Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Coming out of the 2024 NewFronts, GSTV, the national on-the-go video network engaging and entertaining targeted audiences at scale across tens of thousands of fuel retailers, unveiled this week a new study in collaboration with Lumen Research, the leading technology company for attention measurement, that for the first time quantifies actual visual attention paid to real ads on the network.
Lumen found that GSTV viewer attentiveness exceeds attention benchmarks for digital, CTV, and linear television advertising. The study was conducted in alignment with Dentsu’s Attention Economy initiative, enabling comparisons with norms from the agency’s 5-year attention measurement program.
Key findings from the study include:
- Nearly Everyone Pays Attention to Ads on GSTV – 95% of impressions on GSTV deliver eyes-to-screen, commanding more visual attention than digital, CTV, and linear television. Ads on GSTV yield 2.7x the attention of ads on CTV and 2.5x that of linear (vs. Tvision norms).
- More Attentive Viewing Time Per Impression – Attention per 1000 impressions (APM) to ads on GSTV exceeds Dentsu’s online display norms by 5.0x, online video by 2.4x, and social by 2.3x. Despite shorter ad durations, ads on GSTV deliver more attentive viewing time than :30 spots on both CTV (+91% more) and linear TV (+60% more), vs. TVision norms.
- Substantial Efficiencies for Advertisers Optimizing for Attentive Reach – On a cost per 1000 seconds of attention basis (aCPM), GSTV is 5x more efficient than online display ads, compared to Dentsu’s norms. GSTV is also 3x more efficient than CTV.
- Exceptional Brand Recall – Brand recall following ad exposure on GSTV exceeds Dentsu’s norms for both online video and CTV by more than +50%
“It’s always exciting to conduct world-first research for media owners – especially when the results prove how impactful and effective their media is,” said Mike Follett, Managing Director, Lumen Research. “As attention metrics grow in importance, GSTV is shown to be a leader in delivering attention to ads on its national video platform, with results across a variety of attention metrics performing significantly better than industry norms.”
During GSTV’s 2024 IAB NewFronts presentation, Kate Shannon, EVP, Head of Planning at Carat US, a dentsu company, shared: “Dentsu’s work with attention started with research and understanding on what attention even means in media and how you can earn attention. Now, we’re starting to transact on attention with partners like GSTV to drive better outcomes because, ultimately, an attentive exposure sets us up to be as impactful and meaningful as possible for our clients.”
“These exceptional findings provide concrete evidence in support of what we’ve long known about GSTV. The viewer experience inherently possesses the two critical building blocks of attention: physical presence, and visual focus. While television viewers are often distracted by devices – or worse, not even in the room – Lumen found that ads on GSTV are 97% viewable and just 5% of viewers glance at their phone during the viewing experience,” said Eric Z. Sherman, EVP Insights & Analytics, GSTV. “I’m especially proud that this research captured real (not modeled) viewer attention in the medium’s natural (not lab-based) viewing environment.”
Methodology
Earlier this year, Lumen Research conducted an eye-tracking study that captured the real-world viewing behavior of the GSTV audience. Participants were fitted with state-of-the-art eye-tracking glasses directed to fuel up at one of two nearby GSTV-supported locations in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Test respondents were given no information regarding media or advertising. Attention to GSTV screens were tracked via the glasses with each pair of having an external facing camera recording what they saw and an internal facing infrared camera recording their eye movements. Lumen analyzed visual attention to advertising on GSTV screens, assessing the attentive performance of four ads across three categories – CPG, Dining, and Retail. In alignment with Dentsu’s Attention Economy initiative, participants then received a survey following exposure to assess brand recall.
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