Mike Follett has been on a relentless quest for attention—not his own, mind you, but yours—for longer than most marketers can even remember.
He’s been preaching the importance of attention metrics since the early days of the internet, back when we were all still marveling at the sound of dial-up modems and clicking on banner ads without a second thought.
In digital terms, Follett is practically a time traveler, coming to us from the ancient days of online advertising to remind us of something so fundamental that it’s almost embarrassing we still don’t get it: if people aren’t paying attention to your ads, they may as well not exist. He’s been that guy—the one up on the proverbial mountain, screaming, “If no one’s paying attention, your ad is like a tree falling in the forest when no one’s around—does it even make a sound?” And while it’s a catchy metaphor, it’s also Follett’s professional creed. He’s been repeating it for years, probably to the point of exhaustion, while the ad world has continued to sleepwalk through outdated metrics like viewability.’
For years, Follett has been the lone prophet in the desert, screaming into the wind about how the industry has it all wrong. Marketers and advertisers have been too busy drooling over viewability stats, patting themselves on the back for reaching some magical percentage that supposedly proves their ad was “seen,” even though they all know deep down it’s not really doing what it’s supposed to. Follett’s been standing on the sidelines, shaking his head, as if watching a child proudly tie their shoelaces wrong. “Just because an ad is on the screen doesn’t mean anyone’s actually seen it,” he says, and you can practically hear the sigh in his voice. It’s so simple, yet so widely ignored. For Follett, the obsession with viewability is like celebrating because your billboard is visible from the highway, even though everyone driving by is staring at their phones.
For years, Mike Follett has been the unwavering voice in the wilderness, resolutely sticking to his guns while the advertising industry stumbled from one trend to the next. As marketers jumped aboard every new bandwagon—whether it was programmatic advertising, influencer marketing, or whatever the latest shiny object of the day was—Follett refused to be swayed. He didn’t chase the buzzwords; he chased the one thing he knew really mattered: attention. In an industry that often seemed more interested in flashy presentations and empty metrics, Follett remained laser-focused on what actually drives results. It’s not that he was stubborn or unwilling to evolve with the times—it’s that he already knew the truth before the rest of the industry even realized there was a problem. Attention, not gimmicks, is what makes advertising work, and Follett wasn’t going to budge until the world caught on.
And finally, after years of beating the same drum, it seems like the industry is starting to catch up. For Follett, it must feel like vindication after spending what felt like an eternity shouting into the void. “We’ve been banging on about attention for years,” Follett says, and there’s a palpable sense of relief in his voice, “and finally, people are waking up to the fact that it’s the thing that really moves the needle.” It’s not just a metric; it’s the metric. While marketers were busy obsessing over impressions, click-through rates, and viewability percentages, Follett stayed in his lane, focused on proving that none of it mattered if no one was actually paying attention. Slowly but surely, the industry began to wake up to his message: attention isn’t just a bonus—it’s the cornerstone of effective advertising.
To Follett, attention is far more than a bullet point in a media plan or an optional metric to consider. It’s the oxygen that fuels the entire advertising ecosystem. Without attention, you might as well be shouting into the wind. He’s been saying it for years, practically screaming from the rooftops: if people aren’t paying attention, all those fancy ad campaigns, those shiny programmatic buys, and those influencer deals are nothing more than wasted effort. Attention isn’t a peripheral concern—it’s the lifeblood of advertising effectiveness, the one thing that can make or break a campaign. And now, after years of what must have felt like trying to teach a brick wall how to dance, the world is finally catching up. But for Follett, it was never a matter of if the industry would realize this—it was always just a matter of when.
But Follett isn’t just content to preach about the importance of attention—he’s built an empire around proving it. Enter Lumen Research, the company he founded to measure, quantify, and validate the one thing he knows matters: whether or not people are actually looking at your ads. This isn’t some abstract, feel-good mission; it’s based on cold, hard data, collected from actual human beings. Lumen uses eye-tracking technology to see if users are paying attention to ads or just mindlessly scrolling through their feeds. “Attention is what links media exposure to business outcomes,” Follett explains. And he’s not talking about casual glances; he’s measuring real engagement, down to the second. For Follett, the difference between an ad that’s technically viewable and one that actually captures attention is like night and day. If your ad isn’t grabbing attention, he says, you might as well be throwing money into the wind.
And Follett’s got the receipts to back it up. His company, Lumen Research, has analyzed a staggering 9,000 brand lift studies—yes, nine thousand—to prove, once and for all, that attention is the real driver of success in advertising. “We’ve shown that attention is the metric that correlates with brand outcomes like awareness and purchase intent,” Follett says, with the confidence of someone who knows he’s right. “It’s not just about whether someone could see the ad, but whether they did see it—and for how long.” This isn’t just conjecture; it’s data, pure and simple. Follett’s been vindicated by the numbers, and now he’s on a mission to get the rest of the industry to pay attention—literally and figuratively. If viewability is the attendance sheet—yeah, you showed up—attention is the report card that shows whether you actually learned anything.
But here’s the thing: despite all the data, despite the 9,000 studies and the mountain of evidence, Follett still has to deal with an industry that’s obsessed with the wrong metrics. “Too many brands are obsessed with viewability like it’s some kind of golden ticket,” he says, clearly frustrated. “But viewability is table stakes—it’s just the juice you have to pay to get into the game.” In other words, viewability is the bare minimum. It’s the participation trophy of advertising metrics. It’s not enough to just have your ad technically visible on a screen; you need to know if people are actually paying attention. And yet, so many marketers are still clinging to viewability like it’s the holy grail. “The real question isn’t whether your ad was viewable,” Follett explains, “it’s whether it was seen—and more importantly, did anyone care?” For Follett, this is the crux of the matter. He’s spent years trying to get the industry to shift its focus away from vanity metrics and onto what really matters: whether anyone actually notices your ad.
One of Follett’s favorite targets for his scorn is social media advertising. And honestly, who can blame him? “Are you really telling me that ads buried between TikTok dance videos are getting the same level of attention as a high-quality spot on a premium news site?” he asks, incredulous. It’s a rhetorical question, of course, because the answer is obviously no. And yet, brands continue to pour money into social media campaigns without any real understanding of where their ads are landing. “Context matters,” Follett says, “and brands that ignore that are just burning money for clicks.” He’s got a point—there’s a world of difference between a well-placed ad on a site where people are actively engaged and an ad that pops up between cat memes and viral dance challenges. But try telling that to marketers who are chasing impressions like they’re going out of style.
And don’t even get him started on clutter. If there’s one thing that drives Follett up the wall, it’s the over-saturation of ads on websites that are so cluttered with flashing banners and autoplay videos that you can barely find the actual content. “Cluttered sites with six ads firing at once? That’s not how you get more attention—that’s how you make sure people are tuning out,” he says, with the weariness of someone who’s had this argument far too many times. According to Follett, fewer, better-placed ads would actually increase attention, and as a result, increase the impact of the brand. It’s almost as if Follett is trying to drag the ad industry, kicking and screaming, into a future where less is more. He’s the guy at the party telling everyone to chill out with the fireworks and just focus on creating something that’s worth looking at in the first place.
But Follett isn’t just here to complain—he’s got solutions, too. He’s not content to just point out the problems; he’s also laying the groundwork for how to fix them. According to Follett, attention data can save programmatic from itself. “Attention data can cut through all the noise. It’s a beacon, a signal that says, ‘Here’s the good stuff,’” he explains. In his vision, attention data will help marketers identify which sites are actually worth investing in—sites where people are paying attention, not just clicking for the sake of clicking. “Sites with fewer ads, cleaner layouts—that’s where attention flows naturally,” he says. And here’s the kicker: those sites are often high-quality news outlets, the kind of places where people actually engage with the content they’re consuming. “This is how we start to funnel money toward cleaner, more enjoyable sites,” Follett says, with the confidence of someone who’s already seen the future.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Follett’s not just some old-school ad guy screaming into the wind. He’s a man with a vision—a vision that says the future of advertising belongs to those who understand that attention is the most valuable currency of all. And if the rest of the industry doesn’t catch on soon, they’re going to find themselves left in the dust. In Follett’s world, attention is king, and everything else is just noise.
