How do we predict advertising attention and engagement?

This paper develops two new definitions for attention and engagement. Active attention is primarily a conscious rational construct, and level of attention is therefore defined as the amount of conscious ‘thinking’ going on when an advertisement is being processed. Engagement, however, is predicted to be a subconscious emotional construct, and level of engagement is therefore defined as the amount of ‘feeling’ going on when an advertisement is being processed. I present evidence to show these two constructs operate independently of one another and discuss how research can predict the levels of emotional engagement and rational attention that advertisements are likely to generate. Initial results from a research system designed to do this indicate marked differences between UK and USA TV advertising, but that that USA TV and print ads perform very similarly. It also shows that use of multimedia increases engagement.