SPARK Media invites Lumen to conduct Eye Tracking research

International attention technology company Lumen uses eye tracking software to understand the reality of visual attention on memory and ability to recall messages.

SPARK Media, having just released its ROOTS research which shows that many people recall reading their local papers regularly for news and shopping information, will now add another crucial layer to that knowledge for marketers using latest technology. The outcome will assist marketers in evaluating local papers against an attention metric.

“Just because you can see something doesn’t mean that you will see it. Lumen’s eye tracking technology helps us understand what people look at – and what they ignore,” explains Mike Follett, Managing Director at Lumen.

“The Lumen team will be here in November to conduct an attention study on SPARK Media’s local papers as well as our Caxton Magazine titles, to understand the reality of what gets noticed and given attention in our print media,” explains SPARK Media’s Marketing Services and Research Director, Debbie McIntyre.

According to Follett: “Unless people look at an ad, it will never work. So attention is important. Advertisers can boost the impact of their ads by developing engaging and compelling ads but they can also make sure that their ads are placed in places that are most likely to be seen. We find that ads placed in relevant media environments that compliment the ad message because they sink with the task orientation of the reader, get more attention and recall.”

“SPARK Media want to help advertisers improve their understanding of different ad units to better apply metrics to their ROI strategies and to improve design to increase attention levels. Our intended outcome with this research is to get more insight on how to evaluate this,” adds Debbie.

The research and findings will be presented to the industry early next year.