81% of Indian Marketers Still Prioritise Reach Over Attention
Only 17% of Indian marketers rank attention quality in their top three media metrics, finds the Beyond Reach report. But 86% would shift budgets with stronger attention proof.
Indian media planning is still a reach game. A new report from Publicis Media India and MMA India, Beyond Reach, finds that 81% of marketers put reach or incremental reach at the top of their media-allocation priorities, while only 17% rank attention quality in their top three metrics.
The gap matters because attention is not just a media hygiene idea. The report found that 86% of marketers are likely or very likely to move budgets if robust attention evidence shows it can strengthen brand memory. Yet 69% say attention is currently absent from their media plans or does not influence media decisions.
01 · Measurement is the real bottleneck
The report identifies a trust and standardisation problem. Lack of reliable, comparable attention measurement is among the top three obstacles for 92% of marketers, and 100% believe an agreed industry standard would accelerate adoption.
This is not a resistance story; it is a tools story. Marketers appear ready to consider attention, but they need a consistent framework to compare media, formats and partners before they can act on it.
02 · Attention shifts by format
Lumen, the report’s attention partner, supplied India planning norms showing how the same 1,000 impressions can generate very different attentive seconds:
- Instagram Reels: 692 attentive seconds
- YouTube skippable: 1,957
- YouTube non-skippable: 3,579
- Connected TV: 7,286
- Linear television: 7,771
The figures are not a ranking of media effectiveness. They show that reach alone can hide large differences in the quality and duration of human attention, including across formats within the same platform.
03 · Creative is underused as an attention lever
Placement is only half the story. While 94% of marketers say creative is at least as important as placement in earning attention, only 14% systematically adapt creative to different formats and lengths.
That leaves a practical gap: media teams can buy the right environment, but if the asset is not built for the format, attention still leaks.
04 · What brand leaders should do
Beyond Reach points toward a planning shift, not a replacement of reach. Lalatendu Das, CEO, Publicis Media South Asia, said reach will remain fundamental, but scale alone does not tell whether an exposure is noticed or likely to influence brand choice. He added that the next step is making attention thinking practical, measurable and actionable in media investment and optimisation.
Moneka Khurana, MD & BOD, MMA India, framed it simply: brands can be seen everywhere, but being seen is not the same as being noticed. The report’s message is that attention qualifies reach, rather than replacing it.
For CMOs and media leaders, the near-term move is to demand comparable attention metrics, test media formats against attention and memory outcomes, and close the creative adaptation gap.
Source: MediaNews4U
