How This New Performance Currency Is Helping Brands Maximize Ad Campaigns

DoubleVerify, the ad-tech company that helps shield advertisers from fraud, is launching a new measurement currency as an alternative to the third-party cookie. A 20-member team of data scientists, product experts and marketing analysts will power the Attention Lab, which will focus on providing advertisers with attention-based insights and recommendations on campaign performance. It's powered by DoubleVerify’s Authentic Attention metrics, a real-time solution that analyzes more than 50 data points on digital ad exposure and engagement. “Traditional KPIs such as viewability and clicks are not effective at identifying whether an ad is making an impact on the end viewer, and disruption from regulatory shifts to cookie deprecation is hindering how brands can use existing tools,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “With that in mind, we are confident that privacy-friendly attention metrics will become the industry’s new performance currency.” Macroeconomic uncertainty combined with new privacy compliance considerations has challenged traditional measurement metrics. Although Google has delayed the sunset of cookies to 2024, it’s still imperative for brands to adopt a new measurement tool to justify their spend. How OMD’s Attention Planning Tool Transforms Campaign Strategy “We are excited to see [DV] launch the Attention Lab and support the industry as attention-based measurement and targeting becomes even more critical," said Jennifer Brain-Mennes, director of global media strategy and planning, Americas, at Mondelez International. "Advertisers need actionable insights to drive campaign optimization and deliver outcomes." The verification company—which debuted on the public market last year with a current market cap of $4 billion—has an arsenal of brands such as AT&T, Unilever and Reddit. DoubleVerify expects to measure more than 5 trillion media transactions in 2022, Zagorski told Adweek. Real-time campaign optimization Consider a CPG brand that uses Authentic Attention to run a multiplatform campaign across CTV, mobile and desktop where the company can run ads in a brand-safe environment. With Attention Lab, the brand is able to gather information on ad exposure and audience engagement. The Attention Lab team can then simultaneously compare the brand’s campaign to other CPG company campaigns to understand effectiveness. Over time, the advertiser is able to optimize the campaign finding the best combination of publisher and creative. “That is a seismic change in the industry,” said Zagorski. “Advertisers are looking for better metrics and more accurate metrics. But most importantly, they're looking for metrics that will get them closer to an outcome.” Mondelez leveraged Authentic Attention for attention-based analyses of media performance. For one of its popular snack brands, the company was able to evaluate and optimize the performance of a cross-platform display campaign. DoubleVerify highlighted the value of “high-exposure” impressions on the campaign and saw a 9% increase in brand favorability, an 8% lift in consideration overall, and a 5% rise in purchase intent among the brand’s primary target audience. “This is data that absolutely drives advertising optimization,” said Dan Slivjanovski, CMO at DoubleVerify. “It's proven to drive an outcome. And we've got some of the biggest brands on the planet incorporating this into their planning.” Attention metrics across different platforms There’s been an increase in activity around attention metrics, particularly for advertisers who sell indirectly without any purchase data, but it’s yet to be widely adopted by the ad industry, according to Eric Schmitt, the research director and analyst at Gartner. “It’s one type of metric in a very broad portfolio,” he said, adding, “I think there's lots of room for research there. My hope is that this attention market moves in that direction to provide media planners with real insights.”