• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 2, 2010

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) Tuesday plans to release a study, "Biometric Evaluation: Assessing the Effectiveness of the OPA Ad Unit," to determine if the units released last year generate an emotional response.

The study found that during the first 10 seconds, searchers experience the same emotional response with the OPA ad units as they do with other elements on the Web page. Seventy-three percent of study participants looking at the OPA ad units after the first 10 seconds generate a stronger emotional response to the ads compared with the rest of the content on the page. On average, the response proved favorable. Those participating rated an average likeability rating of 6.3 out of 9.

Since using a click would not provide an accurate metric, OPA partnered with Innerscope Research to deploy biometric monitoring and eye tracking to study the impact of the ads. Since traditional research methods are limited in their ability to measure how the end user specifically engages with advertising, Innerscope's biometric technology allowed the OPA to gain a better understanding. The ads studied, including the Pushdown, the Fixed Panel and the XXL Box, were introduced in July of 2009.

Study participants wore an Innerscope Biometric Monitoring System equipped with advanced sensors that measure moment-to-moment changes in biologic indicators of emotion including skin sweat, heart rate, breathing and motion. The biometric signals were integrated with data from the eye tracker technology measuring visual attention to screen and visual attention to brand and text. Visual fixation is a pause in eye movement long enough for a human to process a piece of information and decide where to look next.

"There's the age-old question -- does online advertising work?" says said Pam Horan, OPA president -- who believes, like most marketers, that it's important to create an emotional connection between the brand and the consumer.

The study set out to determine if searchers looked at the ad, fixated on the ad, and had an emotional impact. The findings reveal that 96% of participants pay attention to OPA ad units while searching for content on the Web, 73% who fixated on units after the initial period displayed stronger emotional response to the advertising than to the rest of the Web page, and it takes 0.6 seconds to fixate on an ad unit. On average, survey participants fixate more than 15 times on an ad unit, and 40% of these fixations occur after the first 10 seconds of being on a Web page.

Conducting the study, participants were asked to view ads on the home pages of CNN.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com and view a group of articles featuring evergreen content. Cleveland Clinic, Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft Bing, Unilever and Westin Hotels took part in the study. 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 Web sites, creating a natural reading experience.