Abstract

How does eyes on screen vary across media?

Which media, on which devices, are the best to advertise in? Advertisers make media decisions based on reach data (e.g., ratings, impressions) and performance data (e.g., clicks). But little is known about how media and devices differ in how long viewers look at ads. “Viewability” is measured in digital media by whether the ad’s pixels were on-screen, for 1 or 2 seconds. But “banner blindness” means many viewable ads are not actually looked at. Eye-tracking results compare eyes on screen across media on different devices.

• In earlier Institute research, marketers rated how noticeable ads are in different media, and whether device (e.g., mobile vs desktop) affected how much ads are noticed.
• This research compared those results with how long people really do look at the ads in different media, on different devices.
• Ads in traditional media (e.g., newspapers) were compared with ads in digital media (e.g., YouTube), seen on different devices (print, TV, desktop, mobile phone).
• Eyes-on-screen was highest for ads in Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) on a desktop device, and lowest for ads in digital news on a mobile phone.