Tobii Customer Case Ravensbourg 131109 Useng

EYE TRACKING RESEARCH Media research

“Eye tracking helps optimize ad design and increase the efficiency of advertising. In advertisement impact research, it’s a mix of interviewing and technical processing that yields the most valuable insight. In this respect, eye tracking has become an indispensable tool.” Dr. Simon Ottler, Professor of Communications Management at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Ravensburg and Director of the Steinbeis Research Center “Advertising and Communications”

Attention and recollection are essential indicators of advertisement impact. In order to gain insight into the link between ad design, eye movement during ad perception and recollection of the brand name of advertised products, the Baden Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University carried out a series of advertisement design tests. The study, which used a Tobii T60 Eye Tracker, showed a high correlation between time to first fixation on the brand name and recall. Well designed ads, in which the brand name was strategically placed , performed up to 100 percent better.

Key questions asked

Using the Tobii T60 Eye Tracker, each person was exposed to each of the 20 ad designs for 5 seconds. In all, the eye tracking session lasted about two minutes for each person.

The objective of the study was to identify perceptive behavior towards different ad designs and their impact on recollection, especially: • Which specific elements of the ad captured the most attention? • How long did it take to spot the brand name the first time? • How does the “time to first fixation” relate to the recollection? • Is there any difference in recollection between ad designs where the brand name was recognized immediately and those where the brand name was recognized eventually? • Is there any difference between unaided and aided recollection?

The test subjects were shown the ads randomly, either at the beginning, the middle or the end of the presentation, in order to prevent any serial effects that might influence the results.

The study Research was carried out in the ad lab at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Ravensburg in 2009.

The eye tracking test was combined with a subsequent interview that among other elements included an unaided and an aided recall test. In the unaided recall test, subjects were asked which of the brands advertised in the ads they could recall spontaneously. In the aided recall test the test subjects were given a list of the advertised products and were asked to indicate the brand names they recalled.

20 different ads of brands that varied little in their brand awareness, and all of which were published in the same period of time in popular magazines, were chosen as study objects. The ads were shown to 24 test subjects belonging to the target group of the magazines.

To determine the test subjects’ attention foci when looking at the ad designs, the Tobii Studio software was used to automatically generate heatmaps. The heatmap builds on aggregated eye tracking data from several test subjects and is a powerful tool to visualize perceptive behavior. The following example is a heatmap generated on an ad for a brand of yoghurt:

A test subject in front of the Tobii T60 Eye Tracker.

Example of a heatmap: The red areas show particularly high focus of attention.

W Leading Eye Tracking technology

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Media research

Tobii Studio’s area of interest (AOI) tool was used to quantify perception data on a higher level. Areas in ads that displayed the brand name were defined as “areas of interest” in order to determine the extent of brand name perception in every ad design.

ads is just under 60 percent – and is, as expected, above the average for unaided recollection. Ads in which the brand name was fixated for the first time within the first two seconds show a considerably higher performance rate in terms of recollection. The correlation between the “time to first fixation” and “recall” is highly significant (Pearson’s R = -0.70 for the unaided as well as for the aided recall). The relationship between eye movements and the impact on recollection is illustrated by the following graph. It shows that the effectiveness of advertising can be significantly increased if the ad is designed properly and the brand strategically placed. Time to first fixation (Light blue = Unaided; Dark blue = Aided) 100.0

88.2

The perception process is particularly well illustrated in the reversed heatmap of a rather poorly recollected ad (design 1 = yoghurt brand) on the one hand, and a well recollected brand (design 2 = beer brand) on the other hand. The darkened areas are those which were poorly perceived and not perceived at all, respectively. The heatmaps were created at different intervals to demonstrate the differences in the perception process. In design 1, the brand name is first perceived after two seconds, whereas in design 2 the product name is fixated within the first half second. Though the test subjects can recall the woman (mainly the face) and the headline in the first ad, very few are able to match the correct brand name to the ad design during subsequent questioning. In design 2, the brand name is placed in such a way that it is perceived very quickly and also recalled very well.

Tobii_CustomerCase_Ravensbourg_131109_USENG

In the case of this particular ad design, the focus of attention is on the woman’s face and the headline. Areas in the ad, which are fixated on longer are colored more intensively.

Example of an AOI: The area of interest was determined using the AOI tool and marked with a red square.

Recall

80.0

40.0

50.9

24.5

20.0 0.0

There are different indicators of attention for AOIs, one of which is the “time to first fixation”. This indicator is defined as the time in seconds from the moment the stimulus was first shown until the start of the first fixation within an AOI.

59.3

60.0

0-5 sec (all designs n=20)

<2 sec (n=5)

Design 1.

Individual data regarding the attention of each test subject per ad can be determined and compared with the individual recollection.

The results The results show that it takes an average of 2.5 seconds for a test subject to perceive the brand name for the first time.

Design 2.

Approximately one-quarter of all test subjects can recall the advertised products unaided. The average performance of aided recollection for all test subjects and for all

“Flash phase” (<0.5 Sec.)

“Flash phase” Leading Eye Tracking technology

Phase from 0.5-2 Seconds.

Phase from 2-5 Seconds.

Phase from

Phase from 2-5

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Media research

About the researchers

The design of an ad determines how it is perceived and therefore influences recollection of the ad content. A cleverly designed ad can enhance recollection considerably. Investments in advertising pretests really pay off, especially when compared with the costs of ad placement. Although the “golden rules” for eye-marketing and ad design already exist, ads should be submitted for pretests before launching a broad advertisement campaign – particularly when a client needs to choose between several ad designs and cannot make up his mind. Eye tracking can contribute considerably to optimizing the ad’s impact.

In cooperation with well-known companies, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University trains future specialists and executives. The university is the first of its kind in Germany and is also academically fully approved and accredited. The course “Media and Communications Management” trains marketing and communications professionals. Advertisement impact research plays an integral part in the course curriculum. In particular, application-oriented research questions, which are of fundamental interest to the advertising industry, are explored. The Steinbeis Research Center for “Advertising and Communications” is also resident at the university and conducts individual ad impact and usability studies commissioned by clients.

Why Tobii? Tobii offers advanced hardware and software solutions as well as excellent service. The Tobii Studio software collects eye movement data in real-time and provides comprehensive analysis tools. The devices are applicable both for the academic and the commercial realm.

www.werbungundkommunikation.de (Means “advertising and communications”.)

“It was important for us to have a natural test setting where the test subjects aren’t distracted by any visible technical components. We chose the Tobii Eye Tracker, which has a camera built into the TFT screen and therefore doesn’t distract the user from the stimuli. The devices are also easily set up and mobile so that the test can be carried out without great effort at the client’s premises”, says Professor Ottler.

To find out how Eye Tracking can improve your research, please visit www.tobii.com or contact one of our offices.

EMEA Tobii Technology AB Karlsrovägen 2D S-182 53 Danderyd Sweden +46 8 663 69 90 Phone +46 8 30 14 00 Fax [email protected]

North America Tobii Technology, Inc. 510 N. Washington Street Suite 200 - Falls Church, VA 22046 - USA +1-703-738-1300 Phone +1-888-898-6244 Phone +1-703-738-1313 Fax [email protected]

ASIA Tobii Technology, Ltd. 3-4-13 Takanawa, Minato-ku Tokyo 108-0074 Japan +81-3-5793-3316 Phone +81-3-5793-3317 Fax [email protected]

central Europe Tobii Technology GmbH Niedenau 45 D-60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany +49 69 24 75 03 40 Phone +49 69 24 75 03 429 Fax [email protected]

www.tobii.com

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Why eye tracking?