Event Recap: Adelaide’s Attention Metrics Conference With the ANA

Earlier this month, we teamed up with the Association of National Advertisers to host our annual Attention Metrics Conference in NYC. This gathering attracted industry experts from brands, agencies, and publishers eager to explore the applications  of attention metrics.

If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry—we’ve curated a summary of standout insights from each session:
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The State of Attention

To kick off the day, media and tech leader Joe Marchese, General & Build Partner at Human Ventures, joined Adelaide’s Marc Guldimann to discuss the rise of attention metrics and the potential impacts of artificial intelligence in the quest for consumer attention. 

Marchese noted that attention metrics help marketers identify the media most likely to capture attention and drive impact. In contrast, AI will be instrumental on the creative side, improving a brand’s ability to hold attention. Equipped with AI content creation tools, advertisers can produce highly relevant and personalized creative, tailored to each consumer, improving their chances of sustained attention. However, Marchese cautioned that despite AI’s clear benefits, it falls short in replicating the shared human experience of viewing ads—for instance, bonding over Super Bowl commercials—which leads to a notable brand lift. 
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Attention as a Currency Through the Eyes of the Market

Panelists from nearly every corner of the market explored one of the industry’s most hotly debated topics: attention as a media currency. 

While they agreed on its value as a superior media quality metric, opinions diverged on its governance. The pivotal question: Who has the authority to legitimize attention as a currency? 

While some directed the responsibility towards industry organizations like the ANA, Parvati Vaish, SVP of Analytics at Havas Media Group, presented a compelling counterpoint. She emphasized that brands, being the primary stakeholders, wield substantial influence in the market; therefore, if they demand attention guarantees, agencies and publishers will need to align with these new standards.  
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Attendance, Attention, & Distraction: What it Takes to Achieve Brand Impact

Philip Lomax from MediaScience urged advertisers to consider measuring attention through the lens of inattention, a threshold above which the cognitive processing of stimuli occurs. To achieve brand impact, an ad must be viewable and capable of capturing attention, and it must also prevent distraction. Lomax shared MediaScience’s latest research on this topic, including new findings that point to heart rate as an indicator of inattention.
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Attention Unveiled: How Top Brands Measure & Activate Attention Metrics

Marketing leaders from LinkedIn, Nestlé Nespresso SA, and PwC took the stage to share their journeys, triumphs, and challenges with attention metrics.

Nestlé Nespresso’s Jessica Padula addressed the challenge of disentangling the impacts of media, creative, and audience on advertising outcomes. A concept Adelaide coined The Attention Pathway seeks to unpack this complex relationship, helping advertisers avoid the consequences of blanket optimization. 

Paolo Provinciali, known for building some of the earliest attention measurement and optimization practices at Anheuser-Busch InBev, shared his journey with attention metrics from early adoption at ABI to his current roles at The ADVERTISING Club of New York and LinkedIn. He stressed the necessity for B2B marketers to deeply understand how levels of media quality correlate to specific KPIs in order to attribute campaign outcomes to media quality confidently. Learn more with our free guide, Next-Gen Attention Metrics for B2B Marketers, created with the ANA.
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Unlocking Cinema’s Potential: The Opportunity to Capture Consumer Attention

National CineMedia and Havas Media Group showcased cinema’s unique ability to connect brands to specific audiences with shared interests through collective, immersive experiences. Related to Joe Marchese's earlier point on the power of shared experiences, cinema advertising is shown to increase the likelihood of attention and outcomes, including ad recall. 

NCM also announced future plans to offer attention guarantees powered by Adelaide’s AU metric—perfect timing with cinema ad expenditure’s anticipated rise to $3.8 billion globally, as reported by Adweek.
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Navigating the Digital Frontier: The Democratization of Ad Measurement & Data in a $600 Billion Industry

We closed out the day with special guest Jonah Goodhart, who discussed the most pressing challenge in today’s fragmented landscape: measurement in the open web, walled gardens, Connected TV, and retail media. In a digital ad sphere dominated by walled gardens (accounting for 78% of spending), precise cross-channel signals enabling end-to-end measurement is paramount to analyze campaign outcomes. 

Goodhart’s latest venture, Mobian, has unified cross-company data signals and measurement in a single snapchat. Regardless of which unique KPIs a company uses to measure campaign performance, Mobian provides advertisers with tailored measurement solutions to optimize to outcomes.

For ANA members looking to dive deeper into event content, click here. If you’re not part of the ANA community yet but want to learn more, get in touch!