For the New York Times, attention metrics find new applications

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 paper of record, the first client to sign up for the attention metrics company’s new publisher-focused platform, Adelaide for Publishers, will work with the company to eventually benchmark inventory using so-called attention metrics, an emerging alternative metric that goes beyond the industry standards of viewability and impressions.

The Times started using its own proprietary attention metric last year, but this marks the first time that it is “adopting an external attention metric,” Gabriel Dorosz, executive director of audience strategy and insights at the New York Times, told Marketing Brew. The goal is to eventually tie attention metrics to advertisers’ campaign performance, be it programmatic advertising or directly sold inventory, he said. “What we want is a campaign-level offering, which we hope to launch over the summer.”

Who’s watching? Founded in 2019, Adelaide uses signals like eye-tracking data and web-page layouts to gauge the quality of ad placements. It’s worked with Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Mars, and is integrated with the programmatic platforms offered by Amazon, Google, and The Trade Desk, according to the company.

“We don’t think existing standards tell the whole story, right? We don’t think viewability tells the whole story,” Dorosz said. “We’re a premium publisher…and we’d like to drive that conversation forward in the industry.”