The pause opportunity in a distracted world

Streaming audiences are more fragmented and more distracted than ever. Viewers today are toggling between apps, checking second screens (a phone, a laptop, etc.), and being hit with more ad messages across more platforms. For marketers, fragmentation has made a familiar question even harder to answer: when a viewer’s attention is fleeting and scarce, how can you ensure an ad is not just seen but also interacted with?

One opportunity hides in plain sight: the pause.

Viewers regularly step away from a show to grab a snack, answer the door, or respond to a message or call, and they leave their screen paused. It’s a moment when no video, audio, or content is competing for the big screen. It’s also, until recently, a moment that advertisers have largely overlooked.

Enter pause ads

Xumo Play, the company's free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service, has added pause ads to its advertising portfolio. The format is simple: when a viewer pauses linear or on-demand programming, a high-impact ad appears. And with interactive elements like QR codes, pause ads give viewers a clear path to act in the moment, helping advertisers turn attention into action.

In contrast to a pre-roll or mid-roll spot, a pause ad meets the viewer in a moment they’ve chosen. No interruption, no skip button, no competing for a viewer’s attention against other content. The attention is already available; a pause ad just makes use of it.

The attention case

Attention for modern advertising has become one of the most contested and scrutinized currencies in streaming advertising. Today’s buyers want more than impressions – they want evidence that those impressions are landing and converting.

Research from the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) found that 51% of viewers have taken some kind of action after seeing a pause ad. Additionally, research from Amazon Ads and Publicis Media also found that interactive video ad formats outperform standard video ads on engagement and brand-metric lift. That’s the kind of evidence that shows the shift toward interactive, attention-first formats is an industry-wide move.

Turning attention into action

Attention isn’t something advertisers should have to fight for in every second of a stream. To turn attention into action, advertisers need a high-impact way to show up on one of the biggest screens in households today, and that’s exactly what pause ads have the potential to deliver.

The combination of high attention and built-in path to action is what differentiates pause ads from a passive placement. Beyond just seeing an ad, viewers are doing something with the ad. And this makes a difference on a platform like Xumo Play, where TVision found that ad attention is 20% higher than the industry average.

The opportunity

Pause ads join an advanced suite of advertising formats already available to brands and buyers. Advertisers want to meet viewers in moments where they’re already tuned in rather than competing to grab their attention or introducing an interruptive ad experience. Even more, pause ads are built for how today’s buyers actually transact. Now, advertisers have the opportunity to unlock the format programmatically across Xumo’s leading supply-side platform partners such as FreeWheel, Magnite, OpenGlass, and The Trade Desk, making it simpler for advertisers to activate through the platforms they already use.

Now, the moments that used to be dead space are high-value real estate on the big screen. For advertisers looking to make every impression mean more, pause ads the opportunity they’ve been looking for.