Who won the Mail? #4

Have you ever wondered which ads placed in the national newspapers are the most effective at engaging readers? In a new weekly feature on Newsline, we’ve partnered with Lumen Research to find out.

Now you Fiat, now you don’t (groan) – or, in the case of this week’s Fiat advert in the Daily Mail, you do see it. In fact, 80% of readers paid attention to the ad, meaning that the Italian maker of tiny cars is this week’s winner.

With an average dwell-time of 2.3 seconds, a successful use of negative space meant that Fiat drew good levels of attention to all key elements, with gaze paths revealing how the lead visual tied up all other elements of the ad.

So how exactly can we tell which ads are most engaging? Every Friday, the Lumen team asks 100 people to read one of the national newspapers, this week investigating the Daily Mail, which reaches over 1.7 million readers every day in print.

The results are determined using eye-tracking technology that measures how long somebody looks at an ad, where the eyes go to first, and which parts are most popular – with bold colour, text and negative space being the key ingredients to Fiat’s success.