Jezabel Hernández Valenzuela, Global AdOps & Operations Director, at EXTE
Attention has become the currency that the entire digital landscape wants to trade in, with metrics such as viewability and impressions no longer delivering what the industry is looking for. However, the problem for advertisers is that even the way attention is acquired has changed.
Consumer attention is no longer something that brands can just pay big dollars to capture; it must be earned more organically through seamlessly-delivered, well-thought out, visual content that appears in the right context.
Thankfully, there are several effective ways that advertisers can achieve this, with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in digital advertising helping to bring the creative – and the technology behind it – to the next level.
Time to remember the importance of creative
Creativity has been important since the first days of advertising – however many hundreds or thousands of years ago that may have been. But, since the emergence of programmatic, creativity has often been an afterthought in favour of hyper-targeting using data and technology. Although, as Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies begins, much of this hyper-targeting is no longer possible.
Having focused heavily on the metrics and the technical side of things, it’s time to remember the basics still have undeniable value. The data and technology shouldn’t be forgotten, but the industry has to make sure it’s also doing the creative, which is going to not only help gain attention, but keep it as well.
It’s fairly easy to get someone’s attention. For instance, if someone shouts in a meeting room, everybody is going to look at them. But they’re going to quickly divert their attention away unless they’re given a reason to continue giving up their time to that person. It’s really important to not only get consumer attention, but to keep their attention. And that attention has to be worth something to the advertiser in the end.
AI technology, particularly generative AI, can help to maintain this attention by bringing creativity to levels that could only have previously been imagined. Generative AI can help to inform the creative by making suggestions around what it believes would be best for a particular ad based on the data it has available. AI can be an extremely powerful tool in providing input to the person that’s creating the ad.
As the industry grapples with challenges posed by advancing technology and evolving privacy norms, embracing generative AI empowers advertisers to not only seize initial attention but also sustain it through innovative and tailored creative approaches. The seamless integration of technology and creativity, epitomised by endeavours like EXTE's 3D interactive advertisement for Costa Del Sol Tourism, merges technology and creativity to capture and retain attention. This campaign lays the groundwork for a future where AI substantially contributes to the art and science of advertising.
Harnessing transformative formats
While creativity is key, this needs to be delivered within the right formats, in the right places, at the right time to maximise attention.
Formats should be impactful and noticeable, positioning the brand at the front of the consumer’s mind to consistently garner their attention. Skins and interactive display formats can be very powerful, especially at the top of the funnel, in building recognition for a brand. These formats could feature 3D or augmented reality experiences to creatively gain the attention of the consumer, for example.
Meanwhile, brands can move beyond traditional advertising and begin to employ branded content, which presents even more room for creativity and guarantees the content is being delivered in the right context.
This content can feature eye-catching images, videos, infographics, and even games, offering advertisers endless creative opportunities to deliver a seamless in-editorial experience for consumers. Brands have the freedom to be as creative as suits their image.
It’s also worth exploring Connected TV (CTV) and the possibility of getting very creative by thinking outside of the box. There are some technical constraints to CTV, but being innovative with the creative in ads can really differentiate brands. For instance, an advertiser could use their 30-second ad slot and include a transition that gains the viewer’s attention and helps whatever is being advertised to be more prominent in their minds for longer.
On target with attention
Getting the creativity and the mode of delivery correct are keys to a successful campaign, but there’s one other ingredient that shouldn’t be ignored: targeting.
In a world without third-party cookies and identifiers, advanced contextual targeting becomes the most effective way of reaching audiences. With the power of AI technology, advertisers can target based on the specific content and context of a page, while harnessing predictive socio-demographic targeting – powered by data from panel surveys and the page’s content - around age, gender, income, household threshold, and education level.
As well as informing the creative, real-time relevant elements – such as weather, sports scores, or geolocation – can be used to optimise ads to be relevant to the specific moment, ensuring the maximum contextual relevance for the consumer.
The combination of creativity with technology is the only way for advertisers to respond to the shift in attention, and ensure they are maintaining the interest of consumers that have been relevantly targeted. And this doesn’t have to come at the expense of reach or frequency, because technologies like AI ensure this is possible with the correct creative within the correct context and content.
The advancement of AI technology has opened up a new frontier for advertisers to conduct a wide range of tests due to creativity and data merging, such as A to Z and beyond. Currently, the industry is using A/B testing as a standard practice. This transformation is expected to redefine the industry's approach to creativity and offer powerful tools for exploration and innovation.
The way attention is captured may have changed, but the solutions exist to guarantee that advertisers can easily continue to gain – and keep – the interest of consumers.