis and profiling of all the participating measurement companies. Stay tuned for this upcoming report.

ATTENTION 2023

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.

What the Metaverse Means for Marketers

On September 21, 2022, speakers from Kantar, Meta, Next Media Partners, Snap, VMLY&R, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence and XRGuild shared insights into how the Metaverse will impact marketers. They discussed implications for interoperability as well as paid advertising.

The Future of Qual

In 2022 the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council conducted 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with senior research executives via Teams and Zoom to understand how the ‘Future of Qual’ would evolve with rapidly changing qualitative methods and the urgency across industries to understand cultural shifts. Council members Chloe Stromberg of LinkedIn and Anne Kaplan of Paramount, who worked on this project, presented what the Council learned from these interviews. Their presentation was followed by a panel discussion with a mix of Council members (Tony D’Andrea of General Mills and Tristan Marra of GLAAD) and culture-savvy researchers outside the Council (Danie Hemsley of Cassandra and Kendra Clarke, former Senior Director, Head of Experience Research and Design, Core Technologies at Twitter), led by Council Co-Chair Janelle James of Ipsos. The presentation and discussion focused on how qualitative research is evolving, how it can overcome its challenges —particularly those related to diversity and cultural understanding—and best practices for conducting qual research, moving forward.

The Context Effect: How Context is Critical & Transforming Digital Advertising

As consumer concerns about privacy are growing and legislators are responding by introducing legal restrictions, marketers are focusing on contextual targeting (instead of cookies) to make their advertising more effective. Research by Integral Ad Science (IAS) has shown that the growth of contextual targeting is not only being embraced by marketers, but also welcomed by consumers: they prefer ads that match the content they are viewing – which makes them more relevant to them.

Neuroscience Got to the Heart of Esports Audiences

This presentation, based on research conducted jointly by Activision Blizzard and Alter,  looks at the power of gaming with emphasis on ROI. Jonathan provided the background of esports, which he defined as professional gaming organized across teams or leagues with a range of game types. Professional e-gaming has grown rapidly to 436 million global viewers as of 2020 and is a highly fragmented marketplace.

The 80/20 Challenge: Building a Better Measurement Blueprint

NBCU’s Kelly Abcarian marshalled the call for revolutionizing opportunities in the measurement space and challenged attendees to drive change by questioning how they consume content, how they connect with that content, and ultimately, why, with current technology’s available options, is measurement still the same.