Nine and a half minutes. According to the marketing experts in the study of advertising and media communication from IPA *, this is the time that the user spends in active viewing of advertisements during the day, out of a total of 6 hours of average daily consumption of media content. Observing how this is distributed in particular between the three main media channels, 3 minutes are for advertising messages on television, 2 minutes for social media, 1.5 minutes for paper editions.

 Why this matters?

 The latest data from the global marketing industry shows "seconds of attention" as the most valuable and accurate currency for measuring the success of an ad. And success in this case means visibility. In an in-depth study from June 2021, experts from Lumen, TVision and Ebiquity compared the ability of each media to "persuade" the audience to keep their attention on the advertising message as long as possible, using the method of the so-called. "Funnel of attention" - how much of what can be seen is seen. The data show that each media outlet has an individual degree of favorable environment to grab a portion of the available attention, which is essential for brands when choosing the right place to position their messages. Let's put this study in context.

Unless they work in the marketing industry, the end user rarely purposefully searches for ads while watching TV, online videos or checking his social networks. But advertisements are part of our daily lives and each of us falls on them in different forms - logos, banners, videos, TV clips, etc. The visual attention rarely follows an advertisement to its very end, without interruption.

Rarely, however, does not mean never.

The messages that are remembered, and which increase the time of active viewing and retention of attention on the screen, are the ones that leave an emotional mark in our minds and encourage stimuli related to our human perceptions.

The largest percentage of ad returns is distributed mainly between TV and digital video advertising. The success of these two forms is due to factors such as duration, means of expression and interaction with the human senses. Creative visualization of familiar emotions such as joy, laughter, love, including not-so-pleasant ones, leads to gaze retention and longer seconds of attention.

The public increasingly wants entertainment. In the year that the world closed up, the lights on the TV screens in every home continued to shine brightly, becoming a symbol of security and comfort, or as the Rolling Stone magazine defined it - the lifeline of 2020. We were all looking for fun and pleasant emotions against the background of the surrounding reality.

This year is no different. That is why bTV Media Group, along with its mission to continue to be a reliable source of impartial and professional journalism, is preparing for a strong entertainment season with audiences' favorite formats, as well as working on exclusive productions, some of which will be broadcast for the first time in Bulgaria.

Adventure lovers are preparing to experience the racing emotions in a distant exotic destination with the episodes of Survivor, true romance is also waiting for its tribune with "The Bachelor", and from September the "daddies" from the eponymous new series of bTV Media Group will take care of the good mood. The faithful followers of "The Voice of Bulgaria" will have fun with the upcoming season, and there are just as many who impatiently wait for "The Farm", which will again focus on the intertwining of traditional values ​​and modern lifestyle.

In terms of content and the new valuable currency for the advertising market - seconds of attention - the comparison between all available communication channels is even more accurate, which leads to a more informed choice by brands. The indicator that best determines the engagement of attention is the length of "eye-on dwell time" on the advertising message. The noise in the online environment shortens the duration to 1.6 seconds, gradually increasing to 4.9 seconds on YouTube, reaching a maximum of 13.8 seconds on TV.

"With the proliferation and fragmentation of media and platforms over the last decade, measuring the effectiveness of your media investment has become increasingly challenging – the deprecation of the 3^rd party cookie makes it even harder for most advertisers.

By better understanding the nature and cost of attention by medium and format – and the relationship between attention and outcomes, advertisers essentially have a strategic pan-media currency (attention CPM) that can give a unified picture of effectiveness in this fragmented media landscape", Ebiquity Managing Director Martin Winter told bTV Media Group.

Say it with feeling

The emotional reproduction of the advertising message increases the effect of both the retention of attention and the association with a brand (brand recall) when choosing a product. Dressed in numbers, this brings a 20% improvement in final revenue, according to a study by proven experts Peter Field and Les Binet.

Emotion adds value through increased engagement, generating a higher share of visual attention. Ads that are more likely to be seen for a long time provide a better opportunity to convert into a successful, highly recognizable final sale. Because you can't sell your product to someone who hasn't seen it.

TeleVISIONARIES - content in context

Speaking of the possibility of being seen, the bigger a screen is, the more Speaking of the ability to be seen, the larger a screen is, the greater the probability that it will attract attention. Apart from the resolution factor, however, what the audience sees is no less important - His Majesty, the content.

Large-scale productions carry a charge for all brands that want to grab and keep the greatest possible amount of attention for their advertising campaigns. The scope of television is incomparable, and the high audience share gives the necessary impetus to achieve measurable and lasting results for the brand. We also see it in the interest of the native advertisers to the productions of bTV Media Group, which definitely leave a mark on the air with each following season.

Although we often consume TV content while browsing emails, social networks or having a conversation, TV advertising has the clear advantage of being placed in the right context and time of day that meet the habits and needs of the audience. It is the combination of a correctly positioned creative in a thematically related environment that turns the advertising message into useful information for the viewers, who are gradually becoming more and more engaged.

Well, isn't it irresistible to know that you can be widely noticed?

By Konstantina Bandutova

*Institute of Practitioners of Advertising