From Measuring Attention to Creating Impact

Mike Follett, CEO Lumen Research

DJIB: Over the past 10+ years, Lumen has been at the forefront of attention research globally. Looking back, how has the role of attention in advertising evolved, and how do you view its current position in the industry today?

Mike: Over the past decade, attention has moved from being a niche research topic to becoming an important part of how advertisers think about media effectiveness. When Lumen was founded, the industry's primary focus was on reach: how many people had the opportunity to see an advertisement. Reach remains essential, but it is only the beginning. An advertisement cannot influence someone if it never receives their attention.

This represents a significant shift in thinking. The industry is gradually moving from measuring the opportunity to see an advertisement towards understanding its actual impact. Attention provides the missing link. It helps explain why two campaigns with similar reach can produce very different business results. Not every advertisement that is technically viewable is actually looked at, and not every second of attention has the same value. Understanding these differences gives marketers new opportunities to improve performance.

DJIB: During your recent visit to Tokyo, you had the opportunity to meet with various clients, platforms, and dentsu teams. What were your impressions of the Japanese market in terms of attention adoption? Were there any particularly encouraging signals—or areas where you see further opportunity?

Mike: During my recent visit to Tokyo, I was encouraged by how quickly the Japanese market is embracing this way of thinking. Across conversations with advertisers including global luxury jewelry and beverages brands, with global and Japanese local platforms, and with many colleagues across dentsu Japan, I noticed a common theme. Rather than debating whether attention matters, many Japanese practitioners are already asking a more advanced question: how much attention is required to achieve a specific business objective?

DJIB: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of attention evolving globally over the next few years? And in that context, what role do you think Japan can play in shaping or advancing this space?

Mike: This is an exciting development. In many Western markets, the industry spent several years establishing that advertising attention is selective, and then several more years demonstrating that attention predicts business outcomes such as brand awareness, sales and profit. Those were necessary conversations, but they were also foundational ones. Increasingly, we can treat these findings as established knowledge and move towards applying them in practice.

In that respect, Japan has an opportunity to leap ahead. Instead of spending years repeating debates that have already taken place elsewhere, the Japanese market can focus immediately on optimisation. The important question is no longer whether attention matters. The important question is how attention can be used to improve marketing decisions.

DJIB: Many markets are still in the early stages of adopting attention as a metric. In your view, what is the most important step for advertisers and agencies to take in order to move from “measuring attention” to “planning and optimizing with attention” and to truly "linking the attention with results that matter to the business"?

Mike: This is where I believe the future of attention lies, both globally and in Japan. We should begin every planning process by asking what business outcome we want to achieve, and then work backwards to determine the attention required to deliver that outcome. Different objectives will require different levels of attention. Building long-term brand memory may require a different pattern of attention from driving an online purchase or encouraging someone to download an app.

Once we understand these "attention thresholds", many new opportunities emerge. We can identify the optimal combination of media channels and advertising frequency. We can understand where additional investment generates meaningful returns and where diminishing returns begin. Creative teams can also develop advertising that earns what I often call an "unfair share of attention"—communications that naturally attract and hold consumers' interest more effectively than competing messages.

Ultimately, attention should become part of a broader system for improving business performance rather than remaining an isolated measurement.

To achieve this, the industry must move beyond measuring attention and begin embedding it into the tools that marketers use every day. Data becomes valuable only when people can act upon it.

This is why the work that dentsu has undertaken is so important. Integrating attention data into CCS Planner (dentsu Internal Planning Tools)(※1) enables planners to consider attention during media planning rather than after campaigns have finished. Enabling attention-based buying through the different DSPs allows buyers to optimise campaigns in real time. Integrating Lumen's predictive attention models into the third party verification, for instance, IAS Quality Attention(※2) expands access across the wider digital ecosystem.

Each of these developments removes friction between insight and action. Rather than asking marketers to learn entirely new ways of working, attention becomes part of existing workflows and decision-making processes. That is how new ideas become industry standards.

*1 CCS Planner is dentsu's media planning tool powered by Consumer Connection System (CCS) data. It enables marketers to forecast and compare audience reach, media performance, and campaign effectiveness, helping develop data-driven media strategies based on consumer insights.
*2 IAS Quality Attention is IAS's attention measurement solution that combines media quality signals, user interaction, and Lumen's eye-tracking data using machine learning. It predicts the likelihood that an ad impression will drive business outcomes such as awareness, consideration, and conversion, helping advertisers optimize campaign performance.

DJIB: Finally, what message would you like to share with advertisers, agencies, and marketers in Japan who are beginning to explore attention as part of their media and marketing strategy?

Mike: My message to the Japanese market is therefore a simple one. Think of attention as a journey rather than a destination.

Every journey begins with measurement. Measure the attention your campaigns receive today. Use those insights to develop hypotheses about what could perform better. Test those hypotheses through controlled experiments. Learn systematically from the results. Over time, your organisation will build the confidence to make larger strategic decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions.

The most exciting phase of attention research is still ahead of us. We have spent the past decade understanding how attention works. The next decade will be about using that knowledge to create better planning, better creative, better media investment and, ultimately, better business outcomes.

I believe Japan is exceptionally well placed to help lead that next chapter.