National CineMedia has released the first U.S. cinema attention measurement study conducted by the attendance measurement company Lumen in collaboration with Dentsu, the agency leader in attention metrics. The major finding proves that ads played in movie theatres rank number one for consumers’ attention when measured against all other video platforms, the study says. Other key findings include:
Greater Attention Score
Cinema attention scores were four to seven times greater than all other video channels including TV, connected TV, social and digital ads, across a variety of brands and categories.
Significantly More Consumers Watching
Two and a half times more consumers watched ads playing in a movie theater compared to TV and CTV – 97 percent for cinema ads versus 38 percent for TV and 35 percent for CTV ads.
Longer Duration
Consumers watched cinema ads for a longer duration compared to other video platforms – three times TV and CTV and up to ten times social media.
Correlation with Recall and Choice
A direct correlation was found between attention metrics and brand recall and brand choice – higher attention metrics leads directly to enhanced performance of the advertising which can result in increased sales lift, foot traffic and app downloads.
The study used Lumen’s proprietary eye-tracking technology to determine attention metrics and applied questionnaires and brand choice methodologies to correlate the impact of the ad attention on subsequent recall and intention to purchase.
Wendy’s, Adidas and 10 other brands across retail, automotive, apparel, consumer packaged goods, quick serve restaurants, telecom, entertainment and pharma participated in the study.
NCM’s cinema attention metrics will enable Dentsu to determine the value of that attention as they combine it with the cost and recall scores and compare it to other channels and platforms in their broader database. Their teams will now be able to include cinema as part of the overall decision-making process using those metrics and benchmarks.
“As we celebrate the fifth-year anniversary of our Dentsu Attention Economy initiative, we know that attention metrics can increase media effectiveness of plans and are eager for broader adoption across the industry,” said Joanne Leong, vice president, global partnerships and planning at Dentsu. "We’re thrilled that NCM has taken this step to expand the industry’s overall attention knowledge by testing in cinema, and the results speak for themselves. With a proven, captive, and attentive audience in seats, we can leverage the attention data we have to understand how to incorporate cinema as part of an overall channel.”
"If there's one thing we've learned over more than ten years tracking attention metrics, it's that you never know what advertisement or medium will be the most engaging for consumers,” said Mike Follett, managing director of Lumen Research. “We are thrilled to have worked with NCM to track cinema goers' attention when viewing ads in the movie theater. This important study will help shape how advertisers view their in-cinema advertising strategy."
“We are seeing the marketplace start to shift from the long-time legacy metric of exposure to the more relevant new measure of attention when analyzing the relative value of media platforms,” said Mike Rosen, chief revenue officer at NCM. “Lumen’s new attention study proves what we have always believed – that cinema advertising is the best medium for brands to reach and engage our young, diverse, and highly valuable audience.”
Click here to read the full study https://attentionreport.ncm.com/
National CineMedia www.ncm.com