Impacts of scroll velocity
Published: Spring 2017
Mobile environments affect advertising engagement and performance. Mobile users' mindsets and intentions in specific platforms can influence whether or not an ad was seen or remembered. Kargo's Feed vs. Read study measures the visual attention and effectiveness of advertising in editorial, social, and search environments to determine:
Background
The digital ecosystem brings speed and convenience to consumers’ lives and enables advertisers to promote products and services to them across the various channels they access throughout the day. The growing digital, and more specifically, mobile ad industry has to adapt to these new distribution channels with an eye on how these environments impact ad effectiveness.
Today, advertisers face challenges that were not necessarily issues in the days of traditional media. For example, in TV or print advertising, an advertiser had to worry about their ad within that one medium, reducing the variables to consider. In the mobile world, advertisers face many variables—multiple operating systems, platforms and distribution channels— that can impact the delivery, attention, and effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Add to those challenges the varying mindsets consumers bring to specific mobile activities across these environments, and we have to ask—how does it all impact ad performance?
The Goal & methodology
Smartphones are highly task-oriented devices—users engage with them via specific platforms to pursue specific activities. It’s likely these mobile environments impact ad engagement and effectiveness. Users’ mindsets and intentions within specific environments can influence whether an ad was given any attention or remembered. Therefore, behavioral and attitudinal measures were utilized to determine the level of visibility, attention, and effectiveness of ads.
Partnering with Nielsen, 100 smartphone users were recruited to experience premium editorial, social, and search content in a live in-market test. Each participant was given 10 minutes within each environment to experience the content as they normally would in a use session. Eye tracking and post-exposure survey tools were used at Nielsen’s Media Lab facility at Television City in Las Vegas, NV.
Key Learnings
How visible are ads in these different environments?
How many ads are actually seen by the human eye in each environment?
How well are ads in these environments remembered?
