dentsu has released The Brand Reset, a global study examining the relationship between advertising attention, brand equity and sales outcomes across digital video and linear TV environments.
The study has analysed video formats across 10 next-generation platforms and linear TV, covering 20 brands across nine verticals, with over 40,000 respondents and 3,600 creatives tested. As per media findings, 43% of CMOs have reported challenges in measuring the efficiency of next-generation video formats, highlighting a gap in evaluating return on investment.
The findings have shown that a single exposure to video advertising has generated between 1% and 5% long-term sales lift over a period of up to three years, compared to no exposure. In the short term, the same exposure has driven sales increases ranging from 2% to 15% within a three-month window.
The study has established that digital video, including short-form formats, has delivered multi-year brand-building effects, challenging the perception that linear TV is the only medium capable of driving long-term growth. It has also indicated that some digital formats achieve a lower cost per 1% long-term sales lift compared to traditional channels.
Connected TV has delivered a 3.21% long-term sales lift, closely matching linear TV’s 4.43%, pointing to a shift in how long-form video contributes to brand outcomes. The findings have also shown that one CTV platform nearly matches linear TV effectiveness, suggesting increasing maturity in streaming advertising environments.
The research has further highlighted that attention plays a critical role in effectiveness. Skippable ad formats have shown lower impact in the first one to two seconds but have outperformed non-skippable formats when viewers have chosen to watch ads for longer durations, indicating stronger outcomes from voluntary attention.
At the same time, the study has found diminishing returns beyond a certain threshold, with attention after 20 seconds delivering limited additional brand impact. This suggests that longer ad durations do not necessarily translate into higher effectiveness.
The dataset has also revealed that the study measured second-by-second attention and brand impact, using 60 ads per platform with 2,600 exposed and 1,000 unexposed respondents per platform. The research has focused on understanding both short-term performance and long-term brand-building effects in the current algorithm-driven media landscape.
The report has concluded that attention can serve as a measurable planning metric, enabling marketers to balance immediate performance outcomes with sustained brand equity growth.
