capitalizing_on_the_creative_canvas_2011.pdf

8/11/2019 capitalizing_on_the_creative_canvas_2011.pdf

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CAPITALIZINGON THE CREATIVE

CANVAS


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advertising.yahoo.com

Y A H O O ! I N S I G H T S

866-747-7327 [email protected]

For more information on this study, please contact your Yahoo! account managerFor media inquiries, please contact MaryLiz Ghanem at: [email protected]

CONTACT

I believe that scale combined with a creative canvas that hasthe power of evoking emotion to drive actions and behaviorswill add up to success in the future.

Ross LevinsohnExecutive Vice President of Americas , Yahoo!

Taking this to heart, Yahoo! Insights aimed to understandhow marketers can capitalize on new digital creativecanvases by understanding how ads resonate emotionallywith consumers. By looking at how consumers respond at anon-conscious level to specic elements within the ad units,5 best practices emerged for how advertisers can leveragelarger online ad units to achieve their marketing objectives.

Methodology

Yahoo! partnered with Innerscope, an expert in biometric andeye tracking research, to evaluate responses from ninety 25-40year old respondents exposed to 10 creative executions of theLogin Takeover Ad. Biometric measures of response included:heat maps, gaze plots, emotional resonance and cognitiveprocessing. In addition, respondents were asked a series ofquestions at the end of their online tasks, including likeabilityof the ads and unaided recall of the brands. Innerscopeevaluated and compared the performance of the 10 ads basedon 3 factors: unaided recall, likeability and emotional resonance.Finally, although we performed the analysis on real ads, for the

purposes of this document we de-branded the ad units thatwe studied.

Key Findings

Login Takeover Ad Units Had Much Higher Levels ofEngagement than Typical Display Ads

100% of the respondents xated on every login ad they wereexposed to; typically 50% of consumers will notice a displayad. In addition, consumers exposed to the Login Takeover Adxated at least six times on average on each ad, compared toonly 2 xations for a typical display ad. These increased levelsand quantity of xations demonstrate that the Login Takeover

success for brands means the message also has to resonate.The best practices below are guidelines for how to use the

ad can be applied to other unconventional ad spaces online.

Capitalizing on the Creative Canvas

Biometric Measures

Gaze Plots The aggregateorder in which participants look

Heat Maps Images depictingthe collected visual gaze datafrom participants

Emotional Resonance A deviation from baselineemotional levels, as measured:skin conductance, heart rate,respiration and movement

Cognitive Processing Refers to the level of informationprocessing when exposed tostimuli, measured by pupildilation and blink rate


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CONTACT

Creative Best Practices

1. Location is Everything: Center your ad around the action on the page.

Consumer Insight: Conventional wisdom tells us consumers read from left to right. However, whenexamining consumers gaze plots and heat maps for the Login Takeover ad, we discovered that consumersread from right to left and middle to top because thenavigation of the page started with the login area on theright side of the page. Likewise, the area just to the leftof the login area received the most visual attention andgenerated the strongest emo tional response.

Creative Implication: Align with the key action on the page.

Put key information (logos, key messages, etc.) justto the left of the login area.

Right justify important text, images & logos.

2. Keep it Simple: Bigger doesnt equal more.

Consumer Insight: The conventional wisdom of keeping ads simple applies to these new units. Consumersxated on key images at a higher rate if there werent competing images or too much text in the ad. In thisspace, the audience is only attentive for as long as ittakes to complete their intended task.

Creative Implication:

Utilize existing brand equity to grabconsumers attention and drive emotionaland cognitive engagement.

Reduce confusion by simplifying messagesand imagery. Simple ads create strongerbreakthrough and reduce confusion.

3. Create a Visual Contrast: Ads that blend dont get noticed.

Consumer Insight: Contrary to conventional design wisdom, which says to make your ad blend with thecontent it surrounds, our best performing ads had backgrounds that contrasted with the white loginarea. These contrasting backgrounds drove both higher xation levels for the ads and higher emotionalresponse to the background itself.

Creative Implication: Take advantage of dark, rich or textured backgrounds to create emotionalconnections and draw consumers into the ad.

Areas of highest emotional response


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CONTACT

4. Give Them a Reason to Act: Big canvases work for direct response ads.

Consumer Insight: Big ads are NOT just important for brand advertisers.Emotion drives brand attributes andCTR in the case of the Login Takeoverad. Buttons with higher CTRs arelocated near elements on the pagethat generate a strong emotionalresponse, like deals or immediateresults. Generic call-to-actions likemore info or click here dont createan emotional response. The buttonitself, will not generate much emotionalresponse, which is why having a strongcall-to-action located near the buttonprovides the most impact.

Creative Implication: Create emotion near where you want consumers to take action.

5. Use Faces But Judiciously: Faces always get noticed, but can be distracting.

Consumer Insight: People are drawn to faces and xate more on ads that include faces, but ads with facesare not always the most successful. Only one of the top ve ads tested featured a person, compared tothree of the bottom performing ads that did. This is in part because, in the lower performing ads, the facesdistracted consumers from key messaging by either having too many competing facial images or faces thatwere visually unappealing.

Creative Implication:

Faces should be closely linked to product messages or be a known product spokesperson.

Use a single facial im age to minimize distractions.



High

Medium

Low


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CONTACT

Conclusion

As the digital landscape continues to evolve there will be an increase in larger ad units appearing inunconventional spaces (non-content pages).

Conventional design wisdom may not hold in some of the more innovative ad spaces; therefore, advertisers needto learn what engages consumers visually and emotionally to best capitalize on new digital creative canvases.Although, these best practices are specic to Yahoo!'s Login Takeover Ad Unit, the broader principals can beapplied to all large ad units.

Novel ad units deserve novel design and, with the use of biometric research and testing, marketers can use thecreative best practices to make the most of these new ad spaces.

Putting Theory into Practice

4.3X brand related searches

11% incremental brand awareness for Equinox

22% increase for price quotes on Y! Autos


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To learn more, visit http://advertising.yahoo.com.

capitalizing_on_the_creative_canvas_2011.pdf

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