Measuring Emotions and Online Advertising Effectiveness

Recently the Online Publishers Association (OPA) partnered with Innerscope Research, Inc., the leader in using biometrics to deliver emotion-based consumer insights, to study the impact and advertising effectiveness of the OPA Ad Units. Since traditional research methods are limited in their ability to measure how the end user emotionally engages with advertising, Innerscope’s technology allowed the OPA to better understand the impact of the OPA Ad Units. OPA Ad Units, which include[1] the Pushdown, the Fixed Panel and the XXL Box, were introduced in July of 2009 and are designed to provide a platform for marketers to deliver their brand experiences as opposed to direct marketing which is designed for encouraging consumers to click.

“A key question for advertiser  is whether consumers notice their brand ads online and if they are engaging  with them beyond the click; Through Innerscope’s biometric technology we found that OPA Ad Units are having significant impact in driving emotional engagement,” said Pam Horan, President of the OPA. “We can actually see a participants’ eye tracking activity as they view the ad, read the content, and then return to the ad. The findings show that OPA Ad Units are generating significant interest from the consumer and therefore can be a very effective and unique platform for brand marketers to deliver messages.”

Results from the “Biometric Evaluation: Assessing the Effectiveness of the OPA Ad Unit” include:

• 90 percent of participants notice OPA Ad Units in the first 10 seconds of being on a webpage and users who fixated[2]on the OPA Ad Units during the same timeframe were as emotionally engaged with the advertising as with the rest of the webpage content
•  67 percent of users returned to look at the OPA Ad Units after spending time elsewhere on the webpage
  • 96 percent of participants pay attention to OPA Ad Units while naturally surfing
  • 73 percent of users who fixated on units in the first 10 seconds displayed a stronger emotional response to the advertising than to the rest of the webpage
  • On average, participants fixate (or focus) over 15 times on OPA Ad Units
  • 40 percent of these fixations occur after the first 10 seconds of being on a webpage

Study participants were directed to the homepages of three OPA member sites — CNN.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com — and given the option to select from a specific group of top stories that featured evergreen content. These homepages and particular article pages were recreated for the purposes of this study so that an OPA Ad Unit could be randomly presented on the targeted article pages. Nine brand advertisers were involved in the study, including Cleveland Clinic, Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft Bing, Unilever and Westin Hotels. Once a participant surfed away from a target article by clicking a link to another article, they could freely browse the rest of the news websites, creating a natural reading experience.

“We have been employing OPA Ad Units for a number of Razorfish clients since the OPA members launched them last year and have found them to be great for creating and reinforcing brand engagement,” said Julie Weitzner, VP Media, Razorfish. “The units provide us with a strong platform to deliver great creative and have proven to be powerful tools to engage website visitors.”

To see the full report go to www.online-publishers.org