There is a double whammy facing brands today, with more and more media content being squeezed into less and less time and multi-tasking and multi-screening increasingly becoming the norm.
According to a study by Microsoft Canada, the average human attention span decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013 making it shorter than that of a goldfish, which are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds.
Some in our industry have come to believe that time spent with a media type is a fair measure of where the advertising dollars should be placed. Others, such as Sir Martin Sorrell, argue that the quality of time spent needs to be factored in.
The academic definition of attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on some information, while ignoring other perceivable information.
There are two types of attention. On the one hand we have sustained and selective attention – prolonged focus or maintaining attention regardless of distracting stimuli around. On the other, we have divided attention - completing two or more tasks simultaneously.
It is a widely accepted notion in the communications world that divided attention is the norm and sustained attention is on the wane. However, divided attention is actually better described as alternating attention – 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.
Newsworks partnered with PwC to examine the role attention plays across different types of media and platforms in driving consumer engagement with advertising. A nationally representative adult survey across Great Britain generated data for 2,643 people across 15 media types, generating 7,770 responses, which were aligned with industry metrics: IPA TouchPoints, comScore and Chartbeat.
Key findings
The study found that national print newspapers come out on top when it comes to people regularly putting time aside for them; feeling a personal connection with titles; giving people something to talk about; and readers feeling trust in the content - all of which are drivers of attention.
Using the data collected and the correlations from the analysis performed, an attention equation was created: Attention = solus media + (multimedia x high focus).
Solus media is when people are using one media at a time. Focus level is how concentrated they are while using multiple media. Solus is the more important of the two because it creates the most powerful advertising response.
The attention score achieved by each media type for its regular consumers is shown in the graph below.
The attention scores for each media type
Millennials are often believed...