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What learnings did we take away from Memex Conference US 2023?

What is time well spent in the digital space?

What are positive – feel good – interactions?

What is the sense behind meaningful attention?

How can we build long-term relations with our customers and users through positivity?

How can we connect respectfully?

How can we sell (good) things quite directly?

Memex Conference US 2023: Meaningful Attention

A day for discovering meaning in human experience

Attention is the obvious substance of the current digital era and is right now becoming its dominant currency. Focusing on whether the attention is meaningful refines the concept and ensures that media and user experience research is directed towards the whole human experience, including the motivations behind it, the targets ahead, and its present digital context.

 

In other words, combining neuropsychological and psychoanalytic theories: How can attention, seen as the inner psychological integration of perception, emotion, and cognition, fulfill real desires? This re-focus, on meaningful attention, raises different digital business puzzles and also addresses broader questions of our tech culture.

 

The first eye square “Memex Conference New York” featured a flurry of sparkling thought around this year’s motto: “Meaningful Attention”. There is growing awareness in the advertising and market research industries that merely technical and machine-oriented metrics are no longer sufficient to analyze what is happening on and beyond users’ screens. eye square and its partners are committed to helping both companies and consumers better understand, improve and ultimately enjoy the digital human experience. For this MEMEX functions as a format for cooperation and cross-fertilization between industry, technology, sciences and art.

 

One of the current key metrics is attention, which has become so central to many approaches, that some call our economy an “attention economy”. While there is certainly truth to that, mere focused perception is not enough to explain what is going on in the marketplace.

 

The human Face and Experience Research

September 15, 2022

Human face is the biggest determination of human perception and a symbol for human communication. How is the human face is crucial to create relationships in the digital? At the Memex Conference Germany 2022 on the 15th of September in Berlin, we want to discuss the superficial influences of faces as well as the deep human relationship. Join us!

Our new hybrid format combines the joy of real get-togethers with the reach of the digital: you’ll get to choose between a virtual ticket and a physical seat.

 

The in-person version of Memex will take place in our headquarters in Berlin Kreuzberg. It also features interactive art experiences, food and drinks from our locals, and an opportunity to network by the gazing Spree river. Be aware, however: tickets are limited!

In the tradition of our Memex Conference, we will host the hybrid “Memex 2021” on September 23!

 

Under the main topic “See the Experience”, human experience will be “focused” under many different angles from our top speakers such as […] from ABOUT YOU and Olaf Schlesiger from SevenOneMedia will cover the most relevant topics in the field of human experience research.

Our new hybrid format combines the joy of real get-togethers with the reach of the digital: you’ll get to choose between a virtual ticket and a physical seat. Be aware, however- tickets are limited!

 

The conference and all workshops will take place in our headquarters in Berlin.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the hybrid conference “Memex 2021” which took place on September 23!

 

Under the title “See the Experience” we examined the interconnected topics around market research and human experience. If you missed the live conference or if you’ll like to recap the talks by the expert speakers such as Olaf Schlesinger from SevenOne Media, Gesa Lischka from Kochstrasse, and Kristin Driemeier from About You, have a look at the recordings below.

LEARN ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS

Intro Meaningful Attention
Michael Schießl's Talk Summary

In a stimulating and visionary presentation featuring immersive augmented reality Michael Schiessl, Founder and CEO of eye square opened new horizons for the audience.

 

Speaking of digital communication as an immersive act, Schiessl showed how digital technology can work not as a distraction but rather a tool to focus attention. He explained a model eye square developed during the Covid Crisis and adapted it to the current digital deluge. Meaning in this context is directly related to human nature: Relation. This is being symbolized by order and beauty, truth and sense, balance and sustainability, trust and generosity. These compassionate attributes are what the industry should be striving for in their creation and communication. Advertising that keeps people in the center, will address relation and connection and help transmit meaning.

What is visual attention and why does it matter?
Max Kalehoff's Talk Summary

Coming from another angle, Max Kalehoff, VP Marketing Growth at Realeyes, presented his company’s approach to marketing analytics, which contains powerful tools for supporting the concepts explained above.

 

Stating the obvious but important fact, that money is a minimum level of meaning in commerce, Kalehoff gave a highly interesting presentation of Realeyes’ own research methods while defining attention as awareness to a stimulus while ignoring other stimuli. From opportunity for attention to attentive reach is the journey that needs to be understood. Realeyes uses human attention data (from cameras and other bio-devices) as well as impression proxies (such as scrolling or key stroke data) for their measurement. Both need to be combined in order to gain the benefits of both – human data being of high quality, while impression proxies deliver necessary scale. Different data sources can be trimmed to deliver predictive, probabilistic, observed results as well as information about input and / or output efficiency that can help identify “profitable attention”.

The ARF Attention Validation Project
Horst Stipp's Talk Summary

In the next presentation, Horst Stipp, EVP of Research and Innovation for the Advertisement Research Foundation, gave insights into ARF’s latest project: the “Attention Verification Project”. This project reflects the increased interest that is being shown in attention and will hopefully produce comparable standards for the measurement of attention.

 

Stipp ran the audience through the three planned phases of the project, first producing a “Market Atlas” followed by studies on Creative Testing Apps and Media Valuation Apps. Work on the Market Atlas is underway, with ARF collecting information on use cases, products and services in the marketplace, their methods, definitions and theoretical underpinnings as well as cases and papers published on the issue. In order for attention to become more than an idea and market slogan, this is a very important issue that is relevant for the whole industry. Results will be presented at ARF’s Annual Conference on April 26 and a lively and productive discussion should be expected.

Meaningful Attention from Different Angles
Philipp Reiter's Talk Summary

Philipp Reiter, who is COO and Partner at Eye Square, focused on sustainability of the advertising environment. He elaborated the distinction between meaningless and meaningful attention as it pertains to the usefulness and satisfaction users derive from using digital communication.

 

From its own research into social media use, eye square has learned that information which is seen as useless and non-elective, creates negative emotions, which in turn hinder the overall receptiveness to stimuli seen in the context. Therefore, attention is not always a good thing, which is why the industry needs to strive for more. The question arises not only how to get attention but what to do with it in a way that is seen as meaningful by the audience. Instead of an empty stare or a crazy fire, a warm glow is what communication should aim for. Until recently digital advertisers were not very aware that attention is not only limited in a given situation, but also finite in terms of the whole viewership.

From Ad to Sales – Meaningful Media Attention
Jeff Bander's Talk Summary

Jeff Bander, Eye Square’s CRO and President of Eye Square Inc, Eye Square’s U.S. subsidiary, kicked off the afternoon session with an enlightening presentation on changes, challenges and cases in the business of attention measurement. As a dynamic state influenced by exogenous and endogenous factors, meaningful attention typically produces higher scores in the fields of engagement, processing (comprehension), retention – and ultimately (inter)action (relation).

 

Jeff focused on meaningfulness in the case of retail media – all the way through to the step of putting items in the shopping cart. He therefore showed how the “Ad-to-Cart Effect” tool delivers a reliable measurement of meaning in a commercial context and helps advertisers learn about their ads’ effectiveness beforehand – while answering most questions about placement or creative of ads as well as design and packaging of products before investments are made.

F👁️CUS – Putting a lens on what drives audience engagement
Jay Schweid's & Krzysztof Radecki's Talk Summary

The “MEMEX NY Conference” experience was wrapped up by a talk from Krzysztof Radecki, CTO & Head of Discovery, DAC.digital / Poland, and Jay Schweid, CEO & Producer ephelants / New York. This unusual duo of tech entrepreneur and serial entrepreneur / media producer introduced the audience to the concept of “gaze estimation”, which takes media research and eye tracking “into the wild”, meaning: out of lab environments and into real life wherever this takes place.

 

For this concept to become reality, both are working together with Eye Square on developing the technology that will allow attention research to be done via devices’ inbuilt cameras. Gaze Estimation would be the next step into giving researchers and media companies insights into consumers’ real experience. All for making media truly useful and cutting out waste.

All in all, the Memex Conference USA delivered big on the concept of meaningful attention and made clear that there is a need to go beyond mere machine metrics and into the human experience. It also delivered hope, that through cooperation and contemplation, industry players, technology companies and the broader public can deliver on the promises of the next digital age. Stay tuned for Memex Berlin 2023!

Jeff Ephraim Bander (MBA) is eye square’s dedicated Chief Revenue Officer for the USA. He has been a thought leader in the market research world since 2008 and has gained over 25 years of experience with various research companies. Before coming to eye square he held the position of President of North America at Sticky, a provider of online eye-tracking studies. Jeff has been featured in AdAge, MediaPost and AdExchanger and has presented alongside big names such as P&G, Unilever and Colgate.

Jeff Ephraim Bander (MBA) is eye square’s dedicated Chief Revenue Officer for the USA. He has been a thought leader in the market research world since 2008 and has gained over 25 years of experience with various research companies. Before coming to eye square he held the position of President of North America at Sticky, a provider of online eye-tracking studies. Jeff has been featured in AdAge, MediaPost and AdExchanger and has presented alongside big names such as P&G, Unilever and Colgate.

Lisa Wiese is a user experience professional with an interdisciplinary educational background in psychology, cognitive informatics, statistics, and physics. Specialized in user experience modeling/tracking, development of KPIs/UX metrics, and large-scale, international customer satisfaction surveys, Lisa has a proven record in global UX research and user-centered design throughout the entire product development lifecycle. Currently, Lisa is researching the topic of digital wellbeing and meaningful attention.

User-centered development of the BVG website

Kira Süß has been working in digital product development for 10 years: apps, websites, Voice UX, AI projects, and HMI concepts for various brands, since 2019, Kira works as a product manager and UX Strategist for BVG. In this talk, we get insights into the current BVG website relaunch and learn more about the methodological masterpiece behind the project.

User-centered development of the BVG website

 

Kira Süß has been working in digital product development for 10 years: apps, websites, Voice UX, AI projects, and HMI concepts for various brands, since 2019, Kira works as a product manager and UX Strategist for BVG. In this talk, we get insights into the current BVG website relaunch and learn more about the methodological masterpiece behind the project.

AI and Uncontrolled Knowledge

Dr. Mateusz Bonecki, inspired by science methodology, AI, and cognitive science, works as Chief Innovation Officer at DAC. In his talk, he explores the hypothesis that so-called machine learning has more in common with unrestricted inquiry and scientific discovery rather than with teacher-guided education.

[recording not available yet]

AI and Uncontrolled Knowledge

 

Dr. Mateusz Bonecki, inspired by science methodology, AI, and cognitive science, works as Chief Innovation Officer at DAC. In his talk, he explores the hypothesis that so-called machine learning has more in common with unrestricted inquiry and scientific discovery rather than with teacher-guided education.

[recording not available yet]

Impressions from Memex USA 2023

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Please contact us at memex@eye-square.com !

Coronavirus Regulations

 

Currently, there are no special corona regulations for this type of event. This means that you do not need a vaccination certificate or test. Whether you want to wear a mask or not is up to you.