Given that half the brain is devoted to processing visuals, you wouldn't think companies would settle for using that mental real estate foolishly, and yet it happens all the time. In advertising
layout after layout, the consumers' eyes don't fixate on anything much (thereby sacrificing consideration) or at a minimum don't ever focus on the brand (thereby depriving the company of
recognition and sales).
The problem is perhaps most astonishing in billboards, typically a model of simplicity. I'll never forget a General Mills billboard we tested where the Cheerios were
shown against a tawny background, fading into visual oblivion. It's hard for the product to be the hero when it's invisible, after all!
To avoid that or other disasters and to use
your money wisely, here are some suggestions drawn from a half-decade of experience using eye-tracking machines to learn what will best capture people's attention:
- Avoid the
corner of death. That's what I have dubbed the lower right-hand corner of any layout, whether it be a TV screen, a web site page, a print ad, direct mail piece, or billboard. From my company's
database of projects, we estimate that fully 42% of the advertising we've tested over the years places either the primary logo/brand identity there or else it's the only place where the
logo/brand identity appears.
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What's so bad with that, you ask? Well, if we take print ads as an example, you've got 1.7 seconds of average viewing time,
per reader. And the lower right-hand corner is typically the second to last place people look on a page. (What's even worse in terms of timing, along the upper right edge, i.e., the alley of
death.) What you don't see, you don't get.
The ideal solution is to place the logo/brand identity in the lower middle part of a given page or layout, after the eye's scan has
hopefully led to emotional engagement, making your logo/brand identity meaningful in association with solving a problem or realizing consumers' wants.
- Go down
the center. The reality is that people process visual information far better when it is in the middle of their field of vision rather than on the periphery. Something that's located in the center
gets looked at by both eyes, each covering for the other's blind spot.
- Leverage faces. Not only are four of our five senses located there, we also use faces as a proxy
for determining physical attractiveness, health and "character." Are the faces of the rich and famous an advantage? Well, research indicates that the usual famous face will actually generate
less emotional response than the face of an emotionally expressive person, but that when it comes to recall, a famous face enjoys a small, but decided, edge.
- Show movement.
What involves movement equals change, and people pay attention to changes in the status quo because from an evolutionary point of view, survival is at stake. Movement can present an opportunity (the
rabbit you catch for dinner) or a threat (the lion that would like to have you for dinner).
- Have a dominant visual. When we say tomorrow is a big day, we mean it's an
important day. The mind's eye wants to experience a hierarchy, so it knows what's most important and worthy of a short attention-span. Or to put it in Walt Disney's terms, what's the
"weenie"? At Disneyland, it's Cinderella's Castle -- the point of focus.
- Establish meaning. The image or detail that provides the essence of the story
will attract the eye, making sure the heart will follow. In a great, award-winning billboard for Pepsi, a Coke distributor is shown pouring his preferred drink (a Pepsi) into his Coke can as he looks
away, as if too ashamed of what he's doing (or else afraid that somebody from Coke will see him wearing his Coke uniform and yet preferring the rival product). Where did people's eyes go?
Right to the story of pleasure and shame, the switch of colas.
Timely subject, Dan. One other thing to consider: white space is your friend. Your eye craves the visual relief provided by clean, unencumbered negative space.
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