• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 18, 2011

urns out that while consumers find lots of advertising annoying, they actually like posters displayed in malls--especially if it is a photo that includes a human face. A new study from EYE, a mall media specialist, found that even the second time a shopper passed a display, 47.8% took a second look.

"It takes approximately10 seconds for people to move past a given ad as they are walking around," Michelle Schiano, VP/marketing for EYE, tells Marketing Daily, "and they spend two seconds looking at it. That means advertisers really only get two seconds of exposure, so you want to make sure your brand is well positioned."

Both men and women were more likely to focus on ads with people in them, and both genders stared longest at ads containing women--a result that was consistent in all markets, she says. "We think we're just hardwired to do this," she says, "it seems instinctive. And people's gaze tends to go to the eyes first."