Average viewing time for ads has dropped from 2.5 seconds (2010–2019) to 2.3 seconds (2020–2025)!

Clear Winners and Losers Across Media Channels

• TV advertising has increased attention by 14% (Index 114), benefiting from a calmer, lean-back usage situation and fewer ad breaks.
• Skippable online videos are losing attention (Index 83).
• InFeed ads have seen a massive decline, losing more than 40% of viewing time since 2019 (Index 57).

The main driver: stimulus overload in digital environments. While TV remains relatively stable at around 6 ad breaks per hour, platforms like Instagram reach more than 40 ad breaks per hour – leading to highly selective perception.

The good news: creative quality is the strongest lever.
The evaluation of eye square’s benchmark database with nearly 13,000 ads demonstrates clearly:

• Highly creative TV spots can achieve up to twice as much attention as average executions.
• Exceptionally crafted social ads or pre-rolls can generate more attention than an average TV spot within just 2.3 seconds – if the opening, message, and emotional relevance are strong.

Attention is the Key to Value

For advertisers, this means: reach without attention rapidly loses value. What matters are channel-appropriate strategies, bold, tested creative work, and making attention measurement a fixed part of the creative process. Only then can brands fully leverage the “2.3 seconds of magic” – ensuring their messages don’t get lost in the content overload but are truly seen and remembered.

For full details on the methodology, channel comparisons, and concrete recommendations, please refer to the complete press release.

If you’d like to know how your TV spots, pre-rolls, or social ads perform in terms of attention – and how to make your 2.3 seconds as effective as possible – feel free to get in touch with the experts at eye square or OMD.

The Attention Works Initiative

Under the name Attention Works, the media agency OMD Germany and eye square are joining forces to establish a new standard in media planning – with genuine attention as the central currency.