Competing for your Attention: Negative Externalities in Digital Signage Advertising

In this paper, we propose to model attention consumption of advertisements as a negative externality. We examine the methods of maximum permissible values, fees, and tradable certificates to cope with the negative effects. We propose to integrate auctions for tradable attention certificates with auctions for advertising slots on digital signage. This method allows us to implement tradable certificates with relatively low transaction costs. It enables us to define a maximum amount of attention that is consumed at a certain location at a certain time. It is guaranteed to stay within these limits while causing only minimum costs for advertisers.