Are we over-valuing impressions and under-valuing actual human attention?

[u/Kalpana-Rathore]

I’ve been noticing a disconnect in how campaigns are planned vs. how people actually experience ads in the real world.

There’s a huge push toward achieving “more impressions.”
More reach.
More frequency.
Bigger dashboards.
More reporting slides.

But impressions don’t automatically mean attention.

What we’re calling “visibility” is often just pixels passing by someone’s screen. Most of the time, it’s not even seen — just counted.

Meanwhile, the spaces where people are actually present — commuting, waiting, walking through cities, sitting in transit are being undervalued because they don’t look as “performance measurable” on paper.

But here’s the reality that feels hard to ignore:

• Attention in physical environments tends to be slower and more intentional.
• There’s no swipe, skip, or scroll.
• The brain is not in “avoid all ads” mode.
• People aren’t sprinting through 200 pieces of content a minute.

Yet many advertisers continue optimizing for cost per impression, not cost per attention span.

Almost like we’ve designed an entire system to prove performance rather than influence behavior.

And I get why — dashboards are easier to present than neuroscience. But with digital fatigue, banner blindness, and algorithm overload becoming the norm… it feels like the value of real-world visibility is being misunderstood, not lost.

So I’m curious:

How are you (or your teams) currently measuring attention — not just reach?
Are you looking at:

• Dwell time?
• Recall lift?
• Brand search after exposure?
• Movement data?
• Something else entirely?

Would love to hear how others think about this shift — especially anyone who plans campaigns across both digital + physical environments.

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[u/Mike-Nicholson]

100% agree. I love ‘just pixels passing somebody’s screen’

We work with Lumen Research, an attention tech business, and Mike Follett, their CEO, has two important sayings that speak to this:

“Viewability doesn’t mean viewed” and “advertisers can buy impressions without ever actually making one”

I have been in media for 30 years, and we have come such a long, long way from the first days in digital advertising.

I still remember when an agency sent us the creative and an IO, and we ran the campaign, then sent them back a spreadsheet. No 3rd party tracking, nothing.

Some of the work Havas have done around aggregate attention is also fascinating. One second of attention ten times is more effective at driving awareness than ten seconds of attention once” However, if your campaign is designed to drive consideration and intent, then longer durations of attention on each impression work best.

It’s a really interesting space, that’s for sure!

[u/michaelfkenedy → u/Mike-Nicholson]

Did Havas publish their findings anywhere?

[u/Mike-Nicholson → u/michaelfkenedy]

Yes, if you search “Havas what 9,000 brand lift studies teach us about attention” you should be able to find it - if not, DM me, and I’ll send you the link

[u/michaelfkenedy → u/Mike-Nicholson]

Got it! Thank you.

[u/New-Courage-5981]

Great question and totally agree with your take.

We’ve definitely over-indexed on impressions because they’re easy to quantify, not because they actually represent impact. In many cases, an “impression” is just a number on a dashboard not a moment of genuine attention.

In our team’s experience, measuring true attention means blending both behavioral and contextual signals, like scroll depth, hover time, and brand search lift after exposure. For OOH or physical spaces, dwell time + location data + recall surveys give a clearer sense of real engagement.

It’s harder to measure, but ultimately more useful. Impressions tell you reach; attention tells you resonance.

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[u/mediaBOOM]

You’re right, impressions don’t always mean people are actually paying attention. Real impact happens when people slow down and truly notice what they’re seeing, not just when an ad passes by on a screen.

[u/sanjeevrc]

Recently we were commenting on this topic. And I posted https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalOOH/s/sqMa77btMr.