Sustained Attention Secrets to Boost CPG Brand Visibility

Across the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, capturing and maintaining your audience’s attention is critical now more than ever. 

As brands battle for a spot in the consumer's mind, understanding the nuances of attention becomes strategically imperative.  

Understanding Attention in Consumer Behavior 

It's essential to understand the types of attention and their role in consumer behavior. Attention types  each influence the consumer's decision-making process. 

- Sustained Attention: Focusing on something specific for a certain amount of time until it is complete. 

-  Divided Attention: Splitting your focus on multiple things at the same time. 

-  Focused Attention: Focusing on a particular task while simultaneously blocking out surrounding elements. 

Understanding the types of attention allow CPG brands to tailor their marketing strategies effectively. The level of consumer attention captured is essential for a successful brand strategy. Buyer decisions are intricately tied to the types of attention they exhibit.  

CPG brands must therefore tactically create content, advertising, and packaging that captures the audience’s attention and ideally locks them in to gain their full focus.  

The Power of Sustained Visual Attention in CPG Branding 

Sustained visual attention is a driving force in the CPG branding landscape. Unlike fleeting glances, this type of attention involves prolonged engagement with a brand's visual elements. 

It’s no surprise that the longer a consumer pays attention to a creative or engages with a brand, the more impactful the results. There is a clear positive correlation between attention and consumer recall, which leads to increased brand loyalty. 

Investing in sustained visual attention is not just about capturing a momentary glance; it's about creating an attention-grabbing asset that creates a lasting impression to sustain your core audience’s top of mind. Within seconds of sustained exposure, brands can improve their recall and awareness. 

The Lumen, Teads, Dynata study shows that for top-of-funnel advertisements, a single ad needs at least 100 milliseconds of exposure to a full second to have an impact. That time will continuously increase as consumers go through the funnel: 

-          Awareness: 1+ seconds 

-          Interest: 3+ seconds 

-          Consideration: 9+ seconds 

-          Purchase Intent: 8+ seconds 

 Brand recognition and recall would rise 40% for attention that lasted more than 5 seconds. 

However, there is a difference between being visible and actually seizing your audience’s attention. For example, when consumers are required to watch an advertisement without the option to skip, you may be in view for a longer duration but this could decrease the quality of the consumer’s attention. On the other hand, if an ad is optional and an individual chooses to watch it, that is a signal of stronger interest.  

Analyzing Focused Attention Examples in the CPG Industry 

Real-world focused attention examples provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of focused attention in CPG marketing. Brands that have successfully harnessed focused attention have witnessed better outcomes. 

Dove created a billboard out of syringes to bring awareness to the fact more than 50,000 Canadian teens ages 14 to 17 have received cosmetic injectables. The 3D element of the billboard caught the audience’s attention with its strategic placement in Toronto’s largest shopping center, frequently trafficked by teens and families. 

Pepsi integrated QR codes on their packages to launch a digital scratch-off game, giving consumers the chance to win cash rewards from $5 to $25,000 with the option to send it to a friend or donate it. This interactive element and gamification helped maintain their customers' attention and kept Pepsi top of mind for those who won big cash prizes. 

A great example of a brand connecting digital and physical experiences is Miller Lite, which designed a digital experience that instead encouraged consumers to go offline. The company offered a free “offline” can to any consumers who scanned the QR code and agreed to put their phone down for 30 minutes, during this time, Miller Lite’s brand occupied their phone screens.  

By examining the outcomes of such campaigns, brands can start to think outside of the box and refine their strategies, ensuring that every element of their marketing efforts contributes to capturing and retaining consumer attention. 

Strategies for Capturing and Maintaining Consumer Attention 

CPG brands must strategically capture and maintain consumers’ full attention in all forms of content from paid to organic to product. 

The key to any successful strategy is to define your ideal target audience and the action you want them to take. To capture your audience’s attention, you must consider who your audience is and their interest. 

CPG Sustained Visual Attention Strategy Tips: 

• Create snackable content: Develop clear and easily digestible content that is visually appealing with a strong, simple message for your audience to understand your message in the split seconds you have their attention.  
  
  
• Produce interactive content: Invite your audience to participate through interactive content to make consumers feel involved and maintain their attention. 
  
  
• Personalize your content: Generate customized content for your audience to grab their attention by making them feel like you are speaking to them specifically.  
  
  
• Study trends and current events: Do your research to find the hot topic or current craze everyone is talking about to make your content relevant and catch consumers' attention. 
  
  
• Focus on your audience’s pain points: Turn heads by pointing out a problem or concern your consumers may have and present how your brand is the solution.  

• Provoke emotion: Raise emotions that cause people to reflect, maintaining their attention in the short-term with the opportunity to make a lasting long-term impression. 
  
  
• Share something new: Peak consumers' interest by sharing a fun fact or something that no one has done before that they will remember or at least be interested enough to look into further.  

 Aside from creative tips, an essential element of your strategy for products, content, or advertisements is placement. We know that page position plays a critical role in how much attention an ad or piece of content will get. In parallel, the size of the ad or the amount of content on the page can impact the amount of attention consumers will give to it. Consumer attention decreases when more ads or content are present.  

An effective way to measure the success of your CPG materials and strategize new content is through pre-flight testing phases, ensuring that the final version is optimized for maximum impact. 

Incorporating Attention Metrics in Pre-Flight Testing 

Nearly 96% of advertisers reported a portion of their buys will leverage attention-based metrics. Attention metrics help predict the likelihood of consumers’ attention being captured. These metrics allow brands to determine how much attention is necessary for the ad or content to be impactful.  

As attention metrics continue to become more frequently used, clearly defined testing parameters become even more important. Measuring attention types in the pre-flight testing phase is crucial for gauging the potential effectiveness of marketing materials. 

Tests should be designed to help brands understand how attention correlates to long-term key performance indicators, which can validate attention as an in-flight testing metric. Attention metrics can yield valuable insights for product designs and placement so brands can improve the quality of their creatives.  

Advanced tools and technologies, such as eye-tracking devices and consumer surveys, enable brands to gather valuable data on how consumers interact with their visuals. By integrating attention metrics into pre-flight testing, brands can make informed decisions to optimize their content for enhanced sustained attention and visibility. 

Successful Sustained Attention Campaigns 

Examining successful CPG campaigns provides a deeper understanding of how sustained attention can be a game-changer.  

Focused attention examples from successful campaigns offer a detailed analysis of the strategies employed, the challenges faced, and the impact on brand visibility. By dissecting these success stories, brands can extract actionable insights to implement in their campaigns. 

One example is Garnier creating a viral TikTok filter to promote their new hair care line using an interactive filter to keep users' attention with their brand-designed frame to improve awareness. Garnier kept creators' attention with the filter as they filmed, edited, and shared the branded videos. The best videos were promoted in a compilation through brand-premium infeed ads to boost brand awareness. With 250 million views and 109 thousand videos created, studies show an 18% increase in brand awareness and a 27.5% increase in ad recall. 

NFL football player, Marshawn Lynch, an avid Skittles lover was featured on 2,000+  limited edition Skittles bag. Lynch, who has been known for eating Skittles on the sidelines, shared a picture of him buried in the new Skittles bags to his 1.9 million followers on Instagram. This batch of Skittles will never be sold in stores, as Lynch shared the custom treats will his fans instead. Skittles captured their audience’s attention on and offline with this creative collaboration that piqued football fans’ interest with a package that has never been done before.  

Adapting Attention Strategies to Different CPG Markets 

What works for one product category may not necessarily be effective for another. Tailoring attention strategies to fit the characteristics and preferences of different consumer demographics and product categories is vital for short and long-term success.  

Analyzing competitor creatives and brands in other CPG markets can help you shape your strategy by learning from other successful campaigns and evolving your own. Testing, tracking, and adapting campaigns to ensure relevancy and appeal across various markets while continuously measuring the impact of your brand recognition and visibility.  

Increase Sustained Attention to Your Brand 

Sustained attention is not just a fleeting moment of consumer interest; it's a powerful tool that, when integrated correctly, can significantly boost CPG brand visibility. By understanding the various types of attention, analyzing successful campaigns, and incorporating attention metrics into pre-flight testing, brands can unlock the secrets to capturing and maintaining consumer attention. 

You can quickly predict attention using Dragonfly AI, speak to the experts here.

CPG brand teams are encouraged to implement these insights in pre-flight testing and overall marketing strategies. As the industry continues to evolve, those who master the art of sustained attention will undoubtedly stand out in the market, leaving a lasting impression on consumers, and securing a prominent place to be top of mind during decision-making.