The science behind out-of-home

Without the benefit of an editorial hook, out-of-home has always had to work harder to demonstrate that people actually look at the ads, writes Route’s James Whitmore – so can new technology help us address the problem?

Consider the youth club disco; the fine margin between ecstasy and trauma.

Let’s go back to George’s Hall of the early seventies in Exeter. If you asked Judy to dance and she said “yes”, you could look forward to a week staring misty-eyed through the classroom window, imagining untold pleasures the following Tuesday evening.

If on the other hand, not only Judy said “no” but also innumerable Kathys and Jackies as well as Ann, Anne, Eve and Alison did so too; then you might feel compelled to ask Stella. How must poor Stella feel to be the last to be considered? And how would you survive the break-time ignominy for the next week?

Perhaps your one dance would be an experience you might both repent at leisure. Of course Judy danced most often with Mick. And Stella, no shrinking violet, only had eyes for Kegsie. In real life – because none of the names have been changed – Judy and Mick ended up together and lived happily ever after. The fate of Stella is not recorded.

To understand media is to know about where people are, what they are looking at and how they respond. On the sofa, scrutinising a tablet or in a café reading a paper. What passes through the retina has the greatest chance of being retained. Location will have a great effect on how you react.

Because outdoor does not benefit from an editorial hook, it has always had to work harder to demonstrate that people actually look at the ads. Route’s visibility research is an integral part of its audience metrics.

An advertising impact is not “an opportunity to see” as in other media but the actual likelihood to do so – that is the probability that someone will have a visual fixation on the advertising message. The measure is not how many people pass a poster but how many people see a poster.

A number of attributes affect the likelihood that something will be seen. Quite obviously, the more central an object is to the line of sight, the better; also big beats small; illumination works at night and so on.

If something moves – say a digital screen – it is seen sooner and potentially for longer. Also important are speed, the mode of transport and the time interval during which there is a realistic opportunity to see the object in question. All these elements are constituents of an advertising impact in outdoor media.

What is really interesting is when eye recognition is taken further than the basic audience research and related to responses in the brain. If we can be confident that people are seeing the ads, then what messages are they taking from them?

Ocean Outdoor’s neuroscience project observes the relationship between what people see and how they encode the information. The research combines eye-tracking with brain mapping in an attempt to understand the emotional responses to outdoor advertising. An emotional response to what you see will drive memory encoding. This in turn correlates with subsequent purchase behaviour. The association between the posters viewed and the reaction of the brain is striking.

The Outdoor Media Centre has recently presented a further take on the relationship between the environment, what is seen and how the brain is working. Their research combines eye-tracking with measures of skin conductance. The level of perspiration on a finger gauges the activity of the nervous system.

Subjects wear eye-tracking glasses and fingertip pads. Throughout the day, at work, rest and play, the brain and nervous system demonstrate a wide range of responses. These are at their highest when out of the home, where people tend to be about one-third more alert than when indoors. The brain is working harder as it absorbs and processes more information and stimulus.

For an advertiser, this results in more being retained as implicit memory.

There is a pleasing consistency to these measures, all of which use eye-tracking at their core. They range from the immediate impact of an advertising site to the longer-term memory retention of messages.

In part it is a riposte to the short-termism of so many advertising conversations. “Return path metrics” have their place but only within the broader context of what abides.

If Stella is the only person I ask to dance, it means a great deal to both her and me. If I first I ask all the other girls before a final grudging move to her, it means something else entirely. On the surface, we get to dance either way. Only the former has the chance to result in luv 4eva.

But it could be even worse. Imagine the last dance. Judy is nowhere to be seen. You hook up with Stella, the music starts and Judy reappears from the loo, like an ad from below the fold. Who could possibly countenance such a thing?

James Whitmore is managing director of Route.

To get all the latest MediaTel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.