Why your ads get ignored—and how to fix that

You can develop the best brief for a targeted launch. You might even think your creative is on point, but still feel your stomach sink when the metrics flatline. 

People are seeing your ads, they’re just not feeling them. What’s off? Yes, the online world can seem like a three-ring circus meets the Super Bowl and World Cup with a side of Mardi Gras thrown in, but that chaos is normal these days. 

No one owes you their attention. If you want to connect with your audience and inspire them to engage, you need a strategy that earns it. 

Let’s break down what types of advertising tactics grab and hold attention in 2025, how the best brands are capturing (and keeping) attention and how you can too.

After years of chasing impressions, today’s marketers know they’re a fleeting metric and don’t tell the bigger story. After all, a “viewed” ad doesn’t mean it’s an impactful ad.

Impressions don’t tell whether the ad captured attention or moved the viewer to action. That’s the real prize. 

Brands that hold attention and stir an emotion are the ones seeing serious business results. Because it’s not about being seen, it’s about being remembered. 

You know, not all attention is equal, so let’s define a few terms that are sometimes used interchangeably.

• Viewability means your ad has the chance to be seen. The Media Rating Council (MRC) is an industry standard that reports what counts as “viewable.” For example, with a larger digital ad (greater than 242,000 pixels), a viewable impression counts if 30% of the ad is “viewable” for 1 second. 

• Attention means someone actually noticed your ad. But if so, for how long? That’s where eye tracking is valuable. 

• Attitudes reveal how they felt or what they thought in response to your ad. Follow-up surveys or implicit testing are useful here. 

It gets interesting when you create distinctions between passive vs. active attention: 

• Passive attention = eyes might skim the ad, but the brain doesn’t engage. 

• Active attention = someone pauses, maybe even comments or clicks. 

That’s where emotion and impact begin. 

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of the best-selling book Thinking, Fast and Slow described his research showing how our minds operate in two systems. 

• System 1: quick, instinctive, emotion-driven 

• System 2: slow, deliberate, logical analysis 

Most advertising lives in System 1 thinking. That means your creative needs to connect emotionally.

Professor Karen Nelson-Field is the founder of Amplified Intelligence, an adtech company, and the author of “The Attention Economy.” Her research shows brands with active attention correlate to a high brand impact. Which isn’t surprising. You can’t make an impact if no one is paying attention. 

So, how do you drive impact? 

Brands don’t spend millions of dollars for exposure; they want action. 

Marketers know the right kind of attention drives brand lift, sentiment and loyalty. The more attention the ad earns, the more likely it is to shift perceptions. 

Lumen and Dentsu's “Attention Economy” research specifically measures audio and video. One study found 41% of audio ads enhanced brand recall compared to 38% of Dentsu norms. 

They also found that music streaming ads outperformed the same ads played on a desktop or a mobile device. 

Of course, we can’t forget TV and the biggest of TV commercials, the Super Bowl. Oftentimes, the ads people remember and talk about aren’t always the splashiest. They’re the ones triggering emotion. 

One study found viewers especially gravitate toward ads that include both happiness and sadness. Satya Menon is a managing partner at Kantar. After studying 13 years’ worth of Super Bowl ads and viewer responses, he says,  “Talk-worthy ads tend to pull at the heartstrings (humorous, inspiring, upbeat) or have some shock value in the creative execution.”

Finding the sweet spot of attention + emotion = impact.

At one point, attention studies were measured in labs. Biometric eye-tracking goggles, facial coding and neuro-based measurements, such as EEG, were outside the scope of most marketers. 

But now? Scalable tools and platforms like Lumen, Realeyes, Amplified Intelligence and Zappi offer ways to track attention in marketing settings. 

When you’re accustomed to measuring traditional performance data, such as click-through rate (CTR) and conversions, attention metrics provide an additional level of insight into why the ad was effective. For instance, high-impact environments like homepage takeovers or rich media formats outperform standard display ads in terms of higher attention scores and better message recall. 

Context and visibility help connect viewers on a deeper level. 

There’s good news. You can still earn attention, but only if you give people a reason to stop their scrolling. Here’s what the data says is working in 2025: 

• Emotion-first storytelling: People feel before they think 

• Visual surprise: Pattern disruption helps ads break through the noise 

• Pacing and motion: Works well in mobile-first formats

• Humor and relatability: People connect to people

Context is still essential. What works on TikTok won’t fly on TV. YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and programmatic placements all have their own tempo. According to the Teads x Lumen Attention Outcomes Report 2023, users typically give:

• ~2 seconds of attention on TikTok

• ~4–5 seconds on YouTube pre-roll

• ~7+ seconds on TV

And these precious seconds count. Video ads perform best when they’re front-loaded with motion and storytelling. Static ads have to work harder. Lumen found only 80 out of 1000 ads got any attention, and even then, the average attention time was only 1.3 seconds. However, with 8-10 exposures, that attention span can build to 7 or more seconds. So frequency matters along with creative. What’s a marketer to do? Incorporate one or more of the following: 

• Trigger emotion in under a second 

• Jolt the viewer with something unexpected 

• Hint at the story in a single frame

• Pull at the eye with bold visuals 

In other words, quick and frequent ads are the winners. Consumer insights help you know what captures attention so you can test what drives outcomes. When you know what drives outcomes, you’ve got a blueprint to build on. 

In every category, capturing and holding attention is a competitive advantage. 

Some of the smartest CPG and QSR brands are designing campaigns around attention and attitude because they know decisions happen fast. The brands that make people feel are the ones inspiring action. Here are three examples: 

1. McDonald’s 

It’s hard to believe, but McDonald’s was losing relevance among the younger generation. Weiden+Kennedy tapped into cultural familiarity by pairing celebrities with their favorite go-to meals. And the younger generation loved seeing what Kim Kardashian West or Travis Scott ordered at the Golden Arches. 

Outcome: App installs increased 23% in the first week of its BTS promotion and a 12% gain for daily average uses. 

2. Heinz ketchup

The famous condiment has long been known for its slow pour. But in the “Ridiculously Slow Pour,” the brand increased its ad impact by airing it in the middle of a NASCAR race AND speeding it up to create the world’s first-ever .57 second TV spot. The red and white blur inspired people to watch the full 30-second ad in slow motion, thanks to a hidden DoorDash voucher. 

Outcome: The campaign received 40M impressions, doubled CTR benchmarks and grew Heinz.com web traffic by 164%. The brand experienced a 10% increase in purchase intent. 

3. Liquid Death 

Who knew that water could be a billion-dollar brand? But it turns out it can. The irreverent, heavy metal approach of Liquid Death positions water as something that can “murder your thirst,” and by highlighting their recyclable cans, they’ve positioned themselves as an anti-status quo brand. 

Outcome: They’ve made canned water a billion-dollar company. 

There’s no room for siloed marketing in 2025. The best teams use real-time attention data to connect message, media and measurement. 

This creates a learning loop that makes each campaign smarter than the last. 

Imagine: 

• Creative gets tested for reactions before launch with tools like Zappi’s consumer insights platform that helps you test ideas and see what captures attention (before creating the entire campaign!)

• Media teams can use that data to prioritize channels and formats to generate the most attention.

• Results feed the next round. Refine the message and sharpen the target. 

That’s the feedback loop. It’s called dynamic creative optimization (DCO). When you DCO, you can tailor messaging on the fly based on what’s working. Swap out a headline, adjust pacing and refine the CTA. It’s all possible with the right tools. 

Teams work together cross-functionally, so they build on the insights. Media teams can optimize delivery in real time while the creative team brings the narrative. Everyone aligns on attention KPIs to shape campaigns so they’re well-targeted, well-crafted and well-received. That’s how you make ads that hold people’s attention and drive action. 

You know the attention economy isn’t static. It will continue to evolve, as will the tools. We predict attention measurement will get even sharper, faster and more predictive in the coming years. 

Expect more: 

• AI-powered creative scoring to let teams test dozens of ad variations in minutes.

• Context-aware delivery. Imagine if you could adjust creative based on your audience’s mood, time, or environment?

• Privacy-friendly insights will use more anonymized behavioral signals rather than cookies. 

Platforms will shift but attention shapes what people remember, which influences what they buy. 

How to act on this now: 

1. Start testing earlier: Use consumer insights to see what earns attention before media dollars are spent. 

2. Align your teams: Encourage media, creative and insights to share KPIs that go beyond impressions. 

3. Build a feedback loop: Past performance can inform the next brief, the next concept and the next launch.