Screenvision Media Attention Study Proves The Value of Cinema

The holy grail of advertising effectiveness is capturing viewer attention and by doing so, facilitating the consumer journey outcome. For Screenvision Media, attention measurement in cinema has resulted in a recently released Media Attention study that offers fascinating insights. Jen Friedlander, Screenvision’s Senior Vice President of Insights and Measurement, explained that, “We've been laser focused on proving out attention in the cinema space. Since 2023 attention became a buzzword and an emerging metric to measure the quality of an impression.”

The Media Attention study had two goals, according to Friedlander.  “One was to conduct and prove out attention in the in the cinema space. And two was to make sure that the cinema data was available.” It is vital to capturing data in such a way that there is not only the ability to compare to other datasets but also to make it digestible for industry usage. As such, “we wanted to make sure that we had that cinema data available both for ourselves for comparison and also for agencies that are starting to actually plan and optimize against attention,” she shared.

To that end, Screenvision partnered with Amplified Intelligence on two out of the three study phases, capturing movie goers in the natural cinema environment rather than in a lab. “We recruited movie goers to come to our theaters, pick their films, bring their friends and get their concessions,” she explained. Amplified Intelligence then brought DSLR cameras into the venues and placed them on either side of the screen to map facial expressions for over 500 data points that measure attention level at the eye level.

This seamless approach proved, “Undisruptive to the movie going experience. Movie goers, of course, had to give their consent to be filmed. But most movie goers thought they were being filmed for the duration of the movie and not just the pre-show so everyone was doing their normal movie going behaviors,” she noted. Moviegoers were tested twice in New York, in April and December, and in Milwaukee in partnership with Magna Global.

The biggest takeaway from the study, according to Friedlander, was that cinema delivers the highest active attention of any media platform and twice that of TV. They compared the three market cinema data to TVision data, which, she explained, “is the gold standard of attention measurement on the TV side.” This comparison showed that cinema averages an, “84 active attention to ads versus TV, or even CTV, where that number is about 30. That's a difference of 25 seconds of a 30 second ad being viewed in the cinema environment versus only about 9 or 10 seconds of a 30 second ad being viewed on linear or CTV.”

And this deep attention is consistent across advertising categories, implying no need for special creative for cinema. “Sometimes people think they need something special to really stand out on screen. We tested a variety of creative that were made for TV, we tested across categories and we did not see significant differences between ads,” she shared. The big takeaway here is that it is the cinema environment is less about the creative and more about the environment.

Capturing attention for ads from any age cohort is impressive but especially so for younger viewers. A surprising takeaway from the study was that the youngest demographic group had the highest attention scores. “The 18-24 and 18-34 active attention to the ads were even higher than the over 35. That's a demographic that's highly distracted with an attention span of 8 seconds as they double and triple screen all the time. But I think they really value that time away to check out and immerse themselves in the cinema experience,” she marveled. She added that the study showed that younger cinema attendees in the study actually put their phone away during the pre-show. “Is there any other time you can find an 18-24 year old that wants to put their phone away?” she posited. “In the cinema environment I think they value that time to really immerse themselves and engage in the experience that they've planned and paid for.”

The biggest challenge in measuring attention is standardization of measurement. “There's a variety of companies measuring attention. It could be via camera, via eyeglasses, some are using neuro-technology and so there are nuances how each company is collecting and interpreting the data,” she noted. But she added that the ARF and IAB are focused on providing best practices on advancing measurement beyond legacy metrics and reaching an Omni Channel attention metric. For Screenvision, comparing their results to TVision attention and viewability data at home for TV viewing makes the most sense at this time because, “it's a very similar methodology.”

When it comes to engagement compared to attention, Friedlander stated that, “Engagement is the mindset of the consumer in the moment that you're reaching them. How leaned in are they? What is their mental availability in that moment?” Within the cinema world, she sees that, since moviegoers have planned and paid to be there, “they've opted into the shared experience with friends and other fans for this completely undistracted experience.” To her, that's the height of engagement, “that ideal mix of social passion, emotion, content, anticipation, all of those factors culminate and driving attention. So to me, engagement drives attention, and engagement is really about sort of the mindset and that moment that you're reaching them.”

The next steps in this journey focus on educating the industry. “Not only getting in front of agencies and brands, but also being active participants in the ARF panels and getting on various panels sharing those results,” and connecting the dots between attention and outcomes.

For Friedlander, “moviegoers are the most passionate content fans but also the hardest to reach. They are younger compared to linear which has 80% of their primetime audience over age 50. The majority of our audience, about 80%, is under age 50.” She added that cinema also reaches an audience that doesn’t watch linear TV because they are cord cutters and cord nevers. “Cinema provides incrementality, reaching a young demo in a highly efficient way and one that you can't reach elsewhere. We call them the Elusives because they truly are elusive. It’s another way that brands can connect with a highly desirable audience on the biggest screen in the world in a moment that matters,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

Understanding Consumer Complexity. An Interview with Brand Keys’ Dr. Robert Passikoff

The world is getting more and more complex but Dr. Robert Passikoff may have the solution. “Consumers are more complex, connected, and complicated,” he noted, “They connect with each other before even considering connecting to a brand and assess loyalty relative to how they envision an ‘Ideal’ brand.” And, he continued, “Consumers don't say what they think and they don't do what they say. Their decision-making is more emotional than rational.”

So understanding that consumers can make snap, emotional decisions, Passikoff has developed Brand Keys which offers, among other studies, a syndicated annual brand assessment survey called The Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI).

Charlene Weisler: So the world of brand differentiation is much more emotional than rational?

Robert Passikoff: Yes and harder to attain in a more complex marketplace. Rational is price-of-entry. It only takes a nanosecond for consumers to note how well a brand is ‘seen’ to meet their expectations for the path-to-purchase drivers that define behavior toward and fidelity to a brand. That’s the 21st century version of brand loyalty. Brands that can meet consumer expectations will always see higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and sales. Independent validations by the ARF verify that definition. Correlations between assessments based on this updated definition of loyalty, our metrics, and consumer behavior are 0.80+. Social scientists would dance naked on their desks if they regularly see correlations of half that!

Marketers who focus on so-called ‘loyalty programs’ expecting real brand allegiance, are totally missing the point. There’s a need to measure these emotions within a predictive framework. Measuring imagery doesn’t do that, Counting tweets doesn’t do that. Net Promoter Scores don’t do that. But our metrics measure emotions predictivly and they correlate with sales.

Charlene Weisler:  Tell me about your metrics.

Robert Passikoff:  We use an independently-validated research methodology that fuses emotional and rational aspects of the categories, identifies four category-specific path-to-purchase behavioral loyalty drivers for the category-specific Ideal and identifies the values that form the components of each driver, along with their percent-contribution to engagement, loyalty, and profitability. This technique, a combination of psychological inquiry and statistical analyses, has a test/re-test reliability of 0.93, and produces results generalizable at the 95% confidence level. It has been successfully used in B2B, B2C, and D2C categories in 35 countries. In 2020, CLEI Brand Keys merged independently validated metrics with a new platform – Media GPS analytics – combining brand communication consumption with emotional engagement. We contend that doing that makes these loyalty assessments the most accurate in the marketing world.

Charlene Weisler:  What was a surprising result from one of your recent studies?

Robert Passikoff:   Results showed that 85% for the loyalty path-to-purchase drivers that describe how consumers view, compare, buy, recommend, and remain loyal have changed their order. 85%! It’s a tectonic shift in the marketing paradigm. Brands claim to be customer-centered, but if you’re looking at the category in a different way than the consumers, you’re bound to make mistakes. Additionally, new multidimensional emotional values have appeared in 96% of the sectors we track. Those value components are the bricks-and-mortar from which meaningful, differentiating, and engaging marketing and communications are built.

Charlene Weisler:  Tell me about your syndicated study and what it offers.

Robert Passikoff:  The Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI) is a syndicated service that provides a portion of the insights and learning available through a customized Brand Keys study. We initiated CLEI in 1995. For the 2020 CLEI survey, 62,474 consumers, 16 to 65 years of age from the nine US Census Regions, self-selected the categories in which they are consumers and the brands for which they are customers. This year, Brand Keys examined 85 categories and 833 brands. Forty (40%) percent were interviewed by phone, forty (40%) percent via face-to-face interviews (to account for cell phone-only households), and twenty (20%) were interviewed online.

Utilizing our proprietary psychological assessment questionnaire respondents rate their “Ideal Brand” in the category, one brand in the category that they personally use (usually a top-20% customer), and a set of emotional and rational attributes, benefits, and values. Brand Keys uses an independently-validated research methodology that fuses emotional and rational aspects of the categories, identifies four category-specific path-to-purchase behavioral loyalty drivers for the category-specific Ideal, and identifies the values that form the components of each driver, along with their percent-contribution to engagement, loyalty, and profitability.

Charlene Weisler:  In your opinion, what are companies missing today?

Robert Passikoff:  They’re missing 21st century context of loyalty in virtually everything they do. Companies, analysts, consulting firms, and research practices have declared brand loyalty dead. They're talking about a consumer loyalty model that expired in 1990. Back then loyalty was a black-and-white issue for consumers. But loyalty has evolved in a more complex marketplace with more sophisticated consumers. Better targeting isn’t the answer. Entertainment isn’t the answer. Too many companies mistake entertainment for real engagement. And yes, it is possible to target all and be both entertaining AND engaging, but very few brands are capable of doing that. Ad agencies have become media optimization labs and social networking specialists. Social networking tactics have taken over brand development. If you press corporations and researchers as to what the programs are doing for the brand, the likely, first-response will be, “uhhhh."

Charlene Weisler:  What are the opportunities?

Robert Passikoff:  The three critical opportunities for brands are A) creating real emotional engagement between the consumer and the brand, B) crafting differentiated meaning for your brand, and C) doing it predictively, 1 to 18 months ahead of the competition. AND before they show up on traditional brand trackers or are articulated in focus groups. Do it right and you'll be able to more time and cost-efficiently market to your audiences.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

OpenAP CEO David Levy Is Engaging Consumers with Compelling Advertising

David Levy has always been on a mission to "be more efficient with consumers' time and attention."  Throughout his career, he has focused on "what components of attention really matter."  His past contributions to the knowledge base of attention measurement are perfectly matched to maximizing the value of ad-supported television as part of his new role as the new Chief Executive Officer of OpenAP.

A Focus on Viewer Engagement
At his previous company, TrueX, which he co-founded and later sold to Fox, the challenge at the time was that "with the advent of digital advertising, we were in an unfortunate cycle of just putting more and more messaging in front of consumers and not actually getting quality attention because people were finding ways of avoiding the advertising," he recalled.  As a result, advertising effectiveness declined, as did the pricing, and "the only way to make enough money was by adding more ads per page."  His solution, he said, was to focus on "the most premium form of attention," which was dubbed an "engagement ad."

Engagement ads are full-screen experiences where the consumer is incentivized to interact with the ad for at least 30 seconds.  "We did a lot of work on the science of attention and how to drive quality interaction while offering consumers a better user experience," Levy explained.  By focusing on viewer engagement of ads in a world of greater ad-free options, media companies could "present consumers with an experience that was comparable to ad-free but within an ad-supported model," he added.

A Changing Ad-Supported Television Market
At Fox, Levy took the same focus on engagement that he had at TrueX and "brought it to the business challenges at Fox," where he worked in a Chief Operating Officer role for Fox's ad business.  Challenges to the ad-supported television model abound, not least of which is, "on one side you have Netflix and Amazon subsidizing these ad-free experiences, which consumers enjoy," and almost compelling ad-supported television to reduce its ad time to compete and create better consumer experiences.  "On the other hand, you have Facebook and Google flooding the market with valueless impressions -- highly targetable but with low attention," he asserted.  It was important to prove that the quality of attention could impact ROI.

The focus at Fox, which later proved pivotal for his role at OpenAP was three-fold:

1. Reaching the right consumers by finding better data to target more relevant advertising to them.

2. Once the right consumer was identified, developing ad products that best delivered those messages to the individual, "depending on where they were and on which device, where they were in the funnel, who they were."

3. Developing measurement that not only measured the quality of the attention but also optimized the experiences down the funnel.

A Move to OpenAP
"If you really want to evoke change, doing something in silos is not conducive to success," Levy said.  "The only way you are going to transform the industry is doing it together.  So, when we were approached by Viacom and [WarnerMedia] to form OpenAP, the premise was closely aligned with our vision to find better ways to get more efficient with consumers' time and attention."

Levy "fell in love with the vision" and "the people around the table" from those competing companies.  The purchase of Fox by Disney enabled him to make the move to OpenAP and "get back to [his] entrepreneurial roots" while still "staying connected to some of the exciting business challenges with people [he had] been working with for so long."

Next Steps for OpenAP
"The best way to scale any new ad product or any new investment in bettering the advertising ecosystem is if we all do it together," Levy said. To that end, he is seeking "adoption from everybody" to enable scale for any new marketplace developments.  OpenAP will be in a position to "evaluate new ad products in data-driven linear and optimized linear addressable to unify around the way we buy advanced ad products."

Going forward, Levy sees OpenAP moving from phase one -- which focused on unifying audience data on linear by individual company -- to phase two -- which standardizes segments across all OpenAP members.  Phase two, just recently announced, will go from unified audiences to unified campaigns, so that, for example, auto intenders for Viacom will have the same behavioral composition as auto intenders for Fox.  "We are introducing a tool for OpenAP with which advertisers can come in, define the audience segment that they want -- it will be standard across everybody -- put in campaign requirements and get back a unified campaign proposal across all of the member publishers," he explained.

OpenAP is also launching a digital marketplace that goes further.  "You can define your audience segments and not just get back a unified proposal, but also optimize across all of the publishers for reach and audience segment," Levy said.  Beyond that, he is thinking about how to accelerate the mission.  "There are so many opportunities with a unified approach -- with ad products, with measurement and with one of the biggest opportunities; building out a much more sophisticated data infrastructure that can be leveraged across all of the publishers," he noted.  "This will ultimately bring an automated marketplace that is cross-publisher, cross-device together."  But, he hastened to add, this effort will focus solely on premium inventory in the market: Long-form television ad-supported content resulting in less waste, more ROI and greater viewer engagement.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Panel Based Cross Platform Measurement. Interview with Dr. Hannu Verkasalo of Verto Analytics

Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto Analytics, started out as an entrepreneur straight out of school. “I built a few consulting companies using my skills in data analytics, and helped big telcos in Europe to better measure and understand their consumers,” he explained, before moving into building technology products. He added, “Throughout my career, I’ve always focused on constant learning, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with top talent and forward-looking customers.”

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about your company.

Hannu Verkasalo: Verto Analytics is the world's first consumer-centric media measurement company. We independently collect data in the market, using a unique panel-based single-source audience measurement approach. We track consumer media behavior across all platforms and channels, 24/7. Based on our methodology, we’ve built a set of media measurement products and services. Using an information-as-a-service model, we help big brands and technology companies understand their competitive landscape, monetize their audience, and better target advertising dollars in a cross-platform omni-channel world. We are based in Helsinki, Finland, with offices in New York City, San Francisco and London and are venture-capital backed.

Charlene Weisler: What are the viewing behaviors of the cross-device consumer?

Hannu Verkasalo: The cross-device consumer is becoming the norm. Close to 75% of American adults use at least two devices per month and almost 40% use at least three. Smartphones are used throughout the day, PC use peaks in the daytime, and tablets have gained market share during prime time versus TV use. The next generation of consumers is going to be even more mobile-centric versus being tethered to a PC or a TV.

Charlene Weisler: What is the most important cross-device metric for advertisers?

Hannu Verkasalo: Net reach, which is defined as the total number of unique, unduplicated viewers of an ad or unique count of consumers for specific content. It’s critical for advertisers to gauge the net audience that a given campaign or selected properties can potentially reach - regardless of the channel or device.

Charlene Weisler: How can you measure attention and engagement?

Hannu Verkasalo: Attention by tracking what people see on the foreground of their devices and whether people take actions based on the content they see. Do they make a purchase or leave the app only to return five minutes later? We measure every user interaction with the device second-by-second. One of the most popular metrics to measure attention is the cross-device clickstreams people go through based on a trigger, like search, advertising or social. We have built some metrics to quantify this.

Engagement by counting the seconds people use a specific service, app, or site, on the screen. We track this second-by-second, validating exactly what people do and for how long. One of the popular new metrics for engagement we have invented is stickiness: Services that have a high stickiness rating also have high loyalty and attention among users.

Charlene Weisler: Is the lack of an industry standard content ID protocol a challenge in measuring cross device comparably across advertisers? Media companies? Marketers?

Hannu Verkasalo: Visibility into what consumers are doing cross-platform is an enormous challenge for the industry. You hear that from media companies, marketers and advertisers. We address this challenge with our single-source passive measurement panel. Rather than measuring device use by tying together data from a mobile panel or PC panel, we measure engagement of a single consumer across all devices and content. We connect all that cross-device activity back to that unique consumer.

Charlene Weisler: If so, how can we get to an industry standard?

Hannu Verkasalo: Consumer behavior has changed more in the last five years than the past 50. Consumers switch between multiple devices and services throughout the day, but many companies still struggle with measuring this behavior due to lack of visibility and measurement methods that don’t do a good job of quantifying consumer behavior. The industry needs a modern measurement standard to meet the demands of brands, advertisers and publishers. Media companies, like Turner, Viacom and many others are stepping up to the plate to lead that charge.

Charlene Weisler: What makes your company different from others in the space?

Hannu Verkasalo: We are the only audience measurement company that measures all media usage, 24/7, across all platforms and devices. We work with leading brands to assess and define modern use cases for this type of media measurement data from product development and road mapping to media planning and consumer insights.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

New Scripps Research Study Proves That Environment Matters. An Interview with Chris Ryan, SVP Research

There’s “news” about the “reality” of viewers and ads: It’s that for engagement, Lifestyle programming outperforms everything from Sports to News and Reality to General Entertainment. A study from Scripps Networks conducted in partnership with Nielsen utilized both attitudinal and neuroscience methodologies to better understand the power of programming environments on viewers. The results were more a confirmation than a surprise to Chris Ryan, Senior Vice President of Ad Sales Research and Strategy for Scripps Networks Interactive, except perhaps the degree to which Lifestyle programming drives ad engagement. 

In fact, commercials running in a lifestyle programming environment scored +22% higher among all viewers across interest in products, attention to brands, intent to seek information and purchase intent. And, brand favorability across all categories measured - auto, consumer packaged goods, food and home, home improvement, finance, restaurants, retail and travel was greater in Scripps Lifestyle as well. This level of engagement was confirmed through the neuroscience section of the study using biometrics.  The amount of time participants were highly engaged with ads on Scripps Lifestyle was 94% greater than the average of the four other genres.  Dr. Carl Marci, Chief Neuroscientist, Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience said, “While good ad creative generates a strong emotional connection with the audience, this study suggests that ads may gain an additional benefit in the context of lifestyle programming.”    

I had the opportunity to discuss these findings with Ryan to gather more insights behind the study and how Scripps plans to apply them.

Charlene Weisler: What was the philosophy behind this study? What were you seeking to prove?

Chris Ryan: Scripps Networks has always known there's a strong connection between our content and ads, so we wanted to prove that where an ad is placed is as important as to who sees it, maybe even more so. That concept drove the vision for this comprehensive study to prove that, as we like to say, “Environment Matters.” We needed to understand and quantify whether the same ads across the largest ad categories are perceived differently in the lifestyle environment compared with other major TV genre environments. And, it was great to see that findings from the attitudinal research were confirmed by participants’ biometric responses in a separate part of the study conducted by Nielsen’s neuroscience group.

Charlene Weisler: What is it about lifestyle programs that are so engaging?

Chris Ryan: Our audiences are the most receptive in all of television viewing because our programming provides a trusted and engaging atmosphere for families. Our suite of brands provides an optimistic environment where consumers act on the messages – they see themselves as active participants. To our viewers, the ads are an extension of the shows they’re watching – those ads also serve up ideas and inspiration, just like our programs. 

Charlene Weisler: And what benefit does this engagement provide for advertisers?

Chris Ryan: If you only buy audience, you run the chance that your ads may air in a place where people don’t engage with the messaging. How people engage when they’re watching ads on our networks is the key to success for Scripps and for our advertisers. In fact, brands are more likely to be seen as high quality, trusted, reliable, and credible within the lifestyle programming environment. For advertisers, putting your message in front of an open and engaged audience makes too much business sense to ignore. 

Charlene Weisler: Does this have a cross platform impact? On your content? On advertising? How?

Chris Ryan: Because we’re brands first, not just TV networks or websites, the audience experience is equally engaging across our TV, digital and print properties. Everywhere our audience shows up, they are served ideas, information and inspiration within an environment that’s safe and trusted.  

Charlene Weisler: How are you using the results on your networks in decision-making?

Chris Ryan: Now that we have these results, we plan to work with our clients to develop better ROI metrics around engagement from findings in this study, as well as to discuss the importance of lifestyle as a media strategy, regardless of the advertising sector. It’s important for clients and potential clients to understand that ads in lifestyle programming produce the highest engagement, attention and purchase intent levels among all top TV genres. 

Charlene Weisler: Are some advertising categories especially successful in your environment? 

Chris Ryan: I think one of the most exciting findings of the study was that our environment didn’t just perform well among traditional endemic ad categories, but across all ad categories tested. The Scripps lifestyle environment went 8-for-8, having the largest impact on brand favorability, across all categories covering auto, home, finance, food, home improvement, restaurant, retail and travel. Those ad categories represent nearly 6 out of every 10 ad dollars spent on cable. 

Charlene Weisler: What are your next steps?

Chris Ryan: We want to do more work proving the importance of engagement and environment, especially in the ever-changing media landscape. While the quality of the audience is key, and as consumers migrate fluidly across their video content choices, demonstrating our benefits and effectiveness at the platform-level becomes increasingly important.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com