Playground xyz Shines a Light on the Nuanced Interplay Between Context, Creativity and Attention for Advertisers in New Study

The leader in the attention space uncovers the dynamic relationship between creative, context and attention as marketers continue seek more accurate and meaningful campaign measurement data

Attention measurement and optimisation provider Playground xyz has published a ground-breaking study on the relationship between context, ad creative and attention, as it continues to position itself at the forefront of the attention space.

In what stands as the world’s biggest study into context and attention, Playground xyz addresses the specific topic of context and its role in securing more consumer attention – having long theorised that Attention Time (the length of time, in seconds, an ad is looked at) could be the missing ‘feedback loop’ to supercharge contextual approaches.

The first goal was to see if the contextual properties of a page on which an ad is shown exert influence over the amount of attention the ad receives. Playground xyz then asked, ‘To what extent can a brand expect the top-performing contextual category to remain constant across all campaigns and creative executions?’

To investigate, Playground xyz engaged in a large-scale study, measuring the Attention Time secured in different contextual categories across 59 advertisers, 683 creatives, 2,263 domains, 26,006 unique URLs and over 27million impressions during the period 18th February to 3rd March 2022.

The resulting whitepaper, entitled ‘Context, Creative and Attention: Using attention signals as a feedback loop for context-advertisement alignment’ uncovers a range of insights and actionable strategies for brands and agencies as they seek to get the most out of their advertising spend.

For instance, in contextually targeted campaigns, the top-performing context receives 94% higher Attention Time than the baseline average, highlighting an opportunity for brands to optimise delivery to the top contexts. However, the study also found that brands cannot expect the top-performing context to remain consistent across multiple creatives or campaigns.

Rob Hall, CEO at Playground comments: “The results of our research highlight how nuanced and multidimensional the quest for context-advertisement alignment really is. At a time when more and more brands are measuring and optimising towards attention, we set out to understand what is happening from a marketing science perspective.

“And our findings include the fact that delivering your ad into the right contexts is key to maximising Attention Time – and yet, finding the best context(s) once, and then delivering subsequent campaigns with different ad creatives to that same context, will not give the brand the best outcomes. The relationship between context and creative is highly dynamic – thereby offering a significant opportunity for in-flight optimisation.”

Hall adds: “With the impending death of third-party cookies, many will need to pivot their strategies accordingly and Playground xyz is at the forefront of the attention revolution – helping partner brands and agencies navigate this fast-moving media landscape. Indeed, increased focus on contextual advertising has thrown up a number of challenges for marketers, making attention measurement more important than ever before.

“We discovered that there is a very solid ability to use predictive analytics and optimisation to help brands reach the top-performing contextual categories to drive large gains in the Attention Time their ads receive.”

Recent advances which combine opt-in eye-tracking panel data with AI now allow advertisers to quantify attention on their campaigns at scale, with Playground xyz offering the world’s first real time stack to capture, measure and optimise Attention Time. Thanks to its ground-breaking technology, its partners can identify the top performing placements and optimise on-the-fly, leveraging invaluable insights and creating the best canvasses to build their brands.