Ads are 80% more likely to be seen on newsbrand sites

Ads on digital newsbrand sites were 84% more likely to be viewed than advertising on non-newsbrand sites according to the research which was conducted over the past 18 months by Lumen with Nectar.

The research consisted of a panel of 500 with laptop mounted eye-tracking cameras which could passively track people’s eye movements.

Mike Follett (pictured), managing director, Lumen said: "The more you engage with the content, the more you look at the ads – it’s a virtual circle.

"With so much content competing for our eyeballs in the digital landscape, as well as advertisers’ concerns over measurability and transparency, newsbrands are providing an engaging online context for advertisers to reach consumers."

At Newsworks effectiveness summit, where Follett presented his findings, he also pointed out that with attention to advertising so fleeting, even on a digital platform the more emotional advertising encouraged greater engagement.

"Engagement with advertising is shorter than you might think. In print, with high viewability and large size ads, they are extremely effective at getting, and holding, attention. Digital could learn a lot from print (and out of home) advertising."

He found that only about 20% of technically viewable ads actually get viewed (where viewability is counted at 50% of pixels seen for at least one second). People need to look at an ad for at least 1.5 to 2 seconds to get any level of brand recall.

"Brands can outperform the market if they invest in quality inventory," he added. "Newsbrands tend to adopt a ‘fewer, better ads’ approach which concentrates attention on advertising."

At the event, Newsworks CEO Vanessa Clifford and Group M’s managing director, digital trading Robin O’Neill also announced they were establishing a partnership to explore the value of quality context.

Prior to rolling out the large-scale project, Group M conducted a ‘proof of concept’ test analysing the engagement and brand scores of five campaigns and allying the results with quality of inventory.

The number of campaigns covered will now increase to more than 50 within eight months, with the aim of proving that quality brand environments deliver better value for advertisers. The first round of results will be released in the autumn and the eventual goal of the project is to make the results an actionable factor in trading.

O’Neill said: "We believe that viewability and engagement with digital advertising, not just potential exposure, is vital for brand success. Our aim is to make this a factor in trading, just as much as numbers of people and impressions."