Attention Spans Aren't Real, Says the Attention Guy | Mike Follett, Lumen Research

Mike Follett's company puts cameras on people to see if they look at ads. Mostly they don't. He's also the only CEO in the attention business who will tell you the attention span doesn't exist, which is like a baker admitting he has doubts about bread. Two years after telling us attention would never be a currency, Mike is back. The industry wrote guidelines anyway, Lumen got a button inside The Trade Desk, and Mike finally started sleeping again. In this episode: Why he still won't call attention a currency, even with his name on a DSP button What you're actually buying in an attention segment (a prediction, a promise, or a vibe with a decimal point) The Brooklyn Lager theory: two seconds in New York, ten in London Danish people drinking Carlsberg for breakfast, confirmed How you measure attention to a podcast ad when there's no such thing as ear tracking Why muted video loses to audio with no pictures at all The goldfish was framed Cat videos vs. the Financial Times, and the New York Times vs. the New York Post The creative attention models he says he doesn't trust Saying no to partners, and his secret to a happy marriage: never talk about attention at home Mike Follett is CEO of Lumen Research. Argue with him on LinkedIn, where he promises to debate attention all night long. lumen-research.com The ADOTAT Show is the ad tech interview show for people who read the footnotes. New episodes Mondays. Subscribe to ADOTAT for the reporting behind the conversation: adotat.com