Bountiful Cow’s Jessica Treasure explains why news is “hugely valuable for clients”
Adwanted’s Future of Media London event kicked off with a five-minute overview of Newsworks’ Attention research this morning (Tuesday 4 November), to give context to the following debate.
What’s all the fuss about?
The research, first launched at Future of Media in Manchester in September, has certainly stirred industry debate. And a fair bit of colourful language.
In a bid to move the conversation on, effectiveness expert Peter Field, Bountiful Cow’s Jessica Treasure, Lumen’s Mike Follett and Newsworks’ Heather Dansie took to the stage at Kings Place alongside The Media Leader’s Jack Benjamin to discuss all things attention.
Field told a packed auditorium: “What matters most is attention… if we don’t get people’s attention for long enough, we cannot build brands.”
Newsworks’ Attention study proves a clear link between high-attention digital media and advertising effectiveness. High-attention media campaigns deliver significantly better business outcomes compared with low-attention campaigns, including a 17% uplift in brand effects and a 12% increase in market share growth.
Despite the findings, there has been a significant 10-year shift towards industry investment moving away from high-attention media in favour of pure play digital display and social media.
Lumen’s CEO told delegates at today’s event that “as an industry, we have lots of data about which media works better than other… but we don’t always act on it”.
Meanwhile, Bountiful Cow’s head of strategy explained that the way agencies are buying news is wrong. Referencing the agency’s recent ‘Relative Advantage’ research, she explained the uplifts for clients when buying across news that some advertisers would choose to avoid over unwarranted brand safety fears.
“Quality news brands absolutely pay back,” she said. “We need [to invest in news], not just for democracy but because it’s hugely valuable for clients.”
Newsworks’ insight director, Dansie, also urged planners to “just buy news… however it works for you and your client. News brands offer fantastic reach, trust, influence and attention”.
“[News] is not getting the investment levels that is deserves,” she added.
Read more about our Attention research here.
