microsoft-attention-spans-research-report.pdf

7/25/2019 microsoft-attention-spans-research-report.pdf

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Microsoft attention spans, Spring 2015 | @msadvertisingca #msftattnspans

Attention

spans

Consumer Insights,Microsoft Canada

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ForewordThink digital is killing attention spans? Think again.

As more and more facets of Canadians lives go digital, we felt it wasimportant to understand what impact todays digital lifestyles arehaving on consumers and their attention, and what that means formarketers. Hence, this research was born. I can honestly say this studyproves you dont always get what you expect

It is no surprise that increased media consumption and digital lifestylesreduce the ability for consumers to focus for extended periods of time.But, I never would have guessed that tech savvy consumers are actually

getting better at processing information and encoding thatinformation to memory. If theres no need to stay tuned in, why notmove onto the next new and exciting thing for another hit ofdopamine?

I would have thought spending more time online or with media ingeneral would heighten ones ability to filter out distractions. Wrongagain, not the case. No matter what environment humans are in (be itthe plains of Africa or a crowded street in New York), survival dependson being able to focus on whats important generally whatsmoving. That skill hasnt changed, its just moved online.

Today, multi-screening is a given, so its reassuring to know thatmultiple screens dont reduce the (potential) impact of advertising.Since consumers turn to their secondary screens to fill in those in-between moments when they might otherwise drop off completely,theyre more engaged overall and already primed for immersiveexperiences.

While these results certainly held some surprises for us, they are allgood surprises. Rest assured, digital wont be the cause of our (at leastattentional) downfall.

Alyson GausbyConsumer Insights Lead, Microsoft Canada

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Table ofcontents

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Executive summary 4

Report 5Introduction/background 6Methodology 10

Findings 143 types of attention:

Sustained 15In short 24In action 25

Selective 26In short 32In action 34

Alternating 36In short 43In action 44

Key takeaways 45Contact us 48Appendix 49


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We are moving from a world where computing powerwas scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless,

and where the true scarce commodity isincreasingly human attention

- Satya Nadella

ExecutivesummaryFor readers withoutthe attention span (ortime) to read the fullreport, here are theneed-to-knows:

Good news! Its not as bad as you think.

Attention is obviously a necessary ingredient for effectiveadvertising, but Canadians digital lifestyles are changing thebrain, decreasing the ability for prolonged focus and increasingtheir appetite for more stimuli.

Marketing too must evolve:

Dont believe everything you read: theres a lot of variancebeyond the


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Report

Our environment israpidly changing andwere adapting

Consumers lives are increasingly digital- at work, home and everywhere inbetween. With news reduced to 140characters and conversations condensedto emojis, how is this affecting the wayCanadians see and interact with theworld?

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We know human attention

is dwindling

Source: Statistic brain

The average humanattention span in

2000 The average humanattention span in

2013

The average attentionspan of a

goldfish

12seconds

8seconds

9seconds

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18 to 24

Addictive technology behaviours are

evident, particularly for youngerCanadians

10%When nothing is occupying myattention, the first thing I do is reachfor my phone

77%

6%I check my phone at leastevery 30 minutes 52%

18%The last thing I do before I go to

bed is check my phone 73%

42%I often use other devices whilewatching TV 79%

13%I watch more TV programs throughcatch-up/streamed TV than live 74%

43%I often watch a number of episodesof a show back-to-back 87%

From Microsofts Cross-Screen Evolution research, we know consumers relationshipswith their devices (particularly their phones and TVs) are continuing to evolve.

65+

7

(% agree)


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[What information consumes is] the attention ofits recipients. Hence a wealth of information

creates a poverty of attention.- Herbert Simon

Nobel winner, Economics (1978)

Theory:brain plasticity

The goal for thisresearch is tounderstand whatimpact technology

and todays digitallives are having onattention spans.

The brain has the miraculouscapability to change itself overtime. It is able to rewire andform new capabilities

throughout the course of oneslife. This ability allows humansto adapt both to new, orchanging situations in theirenvironment.

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An academic framework:

Sohlberg & Mateers modelof attention

This study breaksattention into threeparts because wedont think thatattention can besimply characterizedas how long peoplecan concentrate different tasks,devices, and lifestyles

require different setsof attention types.

SustainedProlonged focusMaintaining prolonged focus duringrepetitive activities

SelectiveAvoiding distractionMaintaining response in the face ofdistracting or competing stimuli

AlternatingEfficiently switching between tasksShifting attention between tasks demandingdifferent cognitive skills

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3 types of attention:


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To understand the changing natureof attention, we used a multi-phaseapproach:

Quantitative survey to gauge overallattention and gauge habits and perceptions

Neurological research for finermeasurement of attention spikes and togauge connection and encoding to memory

Methodology

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Part 1:

Onlinequantitativesurvey

SustainedResponding to patterns

SelectiveSpotting differences

AlternatingClassifying numbersand letters

Gameified online quantitative survey | 2,000 Canadianrespondents | fielded Q4 2014

The survey and games were designed to assess consumersattention capacities. They also included a range of metrics ondigital lifestyles that academic evidence suggests could havean impact on attention and broader cognitive functioning.

Respondents were divided into three equal sized groupsbased on performance low, medium, and high attention each representing 1/3 of the sample.

C

X

A

F

B

K8Is the letter avowel or aconsonant?

K8 Is the numberodd or even?

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*See Appendix for additional methodological information


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Part 2:

Neurologicalresearch(neuro deep-dive)

Tracked activity stations and gamefied survey112 Canadian respondents | fielded December, 2014

Participant brain activity was recorded and behaviour filmed asthey interacted with different media and performed variousactivities across devices and in different environments.

Attention levels were captured via portableelectroencephalograph (EEG) and activities were mapped againsttasks and behaviours to understand how attention varies byscreen, task, content type, and structure.

Results were reported as ACE (Attention, Connectivity, Encoding)scores, as well as number of attention bursts (individualinstances where the attention activity in the brain breached thetop quartile of brain activity for the task).

*See Appendix for additional methodological information

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Glossary(just for reference,here are some keyterms youll seethroughout thisreport)

ACENeuro research EEG output

score (acronym forattentional resources,connection, encoding)

AttentionburstsA count for the number oftimes attentional activityreaches the 75th percentile

for an individual

ConnectionThe measured emotionalconnection to stimuli(one of three ACE scores)

EncodingThe ability to encode stimulito memory (one of threeACE scores)

AlternatingattentionThe ability to shiftattention between tasksdemanding differentcognitive skills

SelectiveattentionThe ability to avoid distractionand maintaining responses inthe face of competing stimuli

SustainedattentionThe ability to maintainprolonged focus duringrepetitive activity

AttentionThe allocation of mental

resources to visual orconceptual objects

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Findings

Its notjust kids thesedays.

Top factors that impact attention: Media consumption Social media usage

Technology adoption rate Multi-screening behaviour

These factors affect different aspectsof different types of attention, indifferent environments.

So how, why, and what does thismean for marketers?

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Selective

Prolonged focusThe ability to maintain

prolonged focus duringrepetitive activities

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SustainedAlternating

Types of attention


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Canadians struggle to keep their attentionfocused. This has a significant impact on work-life

balance, particularly for tech and media savvyconsumers

44%of Canadians really haveto concentrate hard tostay focused on tasks

Higher among:

68%early tech adopters

67%heavy social media users

67%18-24 years old

57%heavy multi-screeners

55%high volume mediaconsumers

45%get side tracked fromwhat theyre doing byunrelated thoughts orday dreams

Higher among:



61%18-24 years old



37%dont make the best useof their time sosometimes they have towork late/weekends

Higher among:



71%18-24 year olds



16

At work/school(% agree)


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The ability to remain

focused on a single task ismost correlated with:

1. Volume of media consumption

2. Social media usage

3. Multi-screening behaviour

4. Adoption of technology

Not surprisingly, these behaviours are also highly correlated witheach other as well. While age is also correlated with thesebehaviours, it isnt significantly tied to sustained attention.

Sustained attention spans age & gender% high sustained attention by demographic

18-34

35-54

55+

31%

34%35%

GenderAge

Male Female

17

33% 31%


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Long-term focus erodes with

increased digital consumption, socialmedia usage, and tech savviness

% high sustained attention by behaviour

Web browsing

Multi-screeningwhile online

Social media usage

Tech adoption

Light 39%

Medium 33%Heavy 27%

Light 36%

Medium 33%

Heavy 27%

Low 36%

Medium 29%

High 23%

Late 35%

Medium 31%

Early 25%

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0.78 0.820.85 0.87 0.9

1.08 1.07 1.05 1.06 1.03

3s 5s 10s 15s 30s

Neuro readings show higher usage of

social media increases short bursts ofhigh attention

Index: average number of peaks (bursts*) inattentional behaviour by timeframe (seconds)

While they may havelower sustained

attention overall,moderate to heavysocial media usershave moreintermittent bursts ofattention (highintensity for shortdurations) in the

short-term. As timelapses, this advantagegets smaller.

*A burst occurs each time attentional activity reachesthe 75th percentile for an individual

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Light/no social media users

Moderate/heavy social media users


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The impact social has on sustained

attention is different in differentenvironments

Heavier social mediausers pay more

attention in interactive(digital) environments,but their attentionscores are lower thanlighter users in morepassive experiences(TV).

In both environments,their bursts ofattention allow heavierusers of social mediato process informationand encode it tomemory more

efficiently.

Attention Connection Encoding

Index: overall performance across attention (concentration),connection (emotional) and encoding (memory)

-29

10

-2

-21

17

Light/no socialmedia users

Moderate/heavy socialmedia users

Interactive environments (not TV)

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-9

13

-8-5

3

TV Only

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Early tech adopters have more bursts

of high attention

Index: average number of peaks in attentionalbehaviour by timeframe

Similar to heavy socialmedia users, early

tech adopters havelower sustainedattention in the longrun but more burstsof high attention inthe short term. Again,this advantageerodes over time.

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0.82 0.85 0.86 0.870.88

1.35 1.31 1.29 1.28 1.25

3s 5s 10s 15s 30s

*See the appendix foradditional methodological

information

Later adopters

Early adopters


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The impact of tech adoption differs by

environment


-17

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Following the samepattern as social

media usage, earlytech adopters paymore attention todigital screens. Theyalso processinformation betterthan later adaptors inthese interactive

environments.

For TV, while earlyadopters pay lessattention overall, theystill processinformation

significantly better theyve trained theirbrains to do morewith less.

-3

7

Later adopters Early adopters

Interactive environments (not TV)

21

-42-19

37TV Only

Attention Encoding

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Overall, digital lifestyles have a

negative impact on prolonged focus

19% of onlineviewers defect in thefirst 10 seconds.1

But, this varies significantly by creative.With todays digital lifestyle, marketersneed to make an almost immediateimpact before consumers switchoff/move on.

The goodnews:tech adoption andsocial media usageare trainingconsumers tobecome better atprocessing and

encoding informationthrough short burstsof high attention.

The thrill of finding something new oftenmakes connected consumers jump offone experience into another. The 'feel

good' neurotransmitter, dopamine, isreleased when consumers are doingsomething they find rewarding.

Source 1: Visible measures

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Canadians with more digital lifestyles (those who consumemore media, are multi-screeners, social media enthusiasts,or earlier adopters of technology) struggle to focus inenvironments where prolonged attention is needed. Why?The thrill of the new. Increasingly immersive, multi-touchpoint experiences should become the priority tocombat drop-off amongst these audiences.

While digital lifestyles decrease sustained attention overall,its only true in the long-term. Early adopters and heavysocial media users front load their attention and have moreintermittent bursts of high attention. Theyre better atidentifying what they want/dont want to engage with andneed less to process and commit things to memory.

When consumers are looking for something to care about at

every moment, rapid fire tactics like branded content,native advertising and generally useful, entertaining,and shareable content are best.

Digital lifestyles affect

the ability to remainfocused for extendedperiods of time.

n short

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Canadians lose interest, FAST.Theyre suckers for novelty. It's more exciting to jump fromsubject to subject or device to device than to concentrate on a

single thing at any one time. Hook consumers right off the batwith clear and concise messaging thats communicated as earlyas possible. We dont always have time to build a story so craftheadlines that can say it all.

How can your brand help?Make it personal and communicate clear consumer value. Howwill paying attention make their life be better? Todaysmarketing is about instant gratification and appealing toconsumers needs and desires to ensure your message is

relevant.

Get your message across,

right out of the gate

In action

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Lowes Fix in Six videos helped consumers one life hack at a time bysimplifying everyday tasks through fun stop-motion 6-second videos.

With the attentiongrabbing opening lineship my pants?, Kmarthit home its new shippingfeature. The ad certainlymakes ones ears perk up,begging the questiondid I just hear what I

thought I heard?!


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Avoiding distractionMaintaining response in theface of distracting or

competing stimuli

SelectiveSustained

Alternating

Types of attention

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The same devices used to get things done -PC, tablet, smartphone (or some combination)

- are now the gatekeepers of an infinitenumber of distractions and sources of instantgratification.

We keep the top

level item in focusand scan theperiphery in casesomething moreimportant emerges."Or something morealluring, reassuring,

or simply lessdemanding.1

Source 1: Harvard Business Review, Take Back you Attention

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As consumers are exposed to more messagingacross devices, theyre starting to look for ways

to simplify, switch off, and identify whats mostimportant.

54%of Canadians saytechnology cansometimes maketheir lives worse

51%think its importantto make time toswitch off all theirdevices

only

39%disconnect frompersonal technologymonthly or moreoften

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But


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Messaging needs to be tailored and

relevant to cut through the clutter

of Canadians are more likely to payattention to communications when theyredelivered in the right context, at theright time1

are interested in tools to better filtercontent (up from 39% in 2014)1

of Canadians like it when ads are tailored totheir personal interests/preferences

dont mind if a brand sponsors articles orcontent on a website

49%

Offering an ad I

dont like is SPAM. Anad that I can use andlike is a service.

Male, 40

46%

41%

35%

Source 1: Microsoft Digital Trends 2015, Canada

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The ability to filter out distractions isnt

affected when consumers are onlyusing one screen

% high selective attention

Gender

18-34

35-54

55+

34%

30%

35%

Age

Web browsinglight 35%

33%

31%

medium

heavy

30

Male Female

31% 35%

Age, gender,and digitallifestyles dontsignificantlyimpact selectiveattention


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Social

Media &

TV

TV &

Internet

Emails &

Internet

Phone &

Internet

Emails &

TV

Introducing secondary screens

reduces selective attention

Index: Selective attention levels by behavior

551

-72

Its a question oflifestyle. We see no

drop in performancewith device or socialmedia usage, justwhen multi-tasking.

People with highselective attentionactively choose

fewer distractions.

Those that spendmore time multi-screening havesignificantly lowerselective attentional

scores.

Lower usage of device combinations Higher usage

357

238181 183

-255

-147-179

-17

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Canadians ability to filter out distractions is a function of theirsurroundings, not their demographics, media consumption,

social media use or device usage. People with higher selectiveattention appear to actively choose to have fewer distractionsand multi-screen less frequency.

On the other hand, heavy multi-screeners find it difficult tofilter out irrelevant stimuli theyre more easily distracted by

multiple streams of media.

Since 3/4 Canadians use multiple devicesat once (9/10 amongst millennials)1,marketers should look for ways to:

Hold attention (versus competingstimuli)

Create opportunities to captureconsumers wandering eyes

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n short

Source 1: Microsoft Cross-Screen Evolution Research, 2014


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What consumers can

see in one glance haseverything to do withwhat theyll do next.If overwhelmed by input or lack themotivation to process it, their brain will stoptaking it in.

Exclude unnecessary information. Part ofachieving clarity is eliminating distractors.

Stick to the main message. If somethingdoesnt play a significant role, its not needed.

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n short


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Be different

Stand out andchallenge the norm.

Violate peoplesexpectationsyou

want to have peopleturn their eyes up alittle bit morewere attuned tosurprises and wehave a pleasantexperience withpositive surprises.

Ben ParrAuthor, Captivology

Look to outdoorads for inspiration theyre always

competing againsttheir surroundings!

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In action

Source: Forbes, Ben Parr wants your attention: Q&A with the author of Captivology, 2015


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Get movingHarness the power ofperipheral motion.Human survival has beenbased on the ability to focuson whats most important(generally whats moving).Rich media ads help captureattention and dramatically

improve engagement.

Xbox 360 Example - CA

Draw consumers in

CTR Engagement

Standard display 0.13% 0.98%

Rich media display 0.16% 11%

+23% +1022%

Source 1: eMarketer Adform, 2014

Source 2: Xbox Advertising Internal Data on 55+ Xbox 360 advertising campaigns from (Sept 2013 Aug 2014) CA

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In action

Linking directly to full screen video or landingexperiences can drive immediate action.2 On Xbox,the ad is the only animated/moving tile to

naturally grab users attention


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Efficiently switchingbetween tasks:

Shifting attention between tasks

demanding different cognitive skills

SelectiveSustained

Alternating

Types of attention

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Multi-screening behavior is the

single biggest driver of theability to shift between tasksAlternating attention levels are mosthighly correlated with:

1. Multi-screening behaviour

2. Volume of media consumption

3. Adoption of technology

4. Social media usage

Odds are, youre a multi-screener

67%of Canadians say multi-tasking is the only way they

can get things done.

38%

76%

37

18 to 24

65+

Higher among younger:


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Age and gender dont

significantly impact the abilityto shift between different tasks

18-34

35-54

55+

36%

28%

36%

Age

38

33% 34%

% high alternating attention by demographics

Gender

Male Female

Contrary to popularbelief, women dontappear to be anybetter at attentionmulti-tasking thanmen.


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Digital behaviours improve

alternating attention

% high alternating attention by behaviours

Tech adoption

Web browsing

Multi-screeningwhile online

Late 31%

Medium 39%

Early 40%

Light 29%Medium 34%

Heavy 37%

Low 27%

Medium 32%High 37%

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An active social media lifestyle

builds alternating attention to acertain point

Index: overall performance across attention, connection, andencoding by social media usage (divided based on usage)

-125

Moderate users ofsocial media are

better at multi-tasking than lowerusers.

But, when crossinginto the top quartileof social media

usage, scoresplummet.

Social media candrain ones resources,reducing the ability toallocate attention,connect with content

on an emotionallevel, and processinformation.

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-6

57

Low social usage

Medium social usage


High social usage

-134

-84

35

60

0

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Multi-screen environments not only

improve overall attention, theyimprove emotional connection andencoding to memory


The more resourcesthat consumerscommit in multi-screeningenvironmentsimproves connectionto content andencoding to memory.

Multi-screenersappear to be in aheightened neuralstate theyre primedfor more immersiveexperiences.

37 36

-102

Multi-screen TV only


-21

-89

9

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By analyzing video footage

from multi-screeningenvironments, we see thatwhile consumers may belooking at their phones (rather

than the TV), they are stillresponding to auditory cues,like laughing at jokes.

It was also observed that calls to action were

effective in encouraging consumers to lookup at key moments (e.g., when abrand/product is featured).

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Canadians with more digital lifestyles

are better at simultaneouslyprocessing information from differentsources

Multi-screening doesnt reduce the potential impact ofadvertising - digital lifestyles are associated withgreater levels of attention. But, immersive, engaging,multi-touchpoint experiences are needed tocapitalize on these opportunities.

Embedding calls to action within content helps tooptimize multi-screeners attention. These are criticalfrom an auditory standpoint while a consumer maynot be always be watching, theyre likely listening

make sure to capture their attention (and eyeballs) atkey moments.

Leverage multi-screening behaviours and be action-focused. Encourage consumers to seek out additionalcontent on other devices (e.g., visit a website topurchase). Multi-taskers are adept at acting quickly todo something new/different.

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In short


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Disneys second screenapp extends the filmexperience with user-

controlled, in-depthgalleries, flipbooks 360turnarounds, and puzzles.It holds even a youngchilds attention andencourages deeperengagement.

Samsungs Note 4interactive video ad with image gallery,

features information, andclick-to-shop feature plays to multi-tasking/multi-screeninghabits by embedding asecond screen within thevideo window.

Hondas Other Sidecampaign instructs viewersto switch between two

scenarios (via keyboardkeys) to see the two sidesof a mans life: one as afamily man collecting hiskids from school and theother as a bank robber.This engaging campaignuses active involvement tosustain attention andfulfill the need fornew/different stimuli.

2 31 SamsungDisneyHonda

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In action


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Keytakeaways

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Brains are being rewired any shift in stimuli results in arewiring...the techniques and mechanisms to engage in rapid-fireattention shifting will be extremely useful

Danah Boyd,Microsoft Research

Technology isnt a

threat or a problemfor marketers, per se.While it introduces some challenges, it also createssignificant opportunities.

In todays connected age, digital media consumptionis a given and Canadians are adapting to the massive

amounts of information theyre exposed to every day.As the prevalence of multi-screening increases, socialbecomes integrated in different ways, and consumerscontinue to adopt new technologies, attention spansare decreasing overall. This is a universal truth, itsNOT just kids these days. Brands must go beyondbasic demographic segmentation because digitallifestyles and behaviours are more tied to attentionlevels than demographics are.

Now for the good news: Canadians increasinglydigital lifestyles are also making them more efficient

at processing information and recording it to theirmemories. Theyre able to do more with less, so thatthey can move on to the next new/exciting thing.

All this means that brands need to find different,more creative, and increasingly immersive ways tomarket themselves and engage Canadian consumers.

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Address all 3 types

of attention:

SustainedTech adoption, socialmedia usage, and multi-screening behavioursmean consumers aregetting worse at payingattention for extendedperiods of time, buttheyre able to do morewith less through higherbursts of attention andmore efficient encodingto memory.

Be clear, personal,relevant, and get tothe point.

SelectiveFiltering out distractionsisnt related to tech orsocial media usage ormedia consumption, butit declines with moremulti-screening. Brandsneed to hold consumersattention to compete withother stimuli, but theresalso potential to grabattention away from otherinterests.

Defy expectations,keep it moving, anduse simplicity to focuson your message.

AlternatingDigital lifestyles improvethe ability to switchbetween tasks, but onlyto a certain point, whenconsumers can getoverwhelmed.

Embed calls to action,be interactive,continue experiencesonto other screens,and use sequential

messaging.

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Questions?www.microsoftadvertising.com/researchContact [email protected]

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Microsoft attention spans, Spring 2015 | @msadvertisingca #msftattnspans 49

Appendix

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Calculations:

Quantitative research

The study dividedrespondents intothree equal sizedgroups based onperformance low,medium and highattention eachband represented33% of the sample.

A score of 37% orhigher represents astatisticallysignificant differencein attention.

SustainedCounting the number of times respondents correctlyidentified an X occurring after an A.

SelectiveCounting the number of times respondents correctly

identified a change in the orientation of the rectangles.

AlternatingCalculating the difference in the time lapsed to perform aseries of consecutive number or letter classifications,compared to a mixture of number and letter classifications.

The results from the games were analyzed in thefollowing ways. For the purpose of the analysis, anoverall score was calculated for each of the games:

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Calculations:

Neurological research

SustainedAverage scores fromneurological testenvironments werebroken into equal parts:low, medium, and high.The average number ofpeaks in attentionbehaviour for varioustimeframes werecalculated to determinebursts in attention.

SelectiveAverage mobilecomponents from themulti-screen werecompared with resultsfrom the dedicatedmobile environmentaverage. By analyzingeach participantsattention levels duringthe mobile task stationand comparing them

against their attentionlevels while using amobile device during themulti-screen task station,a functional measure forthe level of distractionwas calculated.

AlternatingAverage neurologicalscores from the multi-screen test environmentwere divided into equalparts: low, medium, andhigh.

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