Hi everyone, and welcome to edition 123. Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know about not one but two events we’ve got coming up.

SEG3 is coming to Tokyo! During the Tokyo Game Show, we’re hosting an invite-only dinner on Thursday 17 September for the leaders from gaming, entertainment, sport, music and tech building fandom on both sides of the world. If you’re based in Japan or there for TGS and want a seat at the table, request to join us.

And we’ve opened registration for our fourth-annual SEG3 LA! On 8-9 December, we’re returning to Beverly Hills for two days of networking and deep dives on how audiences form and grow, what turns a casual consumer into a committed fan, and the strategies driving growth and value of IP.

Okay, onto the newsletter!

This week, I’m exploring Ampere’s Breaking Down the Attention Economy report, and what that means for brands, IP holders, and content creators trying to build audience and fandom.

Plus, some speed reads on music and sports:

Let’s go!

I love a really silly crime drama, and I’m lucky that my partner does too. A few weeks ago, we sat down to watch Scarpetta, which is, frankly, ridiculous. Despite having Prime Video, we don’t pay for the ad-free tier. Instead, we press the mute button and do other things: pet the cats, get a drink, look at our phones. (We do also talk… I swear.) 

I noticed something while we were watching this ludicrous show. At one point, all of the ads were for very domestic items: diapers, laundry soap, vacuums. Then, randomly, the ads changed: cars, technology. And then we realised we’d switched from my Prime profile to my partner’s. 

It was hilarious, and slightly disheartening if I’m honest. We don’t have children, and my partner and I split our ‘domestic’ life equally. That the algorithm still saw us in outdated gender norms was an active turn-off for me. 

Now, strictly speaking, there were still eyes on those ads. They might have been on mute, but there they were, playing on our TV, in our living room, every night for several weeks as we watched Nicole Kidman solve crime. Did it make me suddenly want to switch fabric conditioner brands? 

I think you can guess the answer.

Now that I’ve treated you to a window into my home life (sorry?), I want to explain why I’ve done so. It sits part and parcel with Ampere Analysis's new report, Breaking Down the Attention Economy. The report digs into how people in the US and UK actually divide their time and focus across media. Where it ties in with my story is that the gap between pure reach and actual attention is widening, and now more than ever, reach alone doesn’t make a substantial material difference.

The average person now uses 11.5 different platforms a week across video, audio, social and gaming. Of course, platform and audience fragmentation is nothing new to those reading this newsletter. But I think the interesting distinction is between reach and attention, and that the two don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

Ampere's data shows that while watching TV shows, 66% of viewers are doing something else at the same time, and 56% are on a second screen. For films, it's 61% and 46%. Even during ad breaks, 32% of people leave the room entirely, and a quarter scroll social media instead. (Guilty!) 

→ The "reach" being sold to you isn't one thing, nor is it even really guaranteed.

Gaming keeps coming out on top of Ampere's data as the format where people are least likely to be doing something else, and this tracks with what we've been hearing from our own community as well.

Livewire's family gaming research, which we covered in edition 61, found that 83% of parents report zero second-screen distractions while their family games together, against a backdrop of phones and tablets dominating traditional TV time. 

This mostly undivided attention has a knock-on effect. For brands wanting to hold actual attention, gaming can be a good place to integrate. For studios looking for IP, games become a gold mine, which our podcast guest Helene Juguet of Ubisoft went into detail on in our episode of The Speakeasy. 

If an audience has already poured hours of attention and emotion into something, they’re likely to follow it when it grows, and they’re more likely to engage with the things that pop up in world.

In edition 85, Yuriy Yarovoy made the point that depth of engagement beats reach, every time you're comparing like for like on price. Carlotta Rossi Spencer, Global Head of Branded Entertainment Business Development at Banijay Entertainment, made a similar point when she joined us for The Speakeasy. Branded entertainment hits a different depth of emotional resonance than a traditional ad spot, and she had quantitative success metrics to back that up: Changing Rooms with Dulux brought in 5 million more litres of paint sold. 

Sport tells a similar story, with Ampere’s UK data showing that sport has the lowest rate of second-screening of any content category (24%, against 46% for film and 56% for TV shows). This is precisely why rights holders keep charging what they charge for it. 

Of course, that is shifting, with content creators becoming more and more important to sports broadcasting, and FIFA’s TikTok deal showed that bringing the ‘second screen’ platforms into the broadcast strategy doesn’t mean cannibalising your existing viewership. 

This all comes back to depth of engagement (aka, attention) again. And it goes beyond ad sales, too: movie trailers, concerts, museum exhibitions, tourism destinations; all of these things benefit from active, engaged eyeballs, not passive ones.

In short: Don’t be afraid of the second screen, and stepping outside your silo. Everyone is trying to figure out a way to engage with viewers on the platforms and in the spaces where attention is of high quality, because doing so means they’re more likely to retain that person as a loyal consumer, fan, or audience.

What I found most interesting, and not surprising, was that consumers who say they're motivated to buy things after seeing an advert are notably more likely to be podcast listeners, music streamers, sports followers and AI users than the general population.

Podcasts specifically carry something most formats don't: a parasocial pull. 17% of listeners say they like keeping up with their favourite podcaster's personal life the way you'd keep up with a friend’s. (And, as I covered in edition 109, millennials in particular love a podcast!)

What the podcast metric confirms is that when an audience already trusts the voice reading the ad copy, they’re more likely to buy or engage with the brand. This relationship brings a different, higher value altogether. It’s closer to a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend than it is a traditional 30-second commercial spot. 

It goes beyond just who’s delivering the ad, though, into the mechanism itself. 

Quick sidebar. A few months ago I saw a familiar meme - the line drawing one of the guy standing at the edge of the party with a quote like “They don’t know I’m xyz”. In this case, it was one that said something like “They don’t know we’re on the verge of running out of QR codes”. Of course, that isn’t true, but it was funny, because QR codes are everywhere.

But actually, QR codes are important. Ampere’s report said that consumers most likely to scan a QR code within an advert are the ones already intending to buy luxury goods (62%) or a streaming subscription (58%). Way back in 2022, Coinbase reported that its Super Bowl ad, which consisted of a QR code on a black backdrop, drove over 20 million users to its site within one minute.

What the QR code does is remove friction for someone who already made up their mind. Removing a hurdle, whether that’s Googling, searching on Amazon, etc., matters; a frictionless experience is part of the ad delivery, and it’s something that actually converts.

→ Both of these things hit the same point: that reach isn’t where the story ends; it’s about the intention and execution after you’ve captured that attention.

There are two things that consistently move a purchase: a previously purchased product, or a friend's recommendation. These two still outrank every paid format, including social and TV advertising. That's consistent with what Nielsen has found for years: consumers trust recommendations from people they know over any paid channel, by a wide margin.

And then there's AI. Ampere's data shows AI use has grown faster than any other media type over the past six months (a net 47% increase), but it influences only 7% of purchase decisions, ranking last.

The one place AI research is gaining ground, though, is considered high-effort purchases like cars, where buyers who'd already been through the research process reported meaningfully higher AI influence than those still shopping.

Again, this shows that it isn’t just about the number of people using a given platform, but why they’re using it, and with what level of attention. Advertising soap on ChatGPT may not move the needle, but an ad for a Range Rover might. 

Firstly, it feels important to say: none of this is an argument against reach. Reach still buys you the shot at being seen, and that awareness does matter. What the data does is shine a more nuanced light on the difference between “we were seen by X million people" and "X million people were with us.”

The second important takeaway I found was something I mentioned both previously above, but also a few weeks ago in edition 121. The second screen doesn’t have to be a death knell for attention. There is a way to build your content, ad spot, sports match, or brand integration in a way that makes the second screen another funnel for consumers, audience, and fans. 

The third was about intention. Ampere's Gen Z breakdown shows why people reach for each different platform: streaming to be comforted, social media to discover something new, and AI when they simply can't be bothered to decide.

What this means practically is that a single video budget has to actually have separate strategies: understanding why someone is on a platform rather than just that they’re there at all. And that will help you go beyond just reach, and actually grow a dedicated consumer, fan, and audience base.

The LEGO Group has consolidated its various fan touchpoints, content creators, adult fan communities and fan-run events, into one recognised network called Fan CoLab.

TL;DR

Why you should care

Adult LEGO fandom isn't new. LUGNET, one of the original AFOL hubs, has been running since 1998, and Recognised Fan Communities as a concept have existed in some form for years. What's new is the packaging: creators, communities and events now sit under a single "CoLab" umbrella with defined criteria, a shared name, and a stated benefits ladder.

The way LEGO is treating its super-fan base is as standing infrastructure, worth formal recognition, ongoing support and a defined tier system, whether there's a launch to tie it to or not. (Activating deep, dedicated fandom year-round is something that our upcoming Speakeasy podcast guest, BBC Studios’ Shelley Macintyre, delves into, so keep an eye out for that episode, coming on Thursday!).

I was really surprised by the authenticity clause. By telling creators LEGO expect "opinions, good or bad," they are showing the creators that they’re allowed to criticise. Giving them that avenue makes them feel like part of the team, rather than passive fans. In doing this, LEGO makes the relationship a two-way one, and therefore more valuable. It also means that there’s less likely to be a cynical commercial read of this: that the creators get access as a trade-off for only saying good things. It’s a strategy worth bearing in mind if you're building your own creator or community programme.

What remains to be seen is whether formalising something this organic will flatten what made it work in the first place. Two hundred-plus communities and a global creator base didn't build themselves with a briefing document, but to do anything at scale requires one. How the two things will marry is where the longevity and success of this strategy lies.

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!

That’s all for now, everyone - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report. If you found it of interest, please do consider sharing with a colleague or friend who’d enjoy it too!