March 22, 2023 – ShowHeroes Group, a global leader in digital video content, tech, and advertising solutions, today announces a partnership with two market-leading attention science brands as part of its wider mission to prioritize the metric in a new era of transparent user reach.

ShowHeroes’ portfolio of global advertisers will now have the choice of running their campaigns verified by Lumen Research or Adelaide Metrics – both highly-respected names in the attention economy sphere – in order to augment performance in an accountable and sustainable way.

“Our new partnerships with Lumen and Adelaide form part of our broader roadmap to set a new standard in robust attention metrics – the kind that unpacks the nuance of user behaviour in a cookieless, user-centric age,” says Kay Schneider, senior vice president at ShowHeroes Group. “Zeroing in on attention as a deeper measure of ad performance also means we can help clients cut carbon-heavy ad emissions by cutting waste and making every interaction count.”

“The digital advertising sector has been shifting focus for some time now, as key industry players look to optimize inventory using meaningful, user-centric insights,” adds ShowHeroes Group CEO Ilhan Zengin. “Attention is the glue that centers this vision. It means we can deliver on our Better Media manifesto to create world-class user experiences, as proven by transparent, accountable data drawn from a wide range of variables.”

By providing the option of two independent, third-party attention models – with the possibility of adding new names to their portfolio in the future – ShowHeroes aims to provide advertisers with as much choice as possible, depending on their individual tech or targeting needs. Lumen Research, for example, is a major player in the attention field. The IAB-cited platform uses its proprietary biometric data to understand attention value, placing it as a core driver of brand recall and choice.

“Our new partnership with ShowHeroes broadens our ability to explore the potential of a new, more authentic attention-first engagement model for advertisers and publishers alike,” says Mike Follett, CEO at Lumen Research. Attention technology, powered by innovative eye-tracking technology and predictive attention modelling, offers a new and much-needed layer of measurement and optimisation for next-level user engagement.”

Adelaide uses machine learning to score a media placement’s probability of attention and outcomes on a 0-100 scale of AU, its omnichannel measure. AU is calculated using hundreds of variables with an emphasis on media quality indicators and outcome data. A/B testing has shown that higher AU media leads to a 57% hike in ad recall, an 83% increase in brand awareness, and 69% higher conversions. Global brands, publishers, and agencies currently use AU as a currency.

“Attention metrics provide a more precise alternative to easily gamed metrics like viewability and video completion rate, empowering advertisers to chart a new path forward,” said Marc Guldimann, CEO and founder of Adelaide. “By partnering with ShowHeroes, we’re offering their clients the opportunity to secure higher-quality media through AU measurement and activation. We’re eager to help the ShowHeroes team achieve superior outcomes for the brands they support.”

Finally, and in order to round out its comprehensive attention offering, ShowHeroes is also unveiling its own proprietary measurement tool. Known as the “Attention Index,” the new device uses ShowHeroes’ deeply integrated tech stack to understand the contextual and semantic relevance of ads run via its publishing partners with a high degree of detail and accuracy.

The Attention Index also provides customers with full-scale transparency over all the determining factors of the calculation model. This includes direct access to data points such as view time, player size, ad engagement, user interaction with the player, ad position, and more. It’s designed to acknowledge the strong relationship between the contextual alignment and the memorability of any given ad to maximise user receptivity.

“By building this triad of models – including our own in-house index – we’re acknowledging how attention has become a byword for veracity in the global ad ecosystem,” says Kay Schneider. “It’ll be a huge focus this year as the ad world sharpens up its act, with a view to filter out older legacy metrics that are susceptible to fraud and wastefulness.

“Our hat-trick suite of solutions will appeal to brands that share our sense of entrepreneurial ambition,” Kay continues. “Working together, we can elevate the role of attention-based metrics to spark an uplift in meaningful and transparent user interactions. It’s also important to acknowledge that this vision of tomorrow is a work in progress, so we’ll continue to explore and experiment with best-in-class attention products that give advertisers real-world, tangible outcomes.”