Picture this: At the end of your workday, you sit back to find something to watch on TV. You click through titles, choosing from thousands of content options across dozens of apps. Then, once you’ve finally pressed play, your phone buzzes. You check the notification, maybe reflexively scroll through social media, all while the content on your TV plays in the background.
If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. According to eMarketer, 74.2% of U.S. adults use a second connected device while watching TV, at least once per month.[1] At the same time, content attention spans are dwindling,[2] with adult Gen Z losing active attention for ads after just 1.3 seconds.[3] In this context, brands are starting to understand that ad effectiveness isn’t just about garnering impressions but actually making an impression.
In a noisy content marketplace, that means ensuring viewers are paying attention. This is why advertisers and agencies increasingly consider audience attention as a measure of success, beyond just the volume of impressions. Given these trends, Amazon Freevee—Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service—worked with dentsu to expand the agency’s “Attention Economy” research to study connected TV (CTV) for the first time.
The research aimed to help advertisers better understand ad attention on CTV, including attention spans, how attention translates to metrics like brand recall and choice, and more. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how advertising on CTV via a service like Freevee can help brands command greater attention more cost-efficiently than a number of alternative channels. Here are three key takeaways from the study and how brands can act upon them to make their campaigns more impactful.
1. Freevee is more effective at garnering ad attention than traditional linear TV
Historically, linear TV was a dominant channel for wide-reach awareness campaigns. In recent years, however, CTV has rivaled that supremacy, as consumers are increasingly migrating to streaming. According to Insider Intelligence, in 2023, digital video—including CTV—is projected to overtake traditional TV viewing for the first time, with average daily viewing reaching 3 hours and 11 minutes.[4]
Volume of viewership has motivated advertisers to consider CTV—but the “Attention Economy” research shows that CTV may also deliver greater quality of viewership. According to the study, Freevee outperformed traditional TV norms for attention by 3x, as measured by attentive seconds per 1,000 impressions for 30-second ads. For the study, researchers set up a living room–style lab with a camera enabled with eye-tracking technology that analyzed when study participants were paying attention to the screen.
Ads on Freevee delivered 3x attention compared to linear TV
“The takeaway here is that engaging content delivered to relevant audiences is what can help drive attention,” said Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD originals, unscripted, and targeted programming at Amazon Studios. “A service like Freevee aims to provide premium content on demand for all screens in the home. At the same time, given the insights CTV provides, that content can be more relevant—by audience and device—than traditional TV. Together, premium and tailored content can help ensure that viewers are more leaned in and attentive while watching.”
2. Freevee is a more cost-efficient driver of ad attention compared to previous “Attention Economy” studies
With marketing budgets coming under greater scrutiny, advertisers must ensure that every dollar spent is driving measurable impact. This underscores an advantage of CTV, as it can offer deeper insights than linear TV around key metrics such as reach, brand lift, video completion, and more, allowing advertisers to better communicate the outcomes driven by their ad spend. However, it’s not just the ability to measure ad impact that sets CTV apart; it’s the ability to drive greater impact as well.
The “Attention Economy” research found that CTV can be a highly cost-effective channel to help drive ad attention, with a cost of $1.10 per 1,000 seconds of attention—one of the most efficient platforms studied to date.
“Attention can be a more reliable driver of business outcomes than reach or impressions alone, making it an important measure of marketing effectiveness,” said Kelsey Tyson, VP of global partnerships at dentsu Media. Of the study, the first from the agency to explore CTV, she said, “The strong effectiveness results speak to broader trends as consumers continue to both demand and value premium streaming content. Based on the study, capitalizing on streaming culture appears to be a prime opportunity for brands and marketers to earn the increasingly limited attention of audiences who are zoned in on CTV.”
3. Multiple ad viewings correlate with lifts in brand recall and choice
In addition to media mix and strategy, campaign tactics can also inform the success of a campaign. With regard to ad frequency, for example, the challenge for advertisers is determining the “just right” frequency that attempts to ensure that an audience sees the brand creative enough to drive recall, while avoiding the risk of overspending and causing ad fatigue.
6x lift in brand choice with at least two ad exposures
The “Attention Economy” research provided insight into tactics like these on CTV. The study found that with a second ad exposure, brand recall increases by five points and brand choice increases by 6x, showing that a 2x daily ad frequency on Freevee can help advertisers get the most out of their ad spend, while avoiding oversaturation or inefficiency.
Attention matters across all ad channels
In a marketing landscape that becomes louder and more crowded every day, ad attention will continue to grow in importance as a measure of ad effectiveness. That’s especially the case when comparing emerging channels such as CTV to legacy media—in order to best determine where to allocate ad dollars. In future studies, Amazon Ads and dentsu will explore attention across other environments, including Twitch—the Amazon livestreaming service—to illuminate where and when audiences are most engaged.
Source: dentsu “Attention Economy” Phase 2 (22-Aug-2022–4-Sep-2022; N=150 respondents). All results based on in-lab eye-tracking study and survey responses.
[2] Insider Intelligence, Nov 2022
[3] Insider Intelligence, Dec 2022
[4] Insider Intelligence, Feb 2023
