Lorraine Woods, chief investment and operations officer, Atomic 212°.
The current climate for marketers is simple: deliver more with less and prove it works. Performance has become synonymous with immediacy. Clicks. Conversions. Attribution windows.
Measurement has improved dramatically in recent years, but it has also introduced a challenge. When performance is defined purely by what can be measured instantly, we risk undervaluing the channels that actually create the conditions for conversion in the first place.
In today’s environment, marketers are under increasing pressure to justify every dollar of spend. Measurement frameworks have become more sophisticated, but they have also created a bias toward channels that are easiest to track.
The risk is that we unintentionally deprioritise environments that play a critical role earlier in the consumer journey simply because their impact is harder to capture using traditional performance metrics.
The performance theatre trap
In some cases, this has even created a form of “performance theatre” where activity is optimised toward what can be immediately attributed, rather than what genuinely drives business growth over time.
At Atomic 212°, we’ve long believed that performance doesn’t begin at the click, it begins the moment attention is earned.
Our chief strategy officer, Asier Carazo, via Atomic 212°’s proprietary research solution Sonar, has led extensive research exploring which media environments present the strongest levels of ad receptivity for audiences across Australia.
The research proved that digital audio and digital out of home (DOOH) are channels that offer strong ad-receptivity, meaning that low ad avoidance behaviour is present. Both channels reach audiences in the real world, often in moments when people are more receptive and less distracted.
Yet historically they’ve been categorised as “brand channels”, frequently excluded from performance conversations. We think that’s a missed opportunity. And we wanted to test it.
The question: can attention drive performance?
When Origin Energy needed to reach Australians at moments of life transition when decisions around energy providers were actively being made, digital audio and programmatic DOOH were natural choices. These environments reach consumers in real-world moments, when they are moving through their day rather than scrolling through feeds.
Both channels are proven to generate strong attention and long-term memory encoding. However, traditional measurement models often struggle to connect these environments directly to downstream conversion outcomes. Rather than accept that limitation, we wanted to challenge it.
What happens when these channels are activated together, creatively connected, and then programmatically stitched to downstream action?
The priming effect
Using neuro research conducted by Neuro-Insight in collaboration with Spotify and QMS, we measured long-term memory encoding and engagement across both channels. The results were compelling.
When digital audio and programmatic DOOH exposures were sequenced together, they amplified each other’s impact. Exposure across both environments delivered a 17% to 18% uplift in long-term memory encoding compared to single-channel exposure.
As Neuro-Insight CCO Peter Pynta explains: “Priming occurs when media exposures are sequenced to amplify long-term memory encoding. Media combinations don’t always prime each other equally so when we see two highly compatible mediums driving increased effectiveness, it’s significant.”
This is what we call “the priming effect”. Individually, both channels perform strongly. But when activated together they create a multiplier effect on attention and memory, and memory is the foundation of future behaviour.
Turning priming into performance
The next step was connecting that attention to action. Through full-funnel activation using Yahoo DSP, audiences exposed to audio and DOOH were programmatically retargeted with display.
In other words, we intentionally connected high-attention environments with performance media. The omnichannel strategy delivered 5.2x greater conversion efficiency.
This work was developed in close collaboration with the Yahoo team, particularly Hayley Treasure, who partnered with us to design an activation approach that moved beyond standard measurement frameworks and allowed us to properly test the full-funnel impact of these environments.
What this demonstrates is something many marketers instinctively understand, but measurement frameworks have historically struggled to prove: these “brand channels” are often the channels that make performance possible.
Matching investment to incrementality
At Atomic 212°, we thrive on data and measurement, and Origin has been a key partner for us. The market mix modelling results, via Mutinex, reinforced what the neuroscience and activation data had already indicated.
Comparing to the historical data of when DOOH and digital audio ran together versus the recent burst of activity, Origin have seen a lift in 78% in ROI vs the historical benchmarks.
As Atomic 212° general manager of data and technology, Tom Sheppard, explains: “We see these channels are great at driving commercial outcomes, and this is what matters to our clients.”
The alignment between attention research, neuro impact and MMM incrementality is powerful. It reinforces something we are increasingly seeing across clients: brand and performance are not opposing forces, they are sequential.
The media landscape has evolved rapidly. But in many cases, the way we define performance hasn’t kept pace. The collaboration between Atomic 212°, Origin, Spotify, QMS and Yahoo DSP demonstrates what’s possible when media partners work together to push beyond traditional measurement frameworks, particularly at a time when expectations on performance have never been higher.
From priming to performance
Digital audio and DOOH are not just brand builders. When activated together and connected programmatically, they become performance multipliers.
Attention creates memory. Memory drives consideration. Programmatic activation converts it. In a world increasingly obsessed with last-click attribution, perhaps it’s time we give more credit to the channels that make that click possible in the first place.
Because performance doesn’t begin at the click; it begins the moment attention is earned. The industry has spent years optimising the bottom of the funnel. The next wave of effectiveness will come from better connecting attention at the top with action at the bottom.
Feature image: Lorraine Woods, chief investment and operations officer, Atomic 212°.