Attention is the new currency

A partnership between The Up&Up Group and some of its key clients, with Amplified, will deliver data from the South Africa survey to form part of Amplified’s attention dataset.

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The study is being done in collaboration with Standard Bank, MTN, Woolworths, and Spur Corporation. The study is currently in-market, with the findings to be released at the end of August.

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Amplified’s attention dataset has data collected from over 1,35 million humans, across more than 59 billion human data points, which has enabled the optimisation of over $1,3bn in ad spend.

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In South Africa, it will deliver the country’s first-ever human data on how digital advertising is actually consumed in the country.

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Clarity for clients

“With this first-ever benchmark study in place, advertisers can implement both immediate and longer-term strategies to achieve greater levels of attention,” says Robert Grace, co-founder and chief strategy officer of The Up&Up Group.

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He adds that the partnership is aimed at pursuing clarity for clients when it comes to the money they spend.

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“Across The Up&Up Group, our strategic focus is one of driving absolute clarity in the solutions we deliver, and this partnership with Dr Karen Nelson-Field, founder of Amplified sets to bring about clarity to one of the opaquer areas of marketing spend: digital advertising.

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“While platforms can deliver reams of digital metrics, it fall significantly short on human metrics,” he says.

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Attention metrics

Martin MacGregor, CEO of the Up&Up Group’s media business, Connect, says that attention metrics are a much-needed part of the media solution that advertisers look for.

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“This important partnership both follows on the work Amplified has done globally and aligns with the questions advertisers are asking."

“This survey is set to bring much-needed disruption to the digital media landscape by giving advertisers the first-ever attention benchmarks for our market,” he comments.

Global media measurement

Amplified was founded by Dr Karen Nelson-Field, a media science researcher who has revolutionised global media measurement.

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As an advisor to major global brands, she is a sought-after speaker and author of bestsellers Viral Marketing: The Science of Sharing, The Attention Economy: How Media Works, and the globally groundbreaking The Attention Economy: A Category Blueprint.

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Her work has been featured in top publications, including , and The Wall Street Journal.

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Commenting on the vital importance of human metrics, Dr Nelson-Field says, “At its most fundamental, if your campaigns aren’t gaining attention, no impact can be gained either.

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“Our work across markets and billions of human data points shows that on average, between 70-80% of an advertisement has had no active attention paid to it at all.”

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The attention survey

The attention survey, which will be produced because of the partnership, will be collecting human data that analyses three levels of attention: inactive, passive, and active as well as people’s emotional response to campaigns.

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“This not only gives the advertisers an understanding of what has been seen vs served (impressions), but also the drivers of attention at both a platform and creative level,” explains Nelson-Field.