People 33% more alert out of home

People out of home have a 33% heightened alertness compared with people in home, new research from the Outdoor Media Centre (OMC) has revealed.

Conducted by COG Research and Dr Amanda Ellison, doctor of psychology at Durham University, the study analysed 140 continuous hours of monitored skin conductance readings by 20 subjects who also wore eye tracking glasses throughout their day.

Matching the skin conductance highs and lows to actions and places in their daily lives, the research determined that people are significantly more alert outside of the home than in.

“This ground breaking research puts numbers to what we all sense, namely that we move around out of home in a sharper and more focused frame of mind,” said Mike Baker, CEO of the OMC.

“That has a real benefit to advertisers, who can use [the research] to target consumers at different points in their day. Contextual planning is a real benefit of the outdoor medium, and now we know that our audience is one third more attentive.”

COG Research also teamed up with OnDevice Research for another study to measure people’s mood, analysing 3,563 individuals via their mobiles at different times of day and in different places.

The results found that a consistently higher percentage of those out of home claimed to be feeling “energetic and active”, and took action at a higher rate for outdoor ads compared to other media. 23% searched for more information on a mobile device after seeing a recent outdoor ad, compared to 16% for other media.