🚦 FACTS EVERY CXO NEEDS TO HEAR
1️⃣ Attention has a hard cost (even when the ad feels “free”).
2️⃣ The same second of attention can cost 45× more from one brand to the next.
3️⃣ Knowing your Cost‑per‑1K‑Seconds (CP1KS) lets you talk growth and efficiency in the same breath. Ready for the receipts?
AGENDA:
A: INTRO
B: CASES ANALYSED
C: THE ATTENTION-COST CALCULATOR
D: 3 TAKE‑AWAYS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
E: MY CONCLUSIONS
A: INTRO
Marketers love to brag about impressions, but impressions alone are the marketing equivalent of counting footsteps without asking where you’re going. Over the last two years, I’ve sat in launch meetings where teams celebrated eight‑digit reach while the finance desk winced at eight‑digit invoices. That tension pushed me to build a single, human metric that lets creatives and CFOs speak the same language: cost per 1 000 seconds of real attention (CP1KS). Think of it as media buying’s missing speedometer—because you can’t optimise what you don’t clock.
B: CASES ANALYSED
Airbnb — “Icons” launch
When CEO Brian Chesky unveiled Icons—overnight stays inside the Up house, a night at the Ferrari Museum, a jam session with Kevin Hart—traffic detonated. In the first 90 days the microsite logged 60 million unique visits and social chatter sailed past 1 billion impressions. Those outsized eyeballs expanded Airbnb’s brand perception from “place to sleep” to “access‑all‑areas culture pass,” setting the stage for new experience‑led revenue streams.
T‑Mobile ✕ Starlink — Super Bowl LIX “A New Era in Connectivity”
Buying 30 seconds in America’s biggest media moment is table stakes; multiplying its impact 12‑fold is not. According to EDO’s second‑by‑second engagement index, the sci‑fi‑tinged spot delivered 12.6× the online engagement of the average Super Bowl ad, vaulting it to No. 1 on Marketing Dive’s 2025 leaderboard. The kicker? Post‑game preorder traffic for T‑Mobile’s satellite‑powered handset bundle spiked 380 % week‑over‑week.
Kraft Heinz — “Ketchup Fraud” crusade
Heinz turned a consumer gripe—restaurants refilling iconic bottles with bargain ketchup—into a rallying cry. The omnichannel sting (DOOH, NY Times full‑page, snarky socials) harvested 438 million earned impressions, drove 92 % positive sentiment, and smashed Heinz’s social‑engagement benchmark by 128×. Within a month, 33 eateries switched back to the real thing, adding over US $250 k in incremental sales and nudging market share up 0.6 pts—all for a condiment everyone thought had peaked.
Monzo Bank — “Money Never Felt Like Monzo” revival
After five quiet years, the UK digital bank pulsed out a hot‑coral, 14‑channel blitz that swapped money dread for dopamine. Result: 250 000 new customers in the launch month—**66 %** above the prior month—and the first time brand awareness outpaced product chatter, according to Creative Review’s post‑mortem. The campaign also underpinned Monzo’s first annual pre‑tax profit (**£15.4 m**) and a £4 bn valuation round, proving ATL still moves needles in fintech.
Spotify — Wrapped 2024 (10‑year anniversary edition)
A decade in, Wrapped is still levelling‑up. The 2024 drop generated 1.5 billion social impressions, a 40 % lift in in‑app engagement during launch week, and a 10 % year‑over‑year engagement bump across 184 markets and 53 languages. By weaving creator call‑outs, hyper‑personalized slides, and a “daylist” teaser into the roll‑out, Spotify turned user FOMO into a flywheel that advertisers now pre‑book a year in advance.
Why these five stand out
· Hard metrics, not vanity. Each campaign ties creative flair to quantifiable lifts in traffic, engagement, or revenue.
· Storytelling > spend. From a ketchup sting operation to a cinematic Super Bowl spot, narrative hooks powered outsized returns.
· Cultural hijacking. They inserted the brand into moments people already cared about—pop‑culture icons, football Sunday, year‑end self‑reflection—then amplified with tech or community.
C: THE ATTENTION‑COST CALCULATOR
⏱️ Formula
Why it matters: CPM counts eyeballs; CP1KS counts time — the only asset that can’t be retargeted.
📊 Five blockbusters, one yard‑stick
*Spends are the most transparent public figures available; where the brand bundles multiple initiatives, conservative allocations were used and assumptions noted.
D: 3 TAKE‑AWAYS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Earned > Paid 💬
Heinz and Spotify both engineered share‑triggers (calling out “ketchup fraud” & personal listening stats). Every repost extends seconds of attention at zero incremental cost.
Big stages ≠ big waste 🏈
A Super Bowl buy looks extravagant, yet its CP1KS beats a year‑long experiential programme. The math: giant reach × fixed length dilutes the US $8 M sticker shock.
Brand building still needs a meter 🏗️
Monzo’s surge to profitability came with a sky‑high CP1KS. Worth it? Maybe—if lifetime value justifies paying $91 for every thousand seconds. Without the number, the debate is feelings vs. finance.
💡 What to do on your Monday stand‑up
· Measure dwell‑time, not just impressions.
· Divide spend by seconds. See if you’re closer to Spotify or Monzo.
· Optimise the multiplier. Can you spark shares, shorten formats, or syndicate at scale?
E: MY CONCLUSIONS
Every blockbuster here proves two truths: first, breakthrough storytelling still wins hearts; second, financial discipline turns those hearts into healthy balance sheets.
CP1KS doesn’t kill creativity—it unshackles it by giving marketers permission to bet big where the math works and cut ruthlessly where it doesn’t.
If attention is the new oil, then CP1KS is the refinery output: refined, measurable, and tradable across the org chart. Run the numbers on your next brief and watch how fast the brand team and finance become allies.
🧐 Your turn: Love or hate CP1KS, I want to hear your stance—does this metric matter? Let’s debate! 🔍⚖️
SOURCES
Heinz budget & results — WARC case study — https://www.warc.com/content/article/cannes/heinz-ketchup-fraud/en-gb/155704
Spotify impressions — Renascence CX journal — https://renascencecx.com/spotify-wrapped-2024-stats
Super Bowl viewership — Nielsen press release — https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/2025/super-bowl-lix-viewership
Super Bowl spot cost — The Sun ad‑rate report — https://www.the-sun.com/super-bowl-ad-cost-2025
Airbnb Icons metrics — PhocusWire recap — https://www.phocuswire.com/airbnb-icons-launch-metrics
Airbnb spend baseline — Marketing Week CFO interview — https://www.marketingweek.com/airbnb-cfo-brand-investment-2025
Monzo spend & customer growth — Marketing Week profit story — https://www.marketingweek.com/monzo-profit-turnaround-2025
Super Bowl engagement index — Marketing Dive EDO data — https://www.marketingdive.com/news/super-bowl-lix-engagement-edo/
Heinz impressions — AToMiC Awards case — https://atomicawards.ca/winners-2025-heinz-ketchup-fraud