What Really Catches Your Eye?

Throughout the past two weeks we have been studying unobtrusive research, and the many categories of unobtrusive research there actually are. As you all know, I am very interested in entering the advertising field when I get older, so I decided to see what types of unobtrusive research most advertising researchers do to get viewers to remember their product.

            In an article that I found on Improving Brand Recognition in TV Ads, I found that researchers are using data to track the eye movements of almost 2000 participants over 31 commercials to see how various branding patterns of activity influence consumers ignoring the commercials. The person conducting the study found that eye tracking was as unobtrusive as sitting in front of a computer monitor. An optical sensor using an infrared light bouncing off of the cornea captures the eye movements.

            The researchers also found many other things out from this study, they saw that the eye sensor measures an attention span, and due to its scarcity, is something very important to understand. They found it to be troubling, because now a days more and more people seem to ignore ads, but it seems that more and more companies are paying millions of dollars to get their ads on television.

            As the researcher neared the end of his study he found that brand presence alone would automatically increase commercial avoidance; but if you were to change the brand exposure, you can lower the rates that viewers will ignore it. He also found that while using eye tracking you could see when the viewer’s attention begins to drift. This will allow you to figure out what will keep or lose a viewers attention on any type of ad.

            This study was a great example of seeing what types of ads keep people interested, or what makes them lose their attention. I feel that this is a great tool for any advertising agency or company to use if they want to sell more of, or to just get people aware of their product. It basically says what will work, and what won’t while you’re trying to get your brand recognized.

However, there have been many ethical issues with unobtrusive research, but this I feel is a very noninvasive way to get the data you need. If you have no idea someone is watching to see when your attention drifts, then it shouldn’t really be a bother to you. I mean if this helps you to want to watch more commercials, why complain?