Cameras tracked subjects' eye movements

By Kathy Prentice

       Buying billboard space has largely been a seat-of-the-pants proposition. The outdoor industry has never been able to offer advertisers the sort of definitive data that have become standard for other media.
        Or so it was until this spring, when a group of 50 research subjects donned so-called ShopperVision glasses and set out to drive the highways of New Jersey. The glasses were equipped with mini-cameras to record what the test subjects focused on as they drove. The participants, men and women between 18 and 70, were not told what the test was about. Twenty-eight boards were posted along their route with messages covering a range of products and services, from Mercedes to ShopRite and the N.J. Opera to Molson Pure Canadian ale.
         The resulting report, "Outdoor's Power To Entice," provides specific details on what people noticewhen they look at outdoor signs and how it affects their product choices.
         "The attention given boards is much higher than recall would indicate," says Elliot Young, chairman of Perception Research Services, which conducted the study for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). "Also, when people notice a board they tend to take a second and even a third look at it. And at that point they're likely to read it."
          The study found that 74 percent of boards within a rider's field of vision are noted and that 48 percent are read. While more women than men notice outdoor ads, men are more likely to use ad information they learn from a billboard when shopping. People between 18 and 35 are more likely to notice an oudoor ad than people 35 to 49. Getting the most attention were ads with bright colors, notably yellow, boards that moved, and extensions. Bigger boards drew more notice than small displays.
       "If I were designing my ideal billboard, I'd make it simple," advises Young. "I can't control how fast people drive by, so simplicity is important. I'd have my corporate name prominently displayed so it would be seen very quickly. I'd use color. And I'd do something different, like use extenders as an attention getter."
     The road to the OOOA study has been a long one. For years outdoor buyers relied on audited traffic counts of cars, passengers and pedestrians that passed a location to estimate  a potential audience.
        Then in 1983 Perception Research conducted a study in which 200 licensed drivers watched a 27-minute movie of drives through Los Angeles, St. Louis and New York. Researchers tracked when people's eyes focused on a board and if they then read the copy. Variables like the board's size, the driver's speed and the use of extensions and color were studied. They found that boards that stood alone get more attention than those in clusters and that signs that were closest to the highway signs got the
most attention.
       The new study’s results are superior to the those of the 1983 study because they actually document eye movement and the attention a test subject gives to a particular sign. They also establish how the signs’ messages affect buying decisions.
         "This study provides tangible evidence of outdoor's stopping power," says Diane Cimine, vice president and chief marketing officer for the OAAA. Eye tracking provides data that radio, television and print can't, she says. "There's proof of the reaction to the ad. All other medium can only give the readership or audience."

-Kathy Prentice writes about outdoor advertising from Travers City, Michigan.