New research from Atomic 212° reveals a critical blind spot in how we plan and measure media effectiveness. While 37% of Australians feel positive about advertising, the reality is far more complex. The study of 1,500 Australians shows that our industry’s laser focus on attention metrics only tells half the story. We’re measuring how sticky our ads are once people see them, but we’re largely ignoring how slippery people are to catch in the first place.
Think about your own behaviour. When was the last time you made a tactical bathroom break during a TV commercial? Scrolled past a social media ad without a second thought? Arrived fashionably late to the cinema to skip the ads? We all do it, yet somehow, we plan our campaigns as if everyone sits patiently waiting for our messages.
The research reveals that different audiences have vastly different levels of openness to advertising. Younger Australians are surprisingly positive: 61% of 18-to-24-year-olds actually like or love advertising. But here’s the twist: they’re also the most skilled at avoiding it. Meanwhile, older Australians might grumble about ads more, but they’re less likely to actively dodge them. This disconnect between attitude and behaviour should fundamentally change how we think about reaching different audiences.
What’s particularly striking is how this varies by channel. Cinema emerges as the clear winner: it’s both high in terms of attention and high in reception. People simply can’t avoid ads as easily when they’re sitting in a dark theatre. But the real revelation is how channels like outdoor, radio and print – traditionally criticised by attention research for shorter viewing times – actually score much better when reception is factored in. People might glance at a billboard for just two seconds, but at least they’re not actively trying to avoid seeing it.
This creates “the great equaliser”. Channels that have been written off for poor attention scores suddenly look more attractive when you consider that people are actually open to receiving the message. It’s like discovering that while your favourite restaurant might not keep diners for hours on end, at least they don’t have a bouncer turning people away at the door.
There are also implications for creative strategy. If you know that podcast listeners habitually skip forward through ad breaks, why would you frontload your brand message at the end of a 30-second spot? If social media users are primed to scroll past anything that looks like an ad, shouldn’t your content be designed to blend seamlessly with their feed rather than scream “advertisement”?
Just to be clear, this isn’t about abandoning attention metrics; they remain crucial for understanding engagement. But reception and attention work together. It’s like landing a plane: first you need to get permission to land, then you need to stick the landing. Focusing solely on attention is like perfecting your landing technique while ignoring whether the runway is even available.
The research identifies four distinct audience types based on how they handle advertising:
- “content controllers” who use platform features to skip ads;
- “space evaders” who physically remove themselves;
- “focus shifters” who stay present but look elsewhere;
- and “ad-free subscribers” who pay to avoid ads entirely. Each group requires a different approach, whereas most campaigns treat all audiences the same.
This is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that traditional metrics don’t tell the whole story. Reach and frequency become meaningless if half your audience is actively avoiding your message. The opportunity lies in channels and strategies that have been undervalued because they don’t score well on pure attention metrics.
Smart marketers will start asking different questions. Instead of just “How long did they watch?”, they will ask “How many were willing to watch in the first place?”. Instead of optimising solely for engagement, they will optimise for the right mix of reception and attention. And instead of treating ad avoidance as an unfortunate reality, they will factor it into their planning from day one.
The brands that win will be those that stop assuming their audience wants to hear from them and start earning the right to be heard. They will recognise that in our cluttered media landscape, being welcomed is just as important as being watched. Because no matter how brilliant your creative or how precise your targeting, it all means nothing if your audience has already checked out.
Source: adnews.com.au