ThinkboxThe Cost of Dull Media, a new report from Professor Karen Nelson-Field launched at Cannes, with contributions by Adam Morgan and Peter Field, reveals the staggering waste of attention and money on ‘dull’ media formats.
Analysing 190 campaigns across 12 countries and 60 ad formats, the work measured attentive reach, active attention and time-in-view. Campaigns were categorised based on attention volume into four 'dullness' quartiles: non-dull, moderately dull, very dull, and extremely dull.
'Non-dull' campaigns achieved the highest attentive reach, with TV, cinema, radio and premium video environments consistently falling into this category as high attention formats. The attention gap is dramatic: while 'extremely dull' formats deliver just one second of active attention on average, 'non-dull' formats provide 13.5 seconds - over 13x more time for a brand to land its message.
This matters because previous Amplified research demonstrates ads need at least 2.5 seconds of active attention for memory formation.
Despite this evidence, the industry continues pouring resources into low-attention (dull) environments. The report estimates a staggering $287 billion is spent globally on media formats that fail to capture meaningful attention. It would take an extra $189-billion in low attention media spend to match the effectiveness of non-dull media like TV.
As the report puts it: "Cheap media isn't cheap if nobody's watching."
For more information, read The Cost of Dull Media: key findings every advertiser should know
For all Chart of the Month’s from the recent months, download the slides from the link above, this includes:
- July: As your business grows, the ROI from a more balanced mix gets better
- May/June: When TV is on air, digital channel performance is uplifted by 13.7%
- April: Ads benefit from a premium environment
- March: Viewing to ad-supported quality content grows
- January/February: Ads are noticed more when people are relaxed and/or in a good mood
- December: Creatively consistent brands report more very large business effects
- September: Optimal ad mix varies dramatically by product sector
