Attention is one of the hottest buzzwords in marketing at the moment. But have you been paying attention to the wrong kind of attention? Dr Karen Nelson-Field, founder and CEO of Amplified Intelligence and Stacy Wright Malone, VP of global business marketing, Pinterest think you might have been.
In a packed Keynote room, the pair unpacked brand new research looking into the importance of passive attention as a metric in modern marketing, as well as active attention.
“[Attention] is more complex than you might think,” said Wright Malone.
“If someone asks whether you’re paying attention, we’re trained to think of it as a yes or no question. But the reality is that it’s more like a ‘yes, and.’ Attention is when you are concentrating on information and it can be active or passive.”
Speaking over a quiet backing track, Wright Malone showed that the audience was paying active attention to her voice but passive attention to the music. This did not mean that the music was any less important or effective as a means to communicate information – just that the audience recognised it wasn’t the main focus. But, by unlocking passive attention, marketers could generate remarkable results.
“In our research, we found that layering passive attention into your media plans is essential to de-risking them and making them work even harder for you.
“Active attention is that spark of awareness, teaching people something they didn’t know. Passive attention is that constant reminder reinforcing something that’s already been learned. It adds value by helping you maintain recency in a consumer’s decision-making process. Together, these big splashes and evergreen reminders create great velocity for you by speaking to new people as well as reminding those with existing knowledge. That’s more effective and efficient than either one or the other.”
Amplified Intelligence found that Pinterest as a platform generated 703 per cent more passive attention than other platforms. Plus, Pinners scrolled on ads 150 per cent slower than on other platforms. When you get ads situated in the right context, attention jumps 60 per cent – and up to 240 per cent in some categories. Then, if you get the creative right, arousal emotions can elevate attention by 50 per cent.
However, as Wright Malone and Nelson-Field explained, when you get passive and active attention right in your digital marketing, it creates a virtuous circle.
“If anyone knows anything about category buying, you’re constantly looking for new buyers and you’re trying to nurture the existing buyers. But if you’re trying to teach something to someone, you need active attention because it’s about learning concepts about which brand fits in what category, what they stand for and what they are selling,” said Nelson-Field.
“Whereas the passive piece is a reinforcement base. It works beautifully for highly distinctive brands. But it’s important to do both right.”
But that’s not all. The reinforcement of positive emotions – a major priority for Pinterest as a platform – also has a range of benefits for attention metrics.
“My first book was about emotions and content diffusion. I’ve got a long history as an academic in understanding how amplifiers work,” said Nelson-Field.
“We hear a lot about good creative and how it saves the world. The reality is that it works within boundaries but high arousal emotions and context nudge up the propensity to happiness.”
The advice for marketers was clear. Developing a media and creative strategy that leans into active and passive attention is key for success in 2024 – and will give you a competitive advantage among new and old customers alike.
