To gaze or not?
Do the eyes have it? Communications experts say “yes” to the positivity of direct eye contact, and historically advertisers have agreed.
But wait…new marketing research says it depends. Is the ad for emotional intent or to inform?
For centuries, artists have used gazing subjects to draw viewers into the narrative. Intrigued, marketing researcher and former advertising executive, Dr. Vanessa Patrick wanted to find out if advertisements could accomplish the same. Even though promoters sensed that gazing models could impact viewers, there was no research to prove it.
Drawing on social psychology’s narrative transportation theory, Patrick conducted five different tests to determine whether or not advertising could have successful outcomes with emotional engagement. Testing something as simple as a model wearing a hat found that the averted-gaze ad viewers were 4% more likely to click through and 30% were more likely to purchase the hat than those viewing a model’s direct-gaze ad.
With Instagram reporting daily uploads of 95 million images, Patrick believes her findings “can help marketers grab more eyeballs in a sea of visual noise.”