In advertising research, attention is the direct measure of a commercial's ability to win audience attention against competing commercial products. It is one of the three report card measures attention, brand linkage and motivation. Attention is also graphed visually in the Flow of Attention.
To research attention, the test ad is shown with control ads in a clutter free environment designed to simulate a commercial "pod" on television. The test ad is embedded in clutter made up of either directly competitive advertising, or ads from non-competing product categories, depending on client preference. After watching the reel, respondents are asked the question "Which of these ads did you find interesting?"
If the test ad is spontaneously mentioned, then that response is counted toward the attention score.