Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of ......Attention is the behavioural and...
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Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of ......Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on some information, while ignoring other
Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on some information, while ignoring other perceivable information
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But what is attention? The academic definition of attention (sometimes described as vigilance) is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on some information, while ignoring other perceivable information.
A world of infinite content
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That seems at odds with the general view of attention in the world of communications today. We live in a world of infinite content. The amount of content existing in the world has long since dwarfed any individual’s ability to consume it. Thinkers from times as diverse as Aristotle, Da Vinci, Milton and Leibnitz have all been credited as the ‘last man to have read everything’.
Finite attention
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Infinite content, but our attention is finite – and getting even more so it would seem. Faris Yakob in his book Paid Attention defines attention as ‘slippery’ And if you believe a study by Microsoft Canada released last year it is very slippery indeed - according to the report the average human attention span is declining – down from 12 sec in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds.
Types of attentionSustained /Selective
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So which is right? Academia does agree that there are different types of attention. On the one hand we have sustained and selective attention – prolonged focus or maintaining attention regardless of distracting stimuli around
Types of attentionDivided
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On the other hand we have alternating and divided attention - switching between tasks, or completing two or more tasks simultaneously is also suggested as one in other reports) It is a widely accepted notion in the communications world that divided attention is the norm, and sustained attention is on the wane. But actually, divided attention is actually better described as alternating attention – even if you think you are doing two things at once, you are in reality switching between the two, even if those switches are infinitesimally small and multiple times in a second. The result is that the information selected is imperfect. Some of the information is lost when attention is divided as we only have limited attentional resources. The harder the tasks, and the more of them there are at any one time, the more of such “mental effort” is drawn from the attention pool. When the available capacity is less than that required for completion of a task, failures are more frequent. When tasks are easier or fewer, there is less demand on this limited resource. There is an added cost in accuracy or reaction time (usually takes much longer) when you attempt to perform two tasks at once.
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A good example is driving – at the beginning each task behind the wheel requires a lot of effort and attention which is no longer the case as the driving experience increases and the actions become more automated. This is why some people eventually start to multitask behind the wheel. However, it is very risky as performing two tasks at once (texting and driving) slowers the reaction time, performance of both tasks and thus increases the risk of an accident. Thus, overall, you can’t perform well two tasks at once.
to draw attention to something, to turn towards
advertere
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Does attention matter? As an aside, the word ‘advertising’ is derived from the Latin advetere which means to draw attention to something (literally to turn towards) Attention only matters if you believe it plays an important role in how advertising works. There are many different models of how advertising works, but two of the most prevalent – and apparently contradictory) are: Robert Heath’s theory of low involvement processing suggests you don’t need attention at all (echoes a maxim from Marshal McLuhan ‘Ads are not meant for conscious consumption. They are intended as subliminal pills for the subconscious in order to exercise an hypnotic spell’. On the other hand we have the engagement model, suggesting that successful brands are ones that develop deeper relationships with consumers, that invite them to a dialogue, offering them additional content and experiences. In an attention-starved world, this model is about earning attention. The problem is that in this ever-optimised digital world, engagement has become less about earning attention and more about short-term metrics, about clicks, views, viewability, about dwell time, and eyes on content. These two models are not contradictory, but rather complementary. As Robert Heath himself stated, there is a need for both low involvement processing of and highly engaged receptivity to advertising. Some channels will be better at delivering the former, and some the latter.
And no, we’re not like goldfish!
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And just to reassure you we are indeed capable of active attention – we’re definitely not worse off than goldfish! University of Aberdeen attention researcher Søren K. Andersen says that it’s vital to distinguish between what people choose to do when there’s no reason for them to focus, and what they’re capable of doing when focusing is the point. People might find it pleasant to flick from one activity to another when that’s an option, but are still perfectly capable of putting their minds to concentrating when the situation requires it - Emphasis on choice. We’re going to talk today about the importance of active attention, which channels deliver it, and the role it plays in today’s communications. To that end we are focusing on media where there is believed to be a lot of multitasking with other media and also on those where we can explore the relationship between attention to the content and attention on the advertising in or around it.
Newsworks and PwC study on attention
Multiple data sources:
Bespoke nationally representative study amongst adults 18+ in Great Britain
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For this study we carried out a national survey across GB, to find out the true attention of consumers of different types of media. We then prepared and combined several data sources into the results, including three key industry benchmarks – Touchpoints, Comscore and Chartbeat.
2,643 respondents generating 7,770 responses
across 15 media types
Newsworks and PwC study on attention
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Our study on attention consisted of a bespoke nationally representative study amongst adults 18-75 in Great Britain. We triangulated and corroborated the findings with industry sources including TouchPoints, Comscore and Chartbeat. The data was then integrated and analysed in PwC’s proprietary Halo too, allowing for detailed interrogation of the findings. The bespoke study had a sample of 2,643 respondents aged 18-75. They were asked about their regular media consumption, across 15 different types of media. Each respondent answered more detailed questions about 3 of the media types, giving us a large and robust base of responses for each media type.
Newsworks and PwC study on attention
Data integration and analysis
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Data integration and analysis was performed in PwC’s Halo analytics tool. Newsworks have access so if you have further queries on the data please do ask either Newsworks or PwC
8 main media types
Nationalprint
newspapers
Newspaperwebsites
Commercial broadcast TV
Commercial radio
Print magazines
Commercial TV on demand
Social media
Short onlinevideos
Newspaper content via
social media
Other video on demand
Regional newspaper websites
Commercial news websites
Regionalprint
newspapers
Music streaming
Newspaper apps
7 other media types
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Importantly given the blurring of the lines between content and platform, we made sure to include content across platforms in the media types we looked at. So you’ll see for instance that we cover print, websites and content via social media for newspapers, and broadcast and catch up for TV. We will focus today on the main media types, but detail is available on the others We focused on regular consumers of each media type We also looked at the magazine apps, but the sample of regular users was too small to analyse the data We didn’t look at cinema because media multitasking doesn’t apply in the same way (despite the rise in the use of phones in the cinema!) We didn’t look at outdoor because the ads there tend to be not surrounded by other media, and we were interested in the relationship between attention to the content and attention to the advertising different experience,
The role of attention: from attitude to impact
Attitude ImpactAttention
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We believe that attention plays a central role in communications today, and drives advertising response. But what is it that drives attention? What makes people devote attention to content and is there a relationship between that and advertising? We explored a series of attitudes ranging from the time people devote, the rewards they get, the trust they have, the social currency they get from the content Personal connection Content worth paying for Exclusive content Putting time aside Fresh perspective Content worth talking about Makes my life better / inspires me Trust in content
The role of attention: from attitude to impact
Attitude
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Presentation Notes
We believe that attention plays a central role in communications today, and drives advertising response. But what is it that drives attention? What makes people devote attention to content and is there a relationship between that and advertising? We explored a series of attitudes ranging from the time people devote, the rewards they get, the trust they have, the social currency they get from the content Personal connection Content worth paying for Exclusive content Putting time aside Fresh perspective Content worth talking about Makes my life better / inspires me Trust in content
Attention is driven by personal choice
Putting time aside
Personal connection
Something to talk about
Trusted content
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We found a clear relationship between personal choice and attention. The act of putting time aside is more likely to drive attention, the relationship people have with the content , the trust they have in the content and social currency that the content provides. All four correlate strongly with attention.
56% of newspaper readers regularly put time aside for them
44%
47%
54%
55%
56%
Newspaper websites
Print magazines
Commercial TV on Demand
Commercial broadcast TV
National print newspapers
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Looking at the top performers here, we can see for ‘putting time aside’ that national print newspapers score highest among regular consumers of each media type. The scores here are the percentage of regular consumers of each medium who agree with the statement “I regularly put time aside for….”
42% of newspaper readers feel a personal connection with the medium
32%
33%
34%
39%
42%
Commercial broadcast TV
Short online videos
Print magazines
Commercial TV onDemand
National print newspapers
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And the same is true for personal connection. This attitude does tent to vary by different audience groups, so print magazines for instance perform better for women than men.
People trust the content delivered by‘traditional’ media
40%
47%
49%
52%
54%
National newspaper websites
Print magazines
Commercial broadcast TV
National print newspapers
Commercial TV on demand
66% of newspaper readers say they fueltheir conversations
60%
62%
63%
63%
66%
Social media
Newspaper websites
Commercial broadcast TV
Short online videos
National print newspapers
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With so much content out there, newspapers still have an important role to play in fuelling the conversation, with people agreeing that they give them something to talk about.
The role of attention: from attitude to impact
Attitude Attention Impact
Time spent
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So we know what drives people to give their attention to content. But what do we mean by attention? Over the years there has been a belief that it is the amount of time you devote to content, and there has been a push to equate advertising money with time spent. However lately that argument has been on the wane – and even Sir Martin Sorrell at Adweek last week reiterated that there is much more to advertising response than just time spent. He talked about engagement, some kind of deeper connection and involvement that people have with the content and the media.
Time spent is not enough
Time spent Advertising response
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In our research, we did first look at time spent. We were able to prove that time spent does not correlate with any of advertising trust, relevance, recall, ideas generation or encouragement to purchase
From time spent to quality time: the attention equation
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So instead we looked at defining quality time, where people give their attention to the content they are consuming, whether that be for a long time, or just a few minutes. Given we know it’s not enough just to reach people, you need to catch their attention, We wanted to create an attention equation, a way of applying an attention factor to the reach that a campaign delivers.
Immersion:Solus media usage
Focus:Multimedia usage with high focus
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Given what we know about attention from academia, we looked at two ways of defining attention. Thinking back to our sustained and selective attention, we looked firstly at solus media usage, where there is no other media being consumed. This is defined as people’s usual behavior for that medium for regular consumers. Secondly, we looked at alternating attention, where regular consumers are usually using multiple media and looked at their level of focus. We asked people whether their focus was on the first or the second medium and what level of focus they gave to the first medium – high, medium or low
Attention = + (multimedia usage x high focus)solus media usage
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Our attention equation is made up of these two components. So how is the attention factor derived (for regular consumers): Solus media usage plus multimedia usage x high focus Each media has a percentage out of 100, which is made up of two components: the proportion of regular consumers for whom this is usually a solus medium + those who are multi-tasking but usually make this medium their priority.
The first part of the equation is solus media usage
40%
61%
57%
61%
60%
60%
Social media
Commercial radio
Commercial broadcast TV
Commercial TV on Demand
Short online videos
National print newspapers
Solus media usage
Adding in multimedia usage x high focus gives us an overall attention score to apply to campaigns
40%
61%
57%
61%
60%
60%
14%
5%
11%
12%
15%
20%
Social media
Commercial radio
Commercial broadcast TV
Commercial TV on Demand
Short online videos
National print newspapers
Solus media usage Multiple media usage x high focus
80%
75%
73%
68%
66%
54%
The role of attention: from attitude to impact
Attitude ImpactAttention
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So to recap: Attitudes correlate strongly with attention (attitudes being: putting time aside / personal connection / trusted content / something to talk about) Attention correlates strongly with ad impact (attention being primarily solus media use) See next slide for impac
Attention drives a powerful response
Discuss, comment, share
Encourages purchase
Trusted advertising
Ideas about brands/ products
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Impact ranges from content response (discuss, comment, share) to an advertising response (trusted; generates ideas about brands/products; encourages me to consider making a purchase)
People like to talk about, share and comments on media content
41%
44%
46%
46%
46%
National newspaper websites
Social media
Commercial TV on demand
Short online videos
National print newspapers
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With so much content out there, newspapers still have an important role to play in fuelling the conversation, with people agreeing that they give them something to talk about.
Published media lead the way in giving people ideas about brands and products
14%
19%
21%
41%
51%
Short online videos
Commercial TV on demand
Commercial broadcast TV
National print newspapers
Print magazines
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With so much content out there, newspapers still have an important role to play in fuelling the conversation, with people agreeing that they give them something to talk about.
Published media encourage people to consider making a purchase
14%
19%
21%
23%
32%
Commercial radio
Commercial TV on demand
Commercial broadcast TV
National print newspapers
Print magazines
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Presentation Notes
With so much content out there, newspapers still have an important role to play in fuelling the conversation, with people agreeing that they give them something to talk about.
From attitude to impact: attention pays
Attitude
Putting time asidePersonal connection
Trusted contentSomething to talk about
Attention
Solus media usageMultimedia usage x high
focus
Impact
Discuss, comment, shareTrusted advertisingIdeas about brands
This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, Newsworks and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (including its members, employees and agents) do not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.
