This lets demand-side platforms and agencies buy packages of inventory categorized in the top 10% or top 30% for attention, for instance.
While some vendors measure based on proprietary attention scores, Playground xyz uses time spent in the hope that it’s more familiar to ad buyers.
“We’ve found [attention] to be extremely valuable when understanding advertising effectiveness, presenting innovative opportunities to optimize campaigns towards what matters most to our clients: outcomes,” said Amit Maniar, head of solutions and global investment at Omnicom Media Group.
Past campaigns measured by Playground xyz found that campaigns running in marketplaces curated by high attention on average drive 61% more awareness and 65% more unaided recall than non-curated marketplaces. Looking at performance goals, marketplaces with ads driving high attention lead to 389% increase in conversion rate compared with other marketplaces.
In time, advertisers might identify a 3-second ad that drives consideration, whereas a 5-second ad works better at driving awareness, for instance.
While many attention-based advertising solutions offer measurement, this also lets buyers make adjustments to campaigns based on attention.
“Measuring is one part, but optimizing is the goal,” said Playground xyz CEO Rob Hall. “There is strong demand, but we want to make attention actionable.”
That demand is growing. More than 400 global brands have used the vendor’s AIP for managed display campaigns, as well as a standalone measurement and optimization tool on channels like YouTube. The attention platform has been used across more than 8,000 campaigns.
Solving for scale
Despite a flurry of news and partnerships around attention-based ads, this integration sits on PubMatic’s supply-side platform. Being so close to publishers’ supply makes it easier to identify high-attention formats, and increases the scale for buyers. As opposed to integrations with certain DSPs, all buyers working with PubMatic—which has SPO agreements with four of the five agency holding companies—will have access to these high-attention marketplaces.
Over 35% of PubMatic’s total activity in the first quarter of 2023 comes from its SPO efforts, an area it expects to grow.
Agencies welcome the consolidation of pure play providers with well-established ad tech, said Waite, since it reduces complexity and additional ad-tech costs.
Similarly, Phil Tolliday, global head of marketing science at GroupM Nexus, believes the partnership is a sign of the space beginning to address market fragmentation and consistency challenges.
“It’s clear from our consultancy work that there are differences in what attention means to different businesses and verticals,” Tolliday said.