Is there anything getting more attention than attention metrics in conversations among advertisers, agencies and media companies during the ongoing NewFronts/Upfronts season?
For Neala Brown, SVP for Strategy & Operations at Teads, it’s about time. And there’s still so much to talk about. After years of research and development, attention metrics are evolving from an analytical tool to a transactional currency in the advertising ecosystem.
“Teads’ attention-based approach helps brands identify and leverage premium video environments due to the real depth of data that we have,” Brown told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan during a break at the IAB NewFronts in New York. “We’ve been doing this for a number of years across a variety of different partners, and we’ve done it on all of the different experiences that we offer.”
Connecting attention to outcomes
While many advertising and media professionals are just discovering the power of attention metrics, Teads has built its approach around this measurement for over half a decade. To Brown, the connection between attention and advertising effectiveness is clear and data-driven.
“Part of the reason that we’re so invested in attention is because of its relationship with outcomes,” Brown said. “The data has proven out in a number of different studies, the work we have done, the work the industry has done to really show this connection between attention metrics and the campaign outcomes that brand advertisers are looking for.”
This focus on outcomes has led Teads to develop a nuanced understanding of attention thresholds.
“What we’ve been really uniquely focused on is understanding the right amount of attention for a certain outcome,” she noted. “We’ve done a huge body of work with a number of different partners with Adelaide, with Lumen, and some other outcome-based providers to start to identify what those right thresholds are to drive the right outcome for a brand.”
These thresholds aren’t one-size-fits-all, Brown added. “They can be different depending on what the outcome is, and they can also be nuanced depending on the brand itself. But we have the capability to do this at scale.”
Multi-dimensional data advantage
Teads’ methods are built on a foundation of comprehensive data that spans different advertising environments and formats.
“When we look at the different environments that we’re able to provide, it’s really about the data that we have,” Brown said. “We have data that is channel specific. We have data that is format specific. We have data that is placement specific, and so it’s really about that and how we understand how these different experiences deliver attention for brands.”
The company’s recent merger has strengthened this capability. “With the new Teads, we’ve been really lucky as our company has come together with what was Legacy Outbrain in terms of them also having been invested in that space,” she added.
Proven performance across the funnel
Teads has validated the relationship between attention metrics and performance across various marketing objectives.
“We’ve proven this out time and time again. We’ve done it in the upper funnel, we’ve done it in the mid funnel, we’ve done it in the lower funnel as well,” Brown said. “In the lower funnel, we’re talking about things like yes, digital conversion, but also things like ROAS studies and understanding how media that’s gauged to be more highly attentive or have stronger media quality really does drive better outcomes for clients.”
This consistent performance has been observed across different industry verticals, making attention metrics increasingly valuable for campaign planning and optimization.
From research to transaction
Brown outlined how Teads’ approach to attention has evolved through several distinct phases.
“When we started on this journey, and this was five or six years ago, it really started as more research-based studies we were doing in the lab or via a panel to really start to understand attention as a concept,” she said.
The next stage involved applying these metrics to active campaigns. “Then we moved into in-market how we can use these metrics over the course of a campaign, start to understand how we deliver. Is this something that can actually be used in real time over the course of a campaign to start to optimize?”
The final phase connected attention to specific business outcomes. “The final piece for us has been really doing a big body of analytics work to connect it to these outcomes and identify what those different targets or thresholds might be.”
This evolution has now reached a significant milestone, Brown said. “Which really brings us to this notion of transaction and how we went from research to measurement to kind of looking at activation and what that could look like into real transaction, which is why we’re so excited to be at NewFronts this year to talk about our attention-based guarantees as this is really our first foray into the notion of transacting on attention.”
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