McKinsey& CompanyTheallenuoeauationWinning the right battlestor consumer attention
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The media industry has longfocused on the quantity ofconsumer attention ratherthan the quality. As audience,distraction and fragmentation,grow, understanding attention'strue value is critical to success.Contents2IntroductionHow attention drives performance in12222streamingplatforms椰4ThedistractedstateofconsumerattentionKevconsiderationsfor mediastakeholdersThemissingpeceof theatentionequaton BBuildingafutureonattentionAttention-drivencustomersegments:;Thethree most aluabletypes o consumers 12Authors andacknowledaments'Suberattention'versus'superusers"ApdendixDriving mediaspend
Introductionnyone whohasspenttoomuch ofaneveningtryingtochoose betweerAentertainmentoptionsorping-pongingbackandforth betweentheirTVscreenmany different forms of media are fighting for their attention.Mediabusineses creators mareters nd andshav racked ishinh stales cometiofor consumeratention but oftenequateit to acontest forconsumption,comparingboxscoresof hourswatched oreveballsreached.Thsfocuson the quantity of timespent-orthe size ofaudience-overboksa more importante: the aualitv of time spent.Not allconsumer attention is created equal.Consumption andmonetzation varywidely ac ros 20 majormnedlumsintheatentioneconomy,andiferinglevels of attentionareakevreason for that variabilitysearch suarests that the media business has beenmissing thefullstoryorin-deothsurvey of7,00consumersworldwide-includtingoichfomm the basis forthis recort- we have developed an "attentionthe ful drversof atentionvalue !Atentiondoesn'tsimply equaltheamount of time spent; it equals the amount of valuable time spent,driven by focusand intentearch, including additionalfindings,seetheappendixs an assessmentof what makesicentatmonetizing attention, how distinctn, and strateglies and questions for mediantion economy. (Use the interactive calculatoon McKinsey.com to estimate the value of attention with differing mediums and other factors.)The'attentionequation':Winning theright battlesfor consumerattention
Not all consummerattention is createdequal. We havedeveloped anattention equationthat explains why.
The distracted stateot consumer attentionThesheer volume and diversity of content available to audiencesis greater thanever before.Butof mediandentertainment,incdudingvideo,audi,gamin, prit, socal platforms, adliveevents, is finite.Over the past decade, the total number of hours each day that consumers watch, listen toread,or otherwise interact with content has barely grown,increasing roughly1 to2percenta yea Athe same tme, te ogca i movatonsnpoducto an st io ion, h ise fiusencontenthavecreatedadizyjingarray ofand video streaming services, and every newtelevision season andmoviereleasecompetesfotimeon the sameplatforms that offernearlyeveryseries and flmthatcame beforeltThere isn't only morecoomoredevicestoconsumeit on-ofteracross generations(includingt...
