Study by Dentsu and Teads: In-read videos are more effective than social media

According to the study, viewability alone is no longer sufficient to measure user response to a page's content - there are several influencing factors, such as the size of the format or the position on the page, which can even have a negative impact on attention. Advertisers and agencies have been looking for a way to measure the attention economy. dentsu and Teads have identified four key factors for this.

Viewing time as one of the most important factors for the Attention

This is the conclusion of the Attention Economy study, with both video and display ads benefiting quantitatively from high-quality viewing time. Teads' premium publishers ensure high user engagement with high-quality content, resulting in slow scroll speeds and an average viewing time of 12.2 seconds. Teads thus achieves twice as much attention as social media.

The voluntary decision of the user is decisive

Forced ads receive more attention than ads that are easily ignored. However, when a consumer voluntarily views an ad, it has a significant impact on brand awareness metrics, regardless of whether the ad was viewed for two seconds or 20 seconds. Formats that earn attention get better and faster results than non-skippable formats.  

Creation of important factors for attention

While the importance of creativity for advertising effectiveness is already well documented, it was important to measure its impact in the context of the Attention Economy. The study results show that the difference between good and bad design increases ad recall by 17 percent, while tone affects recall by only six percent. The study also shows that ads optimized for the Teads platform achieved 49 percent higher attention than the original. The interactive ad formats designed for mobile devices also performed very well in achieving and maintaining attention, generating three times more attention than standard MPU ads.

Placement in relevant context increases attention

Building on previous research, the study shows that placing ads in a context that is relevant to the reader increases attention per 1,000 by 13 percent. In addition, ads that fit the environment are remembered 27 percent more often. Andrea Wieseke, Managing Director of Dentsu Switzerland, says: "AE is all about how we can quantify attention. Dentsu is pioneering a change in the way we look at campaigns, measuring media performance. For Switzerland, we have all the technological foundations in place to be able to implement the first campaigns. We will be testing the AE approach with 2 clients this quarter and are excited to see the results. It's important to drive this change to measure effective marketing and media impact in the future." As a media partner involved in the study, Caroline Hugonenc, VP Global Research & Insights, Teads, emphasizes, "This fantastic research from dentsu should open our eyes to the steps we need to take to achieve higher quality media and improved creative effectiveness. At Teads, we know that creating an Attention Economy framework will help advertisers, their agencies and media partners deliver better results and more engaging content to the consumers they want to reach."

Eye tracking with over 3000 users

Data was collected by a mobile panel using eye-tracking from over 3,000 users of Teads publisher sites in the UK and US. This was conducted alongside a controlled test of 801 users to measure the impact of attention on branding KPIs. This controlled environment allowed Teads to specifically evaluate the impact of creative and format optimization on attention.

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Link to the study