‍Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, May 12, 2026 - Amplified’s Founder and CEO, Dr Karen Nelson-Field, has today released the Australian edition of her landmark research, The Eye-Watering Cost of Dull Media Down Under, revealing that up to $6 billion in advertising spend is being lost annually due to ads that are served but not seen.

In partnership with Omnicom Media, this report builds on the globally recognised Cost of Dull Media study from 2025, applying the same proven framework to the Australian market, incorporating local media investment, CPMs and attention behaviours. The findings confirm a consistent and troubling industry pattern: media is being bought and paid for, but not delivering real human impact.

The Core Problem: Served doesn't equal Seen

At the heart of the study is a simple but critical issue - the industry continues to rely on proxy metrics such as impressions, viewability, and watch time as indicators of effectiveness. However, these metrics fail to confirm whether an ad was actually seen by a human.

Amplified’s research shows that a significant proportion of media spend delivers little to no attention, meaning ads fail to be processed, remembered, or linked to brand outcomes.

A Systemic Efficiency Gap

The study explores “Attention Volume” as a core metric, capturing both attentive reach and time, how much of an ad is genuinely viewed over time. Using this lens, media formats were classified into three categories - Non-Dull, Moderately Dull, and Very Dull - based on their ability to hold attention.

The results are stark:

  • Very dull media delivers up to 10x lower attention than high-attention environments
  • Audience drop-off within the first three seconds can reach 50% in low-attention formats
  • Only 38% of impressions reach the minimum memory threshold in these environments

As attention declines, so too does performance, with both short-term (STAS) and long-term (mental availability) outcomes collapsing across lower-attention formats.

The Financial Cost of Dull Media

By modelling real-world media spend against attention-driven outcomes, Amplified quantified the financial impact of inefficient media investment.

The findings show:

  • 86% of Australian video and cinema spend is allocated to dull formats
  • Established brands lose approximately 59 cents per dollar spent in dull media
  • Challenger brands lose up to 90 cents per dollar, with a penalty up to 6x greater than larger competitors - a number consistent with the original Cost of Dull Media Cannes 2025 report

In total, the study estimates that Australian advertisers would need to spend an additional $6 billion annually to recover the outcomes lost through dull media investment.

Attention as an Under Utilised Metric

The report reinforces a fundamental shift for the industry: attention is not a secondary metric - it is the foundation of effectiveness.

“Human time is the only currency that matters in advertising,” said Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Founder of Amplified. “When ads don’t earn attention, the system breaks. Creative can’t work, memory doesn’t form, and outcomes don’t materialise.”

A Clear Path Forward

Despite the scale of the issue, the report outlines a clear and actionable path for marketers:

  • Shift from proxy metrics to human-verified attention data
  • Rebalance media investment toward high-attention environments
  • Ensure branding is encoded early within the attention window
  • Use attention as a unifying framework across media, creative, and strategy

Importantly, the solution is not increased spend, but smarter allocation - prioritising environments and formats that hold attention and drive outcomes.

A Global Pattern, A Local Reality

While this edition focuses on Australia, Amplified emphasises that the “Cost of Dull” is not market-specific. It is a systemic issue present wherever attention is undervalued in favour of delivery metrics.

As the industry continues to evolve toward AI-driven planning and optimisation, the report highlights the need for accurate, scalable attention data to underpin future decision-making.

Download the Report

The Eye-Watering Cost of Dull Media: Down Under Edition is available now. Download the full report to understand the true cost of unseen media and how to fix it.

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