‘VTR is Dead': India's largest digital ad study says attention is the real currency

Mint

3 days ago

Mumbai: India's digital advertising market may be booming, worth ₹50,000 crore, but according to new research, much of that money may be chasing the wrong metric.
A landmark study by Snap Inc., WPP Media and Lumen Research, India's largest of its kind, found that attention, not impressions or view-through rate (VTR), is the real driver of brand outcomes, particularly among the country's 377 million-strong Gen Z audience.
For years, digital advertisers have assumed that if an ad is viewable, it must be effective. But the study tracked the real eye movement of over 3,000 Indians aged 16–35 and found otherwise.
The findings were clear: attention is eight times better than VTR at predicting brand recall, and four times better at improving favourability. Even small gains make a big difference, a 5% increase in attention delivered a 12.5% lift in favourability.
But not all attention is equal. The study categorizes attention into—under 1 second: helps recall; 3-9 seconds: shifts perception; and over 9 seconds: diminishing returnsThis insight challenges the long-held belief that longer exposure is always better.
The research also highlights a generational divide: Gen Z pays 34% less attention to ads on conventional social platforms than millennials and 10% less to digital video overall.
But there's a twist. Gen Z responds more positively to immersive, opt-in formats. Snapchat's AR Lenses, for instance, earned twice the attention of typical digital ad formats and were three times more efficient at capturing active attention.
'This research doesn't just prove that attention matters," said Amit Chaubey, head of Marketing Science, APAC, at Snap. 'It gives brands a playbook to plan for it, measure it, and turn it into real business impact."
The study introduced a new metric: Attention per Mille (APM) or the total seconds of human attention per 1,000 impressions. It also proposes cost per APM as a more accurate way to measure ad efficiency.
Despite a higher Cost per Mille (CPM), Snap Lenses delivered both the highest APM and the lowest cost per APM, beating YouTube skippable and Facebook in-feed formats.
'Genuine human attention is the single most powerful predictor of business outcomes," said Mike Follett, chief executive officer (CEO) of Lumen Research. 'It's time the entire media ecosystem caught up."
The study also offers a framework to drive attention: platform: go where people are more engaged, format: skippable formats like AR lenses beat non-skippable ones, and creative: UGC-style, music-led, and persistently branded creatives perform best.
'By moving beyond legacy metrics and focusing on genuine attention, we can build more effective and efficient media plans," Amin Lakhani, CEO, WPP Media South Asia, said.