Palcu Johanna, Sudkamp Jennifer, Florack Arnd
Department of Psychology, University of ViennaVienna, Austria.
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyTrondheim, Norway.
Front Psychol. 2017 Jun 2;8:881. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00881. eCollection 2017.
Banner advertising is a popular means of promoting products and brands online. Although banner advertisements are often designed to be particularly attention grabbing, they frequently go unnoticed. Applying an eye-tracking procedure, the present research aimed to (a) determine whether presenting human faces (static or animated) in banner advertisements is an adequate tool for capturing consumers' attention and thus overcoming the frequently observed phenomenon of banner blindness, (b) to examine whether the gaze of a featured face possesses the ability to direct consumers' attention toward specific elements (i.e., the product) in an advertisement, and (c) to establish whether the gaze direction of an advertised face influences consumers subsequent evaluation of the advertised product. We recorded participants' eye gaze while they viewed a fictional online shopping page displaying banner advertisements that featured either no human face or a human face that was either static or animated and involved different gaze directions (toward or away from the advertised product). Moreover, we asked participants to subsequently evaluate a set of products, one of which was the product previously featured in the banner advertisement. Results showed that, when advertisements included a human face, participants' attention was more attracted by and they looked longer at animated compared with static banner advertisements. Moreover, when a face gazed toward the product region, participants' likelihood of looking at the advertised product increased regardless of whether the face was animated or not. Most important, gaze direction influenced subsequent product evaluations; that is, consumers indicated a higher intention to buy a product when it was previously presented in a banner advertisement that featured a face that gazed toward the product. The results suggest that while animation in banner advertising constitutes a salient feature that captures consumers' visual attention, gaze cuing can be an effective tool for driving viewers' attention toward specific elements in the advertisement and even shaping consumers' intentions to purchase the advertised product.
横幅广告是一种在网上推广产品和品牌的流行方式。尽管横幅广告通常设计得特别引人注目，但它们常常被忽视。本研究采用眼动追踪程序，旨在：(a) 确定在横幅广告中展示人脸（静态或动态）是否是吸引消费者注意力并因此克服常见的横幅广告盲视现象的适当工具；(b) 研究特色人脸的注视是否有能力将消费者的注意力引向广告中的特定元素（即产品）；(c) 确定广告人脸的注视方向是否会影响消费者对广告产品的后续评价。我们记录了参与者观看一个虚构的在线购物页面时的眼动情况，该页面展示了横幅广告，这些广告要么没有人脸，要么有人脸，人脸要么是静态的，要么是动态的，且涉及不同的注视方向（朝向或远离广告产品）。此外，我们要求参与者随后对一组产品进行评价，其中一个产品是之前横幅广告中展示过的产品。结果表明，当广告包含人脸时，与静态横幅广告相比，参与者的注意力更被动态广告吸引，且注视时间更长。此外，当一张脸注视产品区域时，无论这张脸是否是动态的，参与者看向广告产品的可能性都会增加。最重要的是，注视方向影响了随后的产品评价；也就是说，当产品之前出现在一个展示了注视产品的人脸的横幅广告中时，消费者表示购买该产品的意愿更高。结果表明，虽然横幅广告中的动画是吸引消费者视觉注意力的一个显著特征，但注视提示可以成为一种有效的工具，将观众的注意力引向广告中的特定元素，甚至塑造消费者购买广告产品的意愿。
