Brands today encounter significant challenges in capturing and maintaining their audience’s focus, primarily due to the limited attention spans of consumers. Despite increasing their efforts in digital advertising, numerous brands still struggle to ensure their ads are not just viewed, but rather seen and remembered.
Attention vs. Viewability
Viewability, which is largely device-driven, refers to whether an ad is loaded on a screen and viewable by the user.
Attention is human-driven and measures how viewers respond to the ad once it appears on their screen.[1] This is a more critical metric, determining the effectiveness of how an ad engages the viewer.
Ad Overload
In today’s digital age, the human brain is bombarded with an unprecedented volume of 6,000 to 10,000 ads daily[2] – that’s way too much for the average person’s brain to process effectively! So, most ads are ignored or forgotten.
The average person consumes approximately 34 gigabytes of information[3] daily. Words alone offer 10% recall; adding visuals boosts retention to 65%[4], grabbing a ‘little byte of space’ in the human brain.
Internet Proliferation and Multi-Device Usage
Technology, specifically the Internet of Things, has an effect on human attention. Exposure to multiple smart devices, social media, and apps for anything and everything, further complicates the advertising landscape. Consumers are now harder to reach and engage, as they’re constantly switching between devices and platforms.
By addressing these advertising challenges with an innovative attention-first strategy, brands can improve their ability to capture and retain consumer attention. The objective is to garner maximum user engagement and heightened conversion rates, eventually meeting branding KPIs.
- Engaging Content:
Creating engaging content and interactive ad creatives[5] helps to overcome the challenge of fleeting attention spans. Interactive ads that invite user participation capture attention, inspire action and leave a long-lasting brand impression.
Fig. I: Interactive mobile ads Vs. Traditional static ads, Study by Magna, IPG Media Lab, and Tremor Video DSP
- Targeting & Relevance
With the overload of ads, only highly targeted and relevant ads stand a chance of capturing attention. Brands need to invest in premium, precision targeting technologies to ensure their ads reach the right audience at the right time on the right smart device, to truly be relevant and make a real connection.
- Quality Over Quantity
Instead of focusing on the number of ads, brands should prioritize high-quality, interactive ads that are remembered and acted upon, even in a cluttered environment.
To overcome low attention rates, increase brand recall and make a positive impact, brands must evolve by creating immersive ad experiences that garner meaningful attention, that resonate, that evoke emotion, that are remembered by consumers!
Verified Brand Measurability Studies
A brand lift study by Kantar[6] found that interactive ads achieve 8X higher purchase intent and brand favourability over global benchmarks, proving that engaging campaigns help boost bottom-funnel success for brands.
A recent Lumen study of an automobile brand campaign showed a 2.9X higher Attention Per Mile (APM) over YouTube skippable ads, and an 8.9X increase in APM levels compared to digital display, showcasing how higher attention rates maximize efficiency and reduce cost per click (CPC).
Brands can improve attention, maximise uplift, and reduce the cost of customer acquisition with immersive ad experiences across smart devices.
The Botton-funnel Impact On Brands
Here’s how storytelling ads prove to be most impactful in driving superior campaign results and bottom-funnel success for brands:
- Increase Interaction For Elevated Performance
With interactive ads, brands can achieve double-digit uplift across various mind measures such as awareness, favourability, and purchase intent, compared to global delta norms.
- Impactful Results With Immersive Storytelling
The immersive ads that plug in higher than 20MN impressions, can achieve a 3X boost in brand recognition, messaging resonance, consumer sentiment, and buying consideration, which provides brands with higher returns on investment.
- Capture Attention Of Younger, Affluent Audience
By blending creativity with technology, gamified ads capture the attention of Gen Z, Millennials and affluent audiences to make an impact in the very first second, fostering elevated brand recall and user engagement with personalized, immersive storytelling.
- Innovate Year-On-Year To Drive Larger Impact
5000+ Campaigns; 500+ Advertisers; 65% Annual Repeat Rate – by leveraging interactive creatives year on year, brands have displayed an impact of 1.3X on the key brand metrics.[7]
An Attention-Focused Approach
A study by OMG[8] showed how a brand’s profitability was hampered by higher costs, as they used standard ad creatives until 2020. They found a correlation between media spends and increased cost per conversion. OMG introduced attention-first data metrics in 2021, revolutionizing the brand’s creative approach by exploring interactive ad formats, which led to higher user attention and a reduced cost per sale.
Incorporating attention-first data into media planning is transforming advertising. Measuring attention directly impacts profitability and business processes. This approach captivates audiences and drives remarkable business impact, showcasing the transformative power of attention in today’s digital ad space to counter fast-shrinking attention spans.
[1] mCanvas, “Attention VS Viewability: Why 100% Viewability Doesn’t Guarantee 100% Attention”, June 21, 2024,
[2] The Attention Economy post. Available on Forbes Business Development Council post.
[3] HMI Report/UC San Diego paper titled “How Much Information?”. BITS NY Times.
[4] Brain Rules by John Medina: Vision
[5] mCanvas, The Rise of Interactive Mobile Ads: Key Trends and Statistics You Should Know. September 15, 2023. https://www.mcanvas.com/blog/the-rise-of-interactive-mobile-ads-key-trends-and-statistics-you-should-know
[6] mCanvas white paper X Kantar brand lift study
[7] Garnier, “L’Oréal case study in Indonesia”, 2023
[8] WARC. Attention Applied: ‘Meaty Proof’ in the field of attention measurement.
