Attention is a hot topic in the industry, with advertisers aiming to deliver content that both retains viewers and engages those watching, all in the context of increasing consumer control over what they get to see. Our recent North America Creative Effectiveness Awards found that Attention represents an essential component in advertising effectiveness, ensuring that exposure becomes viewing, and ultimately becomes engagement.
The power of motion
Humans, of course, have a natural tendency to follow movement – it provides clues about our environment and identifies essential elements to track. In the context of advertising, movement – our brains assume – indicates or highlights the important visual elements or information we are being asked to notice and remember. Ads that contain movement can, therefore, stimulate Passive Attention to keep our eyes on the screen.
Visual creativity drives engagement
Visual creativity helps us think about the world in different ways and make connections that might not always be obvious. Highly creative advertising can, of course, sometimes run the risk of being disconnected from brand and message – imagination without purpose will not deliver overall effectiveness. But when done well – when imaginative visual imagery is integrated – it delivers that initial attention to keep the viewer watching.
As humans, we also respond well to intrigue because it can arouse our curiosity and interest. Unexpected content can therefore be a valuable tool to retain viewers as they seek to understand and 'fill in' the lack of comprehension. Again, intrigue can be a double-edged sword – ad viewers can be notoriously quick to drop out if they don't feel the discovery is worth their time and effort. So, content that uses the unexpected effectively will lead the viewer to the desired conclusions.
Passive Attention – eyes on screen – can very often be stimulated by sensory inputs. Highly colorful content can capture interest, increase mental activity, and encourage sensations, moods, and feelings. Color can play an important role in how the viewer responds to an ad emotionally when it drives engagement.
The musical connection
Like color, enjoyable music can be a potent stimulus to attention. Including music in an ad increases connection by 30% on average. Music can be used to communicate a tone or mood, to pace the ad, to build suspense, or to deliver a payoff. It can be a primary source of the ad's entertainment. Music can be vital to newer digital communications platforms, where it is often an essential element of the experience… but music will be most effective as a tool to create engagement when it's part of the deeper emotional storyline.
These insights have been informed by Kantar's 2024 North America Creative Effectiveness Awards. Award winners were evaluated based on their ability to drive brand predisposition both in the short and long term, using Kantar's independently validated LINK+ ad testing solution.
To access the full learnings from Kantar's 2024 North America Creative Effectiveness analysis and the 2024 North American winners, click here.