Attention Capture and Transfer in Advertising: Brand, Pictorial, and Text-Size Effects

Abstract

The three key ad elements (brand, pictorial, and text) each have unique superiority effects on attention to advertisements, which are on par with many commonly held ideas in marketing practice. This is the main conclusion of an analysis of 1363 print advertisements tested with infrared eye-tracking methodology on more than 3600 consumers. The pictorial is superior in capturing attention, independent of its size. The text element best captures attention in direct proportion to its surface size. The brand element most effectively transfers attention to the other elements. Only increments in the text element's surface size produce a net gain in attention to the advertisement as a whole. The authors discuss how their findings can be used to render more effective decisions in advertising.