Attention in advertising is often the industry’s elephant in the room. With no single metric or industry standard, it’s a jungle out there to try to measure the perfect way to reach an audience and have their brand memorised.

But a ground-breaking study by Nine and research company Amplified Intelligence has revealed new clarity on why attention is so important – and the best explanation may be found by looking at two unlikely animals: a giraffe and hamsters.  

Before we go on safari through the attention animal kingdom, however, Nine’s Director of Effectiveness Jonathan Fox explains why attention is a hot topic.

“Attention is important because of its strong links to business outcomes and it measures the effectiveness of an advert,” said Fox. “Advertisers want more of it, agencies want to find out exactly where it is, and media owners want to make sure they’re selling it at the right price.”

Nine conducted a study with attention research company Amplified Intelligence, which measured three different types of attention: active attention (eyes on screen); passive attention (in proximity but eyes not on screen) and non-attention (not in proximity of the screen).

The study was conducted in 200 households, with a camera placed beneath their televisions and phone cameras accessed to measure 9Now.

“We wanted to see what we could learn scientifically about the quality of our advertising, content, promos and integration across Nine’s assets,” said Fox. “The one thing I want to stress is that this attention study was done with people in the comfort of their own homes and not in a lab.”

The findings discovered that attention all comes down to the environment the viewer is experiencing.

“We found high levels of active attention across 9Now and our TV ad formats,” said Fox. “A 30 second ad on 9Now took out the top spot with a whopping 21.1 seconds of active attention. The exciting news for us is that these high levels of active attention deliver a big impact in both the short term and the long term.”

Amplified Intelligence has found that an ad requires at least three seconds of active attention to access memory and for each additional second beyond this it stays in the memory for about three days. So while social video places brands in the memory for days, TV and BVOD places brands in the memory of consumers for months.

“Nine’s linear TV and 9Now deliver long periods of active attention for advertisers,” said Professor Karen Nelson-Field, who led the study. “Based on the link between attention and memory, this keeps brands in consumers’ minds for longer.”

Short term impact is measured by Short Term Advertising Strength (STAS) – which is the increase in those who decided to purchase a product after ad exposure compared with those that chose to purchase that same brand without ad exposure. Those who saw ads on TV on 9Now chose to purchase that brand 79% more than others in the group.

And this is where the giraffe and hamsters should get some attention.

“You need to buy four social video hamsters to deliver the same short-term impact as one 9Now giraffe,” said Fox. “But the four hamsters only last in the memory for a few days, whereas one 30 second ad on 9Now will stay in the viewers memory for about three months.

“So, to achieve the same impact as a 9Now giraffe you need to buy a lot more social hamsters. In fact, every nine days you’d need to buy four more hamsters over three months.

“And that’s why stacking hamsters doesn’t make a giraffe.”

Human behaviour is the reason why the study found different attention was paid to different platforms. For YouTube on mobile or desktop, the participants’ eyes tended to drop down to the skip button. For TV, viewers tend to be on the sofa, and while there may be distractions, at the very least they’re listening to it. And then there’s 9Now on mobile devices when there’s just the viewer, no distractions and a more intimate one-on-one appointment viewing.

The research also found that longer ads on socials don’t give you more active attention, it gives you more wastage. That stands at odds to TV and BVOD, where putting longer ads on does deliver commensurate active attention. This is related to platform functionality and the role it plays in time-in-view.

“Attention is a proxy for ad effectiveness; more attention delivers disproportionately better outcomes in both the short term and long term,” said Fox. “And Nine’s content and viewing experience delivers market leading attention.”

And, just like the giraffe, sits head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to seeking attention.