The example illustrated how both the content on screen and the viewing environment can affect attention—raising a question for marketers: If attention can vary based on context, creative, and even what is happening in the moment, how should brands put that information to work?
Creative has to earn attention
That question carried into the panel that followed, as Will Lee, CEO of ADWEEK, brought together marketing leaders Deena Bahri, CMO at Nutrafol; Sarah Tarraf, SVP of knowledge and insights at Rocket; and Chris Vanderhook, chief operating officer and co-founder of Viant.
Lee opened with a question raised by Liu’s presentation: Does attention translate into action?
Bahri said she had come in skeptical that attention would correlate with action, but Liu’s presentation left her intrigued by the possibility. Tarraf was also intrigued, wondering whether an ad interrupting a program caused viewers to check out or whether their attention carried over to the ad.
For Vanderhook, the question is part of a broader effort to give marketers better signals for connected TV (CTV) buying. Viant acquired IRIS.TV to get information about the content within streaming apps, rather than buying at the app level alone. It later tested TVision’s attention data and found it useful in its models for predicting campaign outcomes.
The panel also turned to a factor marketers can control directly: the creative itself.
Nutrafol’s recent campaign drew on the moment someone commits to a long process of improving hair health. The brand wanted to express the creative differently on TV, social channels, and in person.
On TV, Nutrafol could tell a longer story. On social, they could work with creators. In person, people could experience the product. The execution needed to fit each channel while still feeling like part of the same campaign.
“Finding that balance between variety and consistency, I think, is the magic in great creative,” Bahri shared.
Tarraf described a different challenge at Rocket. Because people seek a mortgage infrequently, its emotional advertising needs to remain memorable long after someone sees it.
