Cinema is top for video ads in first US cinema attention measurement study

Cinema advertising network National CineMedia (NCM) released the first US cinema attention measurement study, conducted by Lumen in collaboration with dentsu.

Measured using Lumen’s eye-tracking technology, ads played in cinemas ranked number one for consumer attention when measured against all other video platforms.

Adidas, Wendy’s and 10 other brands across retail, automotive, apparel, CPG, telecom, entertainment and pharma participated in the study.  

Dentsu’s VP, Global Partnerships and Planning, Joanne Leong, commented: “With a proven, captive and attentive audience, we can leverage the attention data we have to understand how to incorporate cinema as part of an overall channel mix.”

Lumen’s eye-tracking technology determined the attention metrics and applied questionnaires and brand-choice methodologies to correlate the impact of the ad attention on subsequent recall and intention to purchase.

Other insights include:

• Cinema attention scores were four to seven times greater than all other video channels, including TV, CTV, social and digital ads, across a variety of brands and categories.
• 2.5x more consumers watched ads in cinema (97%) compared to TV (38%) and CTV (35%).
• Consumers watched cinema ads for longer compared to other video platforms – three times more than for TV and CTV and up to 10x more than social media.
• A direct correlation between attention metrics and brand recall and brand choice. Higher attention metrics lead directly to enhanced performance of the advertising, which can result in increased sales lift, foot traffic and app downloads.

 “We are seeing the marketplace start to shift from the long-time legacy metric of exposure to the more relevant new measure of attention when analysing the relative value of media platforms,” said Mike Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer at NCM. 

NCM’s cinema attention metrics will enable dentsu to determine the value of that attention, having combined it with cost and recall scores, and compare it to other channels and platforms in their broader database. Cinema will now be included as part of the overall decision-making process using those metrics and benchmarks. 

Rosen added: “Lumen’s new attention study proves what we have always believed – that cinema advertising is the best medium for brands to reach and engage our young, diverse, and highly valuable audience.”