An Analysis of Advertisement Perception through Eye Tracking

William A. Hill Physics Youngstown State University wahill@student.ysu.edu

Zach C. Joyce Computer Science Xavier University joycez@xavier.edu

Andrew T. Duchowski Computer Science Clemson University andrewd@clemson.edu

Patricia Knowles Marketing Clemson University kpatric@clemson.edu

Roger Gomes Marketing Clemson University rgomes@clemson.edu

Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine whether a typical consumer's eye movements vary in relation to changing advertising stimuli. We aim to determine and compare points of interest within these images. Likewise, we aim to determine whether certain advertising characteristics lead to a longer mean gaze time. Our results have determined that the absence of a human figure within advertisements typically does not warrant a longer gaze-time than those with a single person or with multiple people. We also find that individuals tend to fixate primarily on the product, ad copy and people within an advertisement.

Introduction & Background The integration of eye tracking technologies within advertising is fundamental to the study and analysis of consumer visual behavior. This study aims to analyze the visual behavior of female consumers when presented with a selection of common magazine advertisements. Stemming from the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, research conducted by Petty et al. [1986] within advertising dictates that an individual who is involved with a specific product or category of products is much more likely to fixate on the advertisement copy and search for more information on the product within the advertisement. Through this study, we present a selection of female consumers with advertisements traditionally directed at their demographic. By measuring their involvement in the products and their visual behavior, we may validate Petty's hypothesis and explore the role of visuals within advertisements.

MethodologyFifteen female participants were presented with fourteen image advertisements in a random order. Participants were instructed to observe the image advertisements as they would in a traditional fashion magazine. As such, participants were given as much time as they needed to view each advertisement.

Each image advertisement was categorized by one of seven labels based on subject content. These seven categories were respectively labeled Auto, Makeup, Perfume, Mascara, Lip, Hair, and Skin. For each category, we expressed two images with the defining characteristic separating the two advertisements originating from the number of people represented within the ad. For each subject specified, we maintained an image containing no human presence and another in which one person or multiple people were representing the product. (See Fig.1)

For all images, we label specific areas of interest as being one of the following ten types: Ad Copy, Headline, Legal, Logo, New Media, Person, Product, Slogan, Sub-Headline, and Visual.

Once an individual finished observing all of the advertisements, they were immediately asked to complete an online survey. This survey was designed with questions to evaluate each participant's recollection of the advertisements as well as their familiarity and attitude toward the specific products.

Figure 1: “Skin” Advertising Stimulus separated by “Zero People” (A) with its heat map (B) and “Multiple People” (C) with its heat map (D).

Results

A) B) C)

D) E) F)

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Figure 3: A comparison of mean gaze time withiin categories Auto (A), Makeup (B), Perfume (C), Mascara (D), Lip (E), Hair (F), and Skin (G).

Results were recorded between subjects with six separate recorded metrics. These metrics included the mean gaze time and fixation count between images, between areas of interest, as well as between the areas of interest between images within a category.

A between-subjects ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test between categorized images expressed no significant difference (p>0.10) in mean gaze time between advertisements with no people and those with people for most image categories (See Fig 2, Fig 4). For hair, however, we noticed a significant (p<0.01)

A pairwise t-test taken between areas of interest shared between all images reveals the mean gaze time for the ad copy of an advertisement to be significantly (p<<0.01) greater than all other areas of interest. It likewise showed virtually no significant (p=1.000) difference between the mean gaze time of the product and of the person within images.(See Fig.4)

Auto Makeup Perfume Mascara Lip Hair Skin

P-Value: 0.1876 0.2951 0.128 0.1264 0.4305 0.008759 0.03072

Figure 2: ANOVA results for mean gaze time comparison between categories

Discussion Presented with a selection of typical magazine advertisements, one finds that the average consumer fixates primarily on the advertisement's ad copy. We likewise found no significant difference between the mean gaze time spent on a person to that of the product. Understanding that exactly half of the images contained no people, this implies that when presented with an image containing a person, the typical consumer spends more time fixating on the person than on the product (See Fig.4).

Figure 4: (Left) Total Mean Gaze Time for all areas of interest. (Right) Analysis of Total Mean Gaze Time for all areas of interest between all images within the group 'Lip'.

Comparing the mean gaze time for all images within our dedicated categories, we fail to find any significant difference between images with people and images without. Despite this, we may call attention to the fact that, for all categories, the estimated mean gaze time for images without a person was greater than the images with a single person. Also, images with multiple people had a longer gaze time than images without people. (See Fig.3) The difference in the means varies by fractions of a second, and may be further validated by a larger number of participants.

Conclusion

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Our study showed that the presence of a human figure within an advertisement has little significance in the mean gaze time of a typical female consumer. We were likewise able to show that a typical female consumer fixates primarily on the person within an advertisement rather than the product. Similarly, the ad copy of an advertisement expressed a significant gaze time in the presence of other points of interest. Through expressing the behavioral characteristics of a typical consumer observing an advertisement under changing stimuli, this research would be of interest to the future of advertising research. Replicating this study with more participants may validate existing trends and express greater significance with decreased variance.

ReferencesPetty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. New York: Academic Press.

*This research was supported, in part, by NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site Grant CNS-0850695.

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