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What is eye-tracking?
Eye-tracking is a technique used by researchers that monitors both the conscious and subconscious movements of the eye. It tells us where someone is looking and what it is specifically that has caught their attention. There are many different applications for eye-tracking from product design, particularly in the automotive industry, through to website design and retail store layout, and of course advertising layouts. With eye-tracking you can build up a detailed understanding not just of what someone is looking at but also the order in which they look at different things and how much they dwell on each of these things.
What are the benefits to marketers?
Eye-tracking studies help marketers to develop a better understanding of consumers’ cognitive behaviour so they can make more accurate judgements about how consumers are likely to respond to certain product designs or advertising messages, or even a particular shopping environment. It’s for this reason that findings from an eye-tracking study can actually be more informative and useful for marketers than traditional focus group sessions or customer questionnaires.
How is it done?
There are broadly two types of technology used in eye-tracking. One involves the consumer wearing a pair of field of vision glasses. These enable the researcher to monitor the area being looked by the consumer and what the eyeball itself is fixated on. The second technology is a screen-based system that captures how the eye moves around an image on a computer or TV screen. Instead of using glasses, there’s a small camera below the screen that tracks where the eye is looking in direct relation to what’s presented on the screen.
How much does it cost?
It’s important to bear in mind that eye-tracking can tell you what consumers look at but it can't tell you why. So it really pays to include some consumer interviews on the back of any eye-tracking study. This will help you to find out the reasons why consumers dwelled on certain things and ignored others so you don’t have to make assumptions. A large scale project involving the use of both glasses and screen-based systems could cost in excess of ₤30,000. A more specific requirement would probably involve a small study using a screen-based system costing upwards from a few thousand pounds. Royal Mail can provide best practice tips on eye-tracking free of charge for direct mail, catalogue and magazine designs. We normally build this in to workshops or consulting projects for our larger advertising clients.
What are these techniques and how do they work?
So let’s have a look at some eye-tracking tips based on the results of a study by Professor Vogele of the Direct Marketing Institute in Munich. On a single page we know the eye tracks from the top left to the bottom right. On a double page the eye tracks top right to the bottom right across the centre of the left. This creates two hotspots, one on the top and one on the bottom, both on the right hand side, but there will be a cold spot in the centre. So put in an attention grabber on the far centre left. This drags the eye over more of your pages. If you don’t drag the eye across with an attention grabber, you risk wasting some space.
Circles are better than squares, upright shapes beat horizontal, a group beats an individual, colour beats black and white, warm colours beat cold colours, portrait beats whole body, big pictures beat small pictures, and eye contact beats anything.
What is available from Royal Mail?
As I mentioned, Royal Mail’s media consultants normally build eye-tracking tips into workshops on catalogue design, direct mail or the design of statements or letters. We’ve already run workshops for a number of popular catalogue companies, such as Scotts of Stow, Boden, Charles Tyrwhitt and Compton & Woodhouse, as well as for a variety of large consumer advertisers including Nectar, Boots, British Gas, Lloyds TSB and Virgin Media.
The media consultants here at Royal Mail are working with clients across all parts of the customer journey. We help companies to acquire new customers, deepen relationships with existing customers and win back those defected or lapsed customers. Our services are free and the best way to find out if we can be of help is to invite us in for an exploratory discussion.