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Ad Gist: Ad Communication in a Single Eye Fixation

Author

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  • Rik Pieters

    (Marketing Department, Tilburg University, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Michel Wedel

    (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742)

Abstract

Most ads in practice receive no more than a single eye fixation. This study investigates the limits of what ads can communicate under such adverse exposure conditions. We find that consumers already know at maximum levels of accuracy and with high degree of certainty whether something is an ad or is editorial material after an exposure of less than 100 milliseconds and--if the ad is typical--which product is being advertised. Even after an extremely coarse visual presentation of 100 milliseconds, the product and brand in typical ads are identified well above chance levels, with atypical ads doing slightly better at the brand level. We propose a new metric that quantifies how effectively individual ads communicate their gist in adverse exposure conditions and that predicts the immediate interest that ads draw. Bayesian mediation analyses show that because of their better gist performance, typical ads rather than atypical ones raise immediate interest after very brief exposures. These findings challenge some of the received knowledge in advertising theory and practice, and they reveal the immediate communication benefits of typical ads.

Suggested Citation

  • Rik Pieters & Michel Wedel, 2012. "Ad Gist: Ad Communication in a Single Eye Fixation," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 59-73, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:31:y:2012:i:1:p:59-73
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1110.0673
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kanuri, Vamsi K. & Hughes, Christian & Hodges, Brady T., 2024. "Standing out from the crowd: When and why color complexity in social media images increases user engagement," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 174-193.
    2. Florack, Arnd & Egger, Martin & Hübner, Ronald, 2020. "When products compete for consumers attention: How selective attention affects preferences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 117-127.
    3. Michel Wedel & Rik Pieters & Ralf Lans, 2023. "Modeling Eye Movements During Decision Making: A Review," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 697-729, June.
    4. Bitty Balducci & Detelina Marinova, 2018. "Unstructured data in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 557-590, July.
    5. Christina Uhl & Nadia Abou Nabout & Klaus Miller, 2020. "How Much Ad Viewability is Enough? The Effect of Display Ad Viewability on Advertising Effectiveness," Papers 2008.12132, arXiv.org.
    6. Xin (Shane) Wang & Neil Bendle & Yinjie Pan, 2024. "Beyond text: Marketing strategy in a world turned upside down," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 939-954, July.
    7. Michel Wedel & Rik Pieters, 2015. "The Buffer Effect: The Role of Color When Advertising Exposures Are Brief and Blurred," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 134-143, January.
    8. Thales Teixeira & Rosalind Picard & Rana el Kaliouby, 2014. "Why, When, and How Much to Entertain Consumers in Advertisements? A Web-Based Facial Tracking Field Study," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(6), pages 809-827, November.

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