Is attention the new attribution?

The New York Times is partnering with Adelaide, a company that uses signals like eye-tracking data to gauge whether readers are paying attention to ads.

The Times started using its own proprietary attention metric last year

The goal is to eventually tie attention metrics to advertisers’ campaign performance

Attribution is getting increasingly difficult. So is garnering attention.

As the value of attention increases it could function as a proxy metric for ROI and related metrics of attribution.

What is the return on attention?

via Marketing Brew

It begins?

Ferret-UI offers the possibility of advanced control over a device like an iPhone. By understanding user interface elements, it offers the possibility of Siri performing actions for users in apps, by selecting graphical elements within the app on its own.

There are also useful applications for the visually impaired. Such an LLM could be more capable of explaining what is on screen in detail, and potentially carry out actions for the user without them needing to do anything else but ask for it to happen.

via Apple Insider

🔥 insight from Tom Webster:

years ago, in the late 20th century, where I am from, there was a thing called videotape, and there were two different standards of videotape and they fought constantly. There was Betamax, which was a platform put out by Sony that was not an open platform. It was a closed platform. Then there was VHS. VHS was developed, I’m pretty sure, by JVC, but they brought in lots of other partners, brands that we all know and love, like Quasar, right? Does anybody remember who won that battle?

VHS? No. Nobody won that battle because we don’t watch tape anymore. We watch movies.

Why do I like this story?

It highlights a few things I think are important to remember:

• you’re not just competing with your industry competitors (especially with inflation and housing where it’s at right now)
• consumers are shopping for solutions and categories, not your specific offering (until they become fans, then they’re shopping for you)
• & you can go further with friends

Inflation is up

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.4 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the same increase as in February

via BLS

Earnings almost kept pace

Real average hourly earnings for all employees were unchanged from February to March, seasonally adjusted… This result stems from an increase of 0.3 percent in average hourly earnings combined with an increase of 0.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index

via BLS

An economic research group is

forecasting another 5% surge in home prices this year.

via Business Insider

Consumers feel like their money doesn’t stretch as far and their dreams are getting more expensive.

Or, as this tweet featured in DTC Daily puts it:

Finished reading: HOLE. by HIROKO. OYAMADA 📚