Should Advertisers Be Thinking About New Metrics?

This post is sponsored by YuMe.

You're happily sunbathing at the park, texting friends and reading articles on your phone, seeing the occasional mobile ad. Later in the day, you're at home on your computer, it's now raining, you're in a terrible mood, and you see some more ads. Which ads did you pay more attention to?

A study by YuMe and IPG Media Lab asked this very question, looking at a variety of factors and indicators - location, device, mood, the genre of video being watched (i.e., comedy, drama, action), time of day, and whether people are actively seeking information or passively consuming it - to find out when consumers are most attentive to ads.

Though advertisers have always aimed to show their ads to as many people as often as possible, the study suggests that they need to start focusing on when audiences are most attentive. And it's not always what advertisers expect: For example, it turns out that "lean back" mode isn't, in fact, the ideal advertising setting. Since people who pay more attention may be more likely to want to buy something, it's time for advertisers to figure out how to reach them.

Check out YuMe's "Pursuit of Attention" infographic below to see how attention affects brand metrics and what factors influence attention and receptivity. And click here to get the full, must-read study.

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