How Attention Strategies Change Minds & Bottom Lines

In a complex social media landscape, brands have metrics at their fingertips that can tout success for almost any campaign, and the ability to buy huge reach has led to a bigger focus on efficiency, rather than simply getting work out there. But there’s a key question that can get lost in the efficiency revolution:

Is it actually shifting the dial in how people consider a brand, and whether they take the actions we want them to?

In our research with long time partner Specsavers and attention technologists Lumen, we found that we need to do more than just reach people to get them to change their minds. While ads are efficient on the surface, generating high scale and delivering focussed product messages, they’re much less effective at capturing the deeper attention that turns these eyeballs into outcomes.

When we compared ads with brand content in our report, The Shapes of Attention, we found that ads deliver 1–2-second bursts of attention, while brand content optimised for views delivers up to four times that. We’re not saying ditch the ads altogether – they’re crucial for delivering the bottom-of-funnel nudges that audiences need to bring you to the top of their mind and then bring them to your website. What we are saying is that, with an attention strategy that combines engaging, relevant brand content with ads, you can convince people to choose your brand before encouraging them to answer your call to action.

Priming audiences with brand content then ‘activating’ them with ads led to better brand recall, brand choice and brand impact in our research. In English, people are more likely to remember, choose and purchase from your brand when you work to win their hearts and minds first.

Attention Strategies In Practice

Marketers know all too well that shifting a brand’s strategy isn’t a simple proposition, and dialling up brand content not tied to direct lead generation can be a tricky sell, particularly with senior leaders who are focused on the black and white success of a product, service or business. What an attention strategy looks like in practice is another important question, and how can it deliver the ROI demanded of marketing departments at a time when efficiency remains a high if not the top priority from the C-suite?

Grabbing, retaining, and converting the attention of an audience with whom brand reach and fame had been declining was the goal for the Best Worst Team campaign, designed to help Gen Z audiences connect with Specsavers’ character and heritage. In this case, a nudge to book an eye test wouldn’t be enough – the campaign needed to change the minds of a group with an unparalleled ability to see through brand content.

To capture deep attention, brand content needs to break out of the dichotomy we see on social media of content where audiences have to put up with brands in  order to see content they’re interested in. To change this with the Best Worst Team campaign, we met this young audience in a space where that they’re leading, and where Specsavers have existing equity: grassroots football.

But it’s not enough just to stick your head up in the space – you need a real reason to be there. So, we found the nation’s self-proclaimed worst football team and provided Premier League levels of sponsorship (and celebrity coaching and support) to create a rags to riches story that would earn the attention of the audience for the brand.

Delivered as an eight-part content series to be consumed however worked for the audience, the campaign achieved huge reach and deep attention, watched by over 32 million people with an average watch time of five minutes. Broader social and PR content reached upwards of 160 million people with 76% positive sentiment for the campaign overall.

But did this deliver against the overarching goal – increasing brand consideration among Gen Z? The answer is yes – the 16–34 age group has seen the biggest rise in top of mind awareness since the campaign began, and 72% of the target audience is more likely to consider Specsavers as a result of this content. Being able to communicate this impact, changing minds and improving the bottom line, is how marketers can most effectively champion attention strategies with ROI-focussed bosses.

Where To Start

Attention strategies will be different for every brand, and it’s not a case of reinventing your identity to fit into a certain space. Instead, start by identifying the stories you can tell that your audience is already invested in and treat your content like movie trailer that will entice, engage, and leave your audience wanting more. From there, you can use ads like billboards that will deliver a quick, efficient, and focused message to people already primed to receive it.

Done right, it’s a more authentic and human way of connecting with your audience, and a more effective way of proving that your work is making a difference beyond the traditional metrics.

Written by Tangerine

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