Back to Insights

Building Social Influence with Maximum Attention: Insights from iProspect and Snap

blogJuly 25, 2024

More than 15,000 attendees from brands and agencies across the UK recently gathered in London at MAD//Fest 2024 for three intensive days of speakers, networking, brand innovation pitches, masterclasses, experiential activations, and more, all designed to connect and inspire festival attendees.

During the event, iProspect hosted Unlocking the Power of Attention in Social Influence, a conversation between Elizabeth (Libby) Darley, Head of Planning UK at iProspect, and Hannah Richardson, Group Manager, Marketing Science UK for Snap, to shed light on why attention measurement is pivotal in today’s advertising landscape. 

Hannah started the dialogue with some historical context around attention. “It’s not necessarily a new thing, right? It feels a bit like a buzzword of the moment and everyone’s talking about it. But we’ve always been trying to capture the attention of consumers with the ads that we’re putting out there.” She points out that measuring attention now goes beyond simply looking at digital signals to evaluating real human responses. 

She went on to say, “Attention is like the vehicle that helps you get to where you need to go, whether that's brand lift, whether that is sales lift, or whatever it is that you're trying to achieve for your particular advertiser. Attention isn't the end result. … It just makes it a lot easier for us to get to the end result that we're looking for.”

Snapchat is often seen as experimental due to its innovative formats like AR (Augmented Reality). Research underscores the immersive nature of these formats, showing that a single AR ad can achieve the same level of attention as standard video ads. The deeper engagement facilitated by AR can significantly enhance advertising outcomes.

In the course of their conversation, Hannah shared a number of big ideas around how advertisers can drive audience engagement and immersion, and at the same time she included some very practical recommendations.   

For more insights on how to maximize your advertising campaigns, take a few moments to watch the video on demand. Cheers to capturing attention and driving influence in the ever-evolving world of social media marketing!