The media marketing industry has spent years optimizing for clicks, impressions and short-term returns. But in the race for efficiency, something critical has been lost: media quality and a focus on brand equity.
Drawing on dentsu’s landmark Brand Reset study, this session recorded during the Cannes Lions festival explores how attention really works in today’s next-gen video environments and why where advertising appears now matters as much as what it says.
Bringing together dentsu leaders, platform leaders and a cultural voice, with a deep knowledge of the power voluntary attention holds, this panel unpacks how different environments, from social feeds to streaming platforms, shape attention, memory and growth.
On the panel:
- Moderator | Bram Meuleman, Global Head of Strategy, Carat
- Anne Stilling, Chief Brand & Customer Officer, Vodafone
- Aarti Baskaran, Global Head, Research & Insights, Snap Inc.
- Mike Follett, CEO, Lumen Research
- Les Binet, Author, The Long and Short of It
Bram started the conversation. “Right now, we believe that brands are missing out on at least 25% of the potential impact that media can deliver. This is due to two timeless truths:
- Brands must be easy to think of and find in buying situations.
- Advertising is much more profitable when you are famous.
“But our ability to deliver these truths depends on the media landscape, and that media landscape has changed a lot.
“Today we're at the next inflection point. We know that the majority of media is planned and bought algorithmically. We know that it's consolidating with the big platforms, and this creates endless opportunity because at heart, video is still the most effective brand-building vehicle. But what we don't yet know is how all these next-gen video formats are delivering brands and business growth. That is, until now. This is where the Brand Reset comes in.”
For the first time ever, we have a powerful and actionable video data set that links attention to brand & equity and long-term sales.
Go Big or Go Home
Les laid out his case for the Brand Reset. “We need to be making ads that really get people's attention and hold and maintain people's attention, ideally voluntarily. If you make gorgeous creative that people want to watch and keep watching, then the effects are much, much bigger. … I think this gives you the justification for using all forms of video, regardless of platform, for long-term brand building with great creative behind it.“
Attention Data Drives Brand Investment
Anne with Vodafone discussed the trade-off decisions in boardrooms that weigh a brand’s desire to create the “cool brand stuff” Les described against budget pressures. To help determine the optimal balance of their client brands’ long-term and short-term investments, Vodafone guides the brands’ trade-off discussions with data-based attention recommendations that can ideally result in increased budgets.
The Real Power of Attention Research
Mike with Lumen carried the discussion further. “Les and Anna are talking about … the build-up of attention over time and thinking big like that. The data can be used to justify budgets on a simply ROI sort of basis of ‘here's what you're spending, here's what you're likely to get.’ But I think the real power is by looking at exactly the same data, but over time.
“We have found the most successful use of our data is not just to think about the here and now, but to build a longer-term narrative of your investment.”
Aggregate Attention Beats Individual Test Results
Aarti with Snap joined in. “Well, I actually wanted to add on Mike's point of aggregate attention. … What we have seen on the platform (and we have worked with dentsu on their attention economy for over four years) is when you are across the platform and you appear as naturally you would as to a user on Snapchat, then you have an aggregate attention that far exceeds when you're just testing a new video format or a new lens format.
“Whenever we talk to brands as well, we always ask them to think about [their] objective and how [they] want to appear across the platform, rather than just, ‘I want to spend X amount on video, and I want to run a test.’ So even the way that you're approaching planning should be a bit different.”
Final Discussion
The panel spent the last portion of the session in a lively engagement started by two statements voiced by Bram.
- Attention research shows that media choices potentially have four and a half times more impact on the amount of attention a message gets than creative choices. Yet, others might say creative and media are both equally important.
- Attention drives short- and long-term sales, but the landscape is changing. We have two audiences now at all times. (1) The end user and (2) the algorithm that decides whether an end user sees something. Which audience matters more, the human or the AI?
Watch the video replay here.
