DUBAI: International advertising group Dentsu has released the results of a new study of the habits of șÚÁÏÉçÇű and other consumers across five social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.
The âUnlocking the Currency of Attention KSAâ report âis the first in the world which specifically looks at the viewing and retention habits of our Arabic MENA audience,â said Ramzy Abouchacra, media practice president, dentsu MENA.
He added that âitâs set to reshape the way we create and disseminate advertising contentâ in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The study aims to âbridge the gap between traditional measurement metrics and actual human behavior, offering vital insights into how attention shapes advertising effectiveness,â he told Arab News.
To determine human behavior on social media, the study simulated real-world use of social and video platforms using tools including eye-tracking software and brand-recall exercises, he explained.
The results of the study were then analyzed to understand audiencesâ attention spans and the impact of advertising content on consumers, he added.
One of the key findings of the study is that an ad being âviewableâ does not guarantee it is âviewed.â The former refers to the opportunity for the ad to be seen whereas the latter ensures the audience has actively viewed the advert.
For example, at least 50 percent of the advertâs pixels should be visible in the browser window for a continuous 1 second for images and 2 seconds for videos.
Abouchacra said the shift to attention and impact is aimed at assessing whether an ad is âviewable,â or made available for someone to view. But also whether it is âviewed,â which means âcatching the attention of desired audiences and therefore being actively viewed.â
This richer understanding of how audiences behave and consume content allows advertisers and agencies to better tailor their ad campaigns, he added.
Diving deeper, the study found that even though one platform had an average viewable time of 15.1 seconds, ads were only viewed for approximately 33 percent of that time (5.3 seconds). This suggested that the content did not capture the audienceâs attention.
For example, if an ad is not interesting, the viewer might decide to step away resulting in the ad still being played, which in turn would make it viewable. However, it does mean it was not viewed because it did not capture the viewerâs attention.
âA reduction in views doesnât necessarily mean that someone stepped away from a screen, it could also be that a viewer disconnects from the ad or diverts their attention to something else,â said Abouchacra.
He added that this was âparticularly common in the era of multi-screen viewing habits â and therefore the content is not absorbed, reducing its effectiveness.â
Overall, social media content in the Middle East and North Africa region had âlower visibilityâ compared to international markets, but viewed times across most platforms was higher with an average time of 6 seconds versus a global benchmark of 4.36 seconds, he said.
This implies that audiences in the region are more inclined to watch content for longer, even though they may be presented with less opportunities to see it, Abouchacra added.
The report is another step in Dentsuâs commitment to șÚÁÏÉçÇű with the network being present in the Kingdom for the last 17 years. This year it opened a regional headquarters in Riyadh in addition to the pre-existing office in Jeddah.
In a separate interview, Tarek Daouk, CEO of Dentsuâs recently created Middle East, North Africa and Turkiye operation, told Arab News the company wants to create a âlocational and cultural hub connecting East and West.â
This would provide the âopportunity for local clients to expand globally, and international clients to engage with the growth opportunities within the Kingdom and beyond,â said Daouk.
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