facebook / neurofocus whitepaper: consumer engagement on premium web sites
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The Premium Experience: Neurological Engagement on Premium Websites
• ComparedtoNeuroFocusnorms,“premiumwebsites”suchasFacebook,Yahoo,andtheNewYorkTimesdeliversubstantiallymoreengagingexperiencesthantheaveragewebsite.
• Consumersdoresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesorientedtowardthreedifferentpurposes:socialnetworking,lightnewsandentertainment,andhardnewsandcommentary.
• Thesedifferencesarerepresentedneurologicallybydifferentlevelsofattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation.
• Allofthesedifferencesappeartoberelatedtotheexpectationspeoplebringtothesesiteswhentheyvisitthem,andtheseexpectations,inturn,appeartoimpacthowpeoplerespondtoadvertisingonthesesites.
• Arelatedstudyofadvertisingonthreemediacontextssupportstheseresults,showingsuperiorattention
emotionalengagementforanadpresentedinasocialmediaonlinecontextvs.onTVoronacorporatewebpage.
©Copyright2011NeuroFocus,Inc.NeuroFocusandtheNeuroFocuslogoareregisteredtrademarksofNeuroFocus.Othercompany,productandservicenamesmaybeservicemarksoftheirrespectiveowners.AllRightsReserved.
1200FifthStreetBerkeley,CA94710T510.526.1616F510.526.9900www.neurofocus.com
INSIDE
WhitePaperThePremiumExperience:NeurologicalEngagementonPremiumWebsitespage2
CONTENTS
AuThORS
ABOuTThISREPORT 3
EXECuTIVESuMMARY 3
BACKGROuND 4
NEuROFOCuSMEASuRESANDMETRICS 5
Table1.NeuroFocusCoreMetrics:Definitions 6
EXPERIMENTALDESIGN 7
DEFINING“PREMIuMWEBSITES”NEuROLOGICALLY 7
KEYFINDINGS 8
Attention,Emotion,andMemoryonPremiumWebsites 9
CommunicatingImplicitMeaningAssociationsonPremiumWebsites 11
COMPARINGONLINEADVERTISINGTOTVADVERTISING 12
KEYRESuLTSANDINSIGhTS 14
Facebook–social,personal,andinformational 14
Non-PersonalizedYahoo!–lightlyinformational,entertainment-oriented 15
NewYorkTimes–heavilyinformational,butneitherpersonalnorsocial 15
CONCLuSIONS 15
DR.STEVEGENCOJAWEEDMETZ
SOCIALMEDIAANDONLINERESEARChTEAMSNeuroFocus,Inc.
SEANBRuICh,headofMeasurementResearch,Facebook,Inc.
MEASuREMENTRESEARChTEAMFacebook,Inc.
WhitePaperThePremiumExperience:NeurologicalEngagementonPremiumWebsitespage3
Asonlineadvertisingbecomesamuchlargerpartofadvertisers’spend,aconstantquestioniswhetherandtowhatextentthecontextoftheadmatters–whetherthedigitalonlineexperienceitselfimpactsthe effectiveness of advertising, and whether that experience is best accompanied by a differentadvertisingstrategyandcreativepresentationthanhasworkedinthepastintraditionalmediasuchasTV.
Thequestionsfacingadvertiserstodayarethreefold:
• Doonlineconsumersresponddifferentlywhenexperiencingpremiumwebsiteswithdifferentmixesofpersonalengagementandrelevance(informational,entertainment-oriented,social)?
• Dothesedifferenceshavemeasurableimpactsonhowpeoplerespondneurologicallytothesesites?
• Shouldadvertisingbepresenteddifferentlyinthesedifferentonlinecontexts?Andifso,whatisthebestapproachtooptimizereturnonadvertisingspendacrossdifferenttypesofpremiumsites?
Inthisstudyweprovidethefirstquantitativeanswerstothesekeyquestions.
In this joint study by NeuroFocus and Facebook,we answer two key questions about online userengagementandresonancewithwebsitemessaging:
• Doconsumersresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesthatengagetheirattentionandinterestindifferentways,andifso,how?
• howcanthesedifferentresponsesbeleveragedbyonlinemarketersandadvertiserstooptimizetheirpresenceandimprovetheirengagementwithconsumersonthesepremiumsites?
Weanswerthesequestionsbyexaminingthreeverydifferentkindsofonlinesitesandexperiences:
• Aviewerlookingattheirown“NewsFeed”pageonFacebook• AviewerlookingatthedefaulthomepageofYahoo!• AviewerlookingatthedefaulthomepageofTheNewYorkTimes
WealsocomparethesefindingstoanearlierNeuroFocusstudythatexaminedresponsestoadvertisinginthreedifferentcontexts:
• WithinatraditionalTVadpod• Asavideopresentedonacorporatewebsite• AsavideoembeddedinaFacebookproduct/servicepage
ABOuTThISREPORT
EXECuTIVESuMMARY
WhitePaperThePremiumExperience:NeurologicalEngagementonPremiumWebsitespage4
Somekeyconclusionsandtake-aways:
• All three web pages studied achieve significantly higher levels of attention and emotionalengagement than“average” web pages, asmeasured by NeuroFocus norms. All three thusrepresent“premiumwebsite”experiences.
• Consumersdoresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesorientedtowarddifferentpurposes,inthiscase:socialnetworking,lightnewsandentertainment,andhardnewsandcommentary.
• These differences are grounded neurologically in different levels of attention, emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation,asmeasuredbyNeuroFocusmetrics.
• TheNewYorkTimeshomepageelicitedhighlevelsofattentionandmemory,butlessemotionalengagementthantheothertwopages.
• TheYahoo!homepageelicitedhigherlevelsofemotionalengagementthantheNewYorkTimeshomepage,but less than theFacebookpage,and lessmemoryactivation thaneitherof theothertwopages.
• People viewing their own“NewsFeed”pageonFacebookexhibitedhigh levelsof activationonallthreemetrics:attention,emotionalengagement,andmemory.TheFacebookpagehadstatisticallyhigherlevelsofemotionalengagementthaneitheroftheothertwopagestested.
• Somegenderdifferenceswereobserved:MenimplicitlysawFacebookasresonatingmorewith“forme” thanwomendid,andwomensawYahoo!as resonatingmorewith“connecting”and“advice”thanmendid,butotherwisethegendersrespondedsimilarly.
• All of thesedifferences appear tobe related to the expectationspeoplebring to these siteswhentheyvisitthem,andtheseexpectations,inturn,appeartoimpacthowpeoplerespondtoadvertisingonthesesites.
• Sites that include social elements appear to benefit from the active cognitive engagementachievedbyonlineexperiences,butalsocreateadegreeofemotionalengagementthatrivalsTV.
• Tomaximizeuserengagement,marketersandadvertisersneedtobalancemultipleconsiderationsoutlined inthispaperwhendesigningonlineads,messaging,and interactiveexperiences forpremiumwebsites.
Wesoughttodeterminequantitativelyhowconsumersrespondedtopremiumwebsites,aswellashowtheyrespondedtoonlineadsembeddedinthosesites.Tocompareaspectrumofpremiumwebsiteexperiences, threepopularwebsitehomepageswere tested: an individual’sFacebook“NewsFeed”page(representingasocialonlineexperience),theYahoo!homepage(representinganon-personalized
BACKGROuND
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“light news and entertainment” experience), andTheNewYorkTimes homepage (representing aninformation-oriented“hardnewsandcommentary”experience).
Whileparticipantswerepresentedwiththestandardhomepageexperienceacrossallthreeofthesesites,thestudywasnotdesignedtobeanexhaustiveorrepresentativeviewofallofthepagesandcapabilitiesofanyofthethreesites.
Alltestsreportedinthispapercomparedresponsesfroma“generalpopulation”sampleof84internetusers in theunitedStates: 50%men,50%women,ages21-54,withaminimumannualhouseholdincomeof$30,000.AllofourparticipantswerescreenedtoensurethattheyhadaFacebookaccount,butwedidnotexplicitlyincludeorexcludeYahoo!registeredmembersorNewYorkTimessubscriberssinceasubstantialportionofsitetraffictothosehomepagesareuserswhohavenotloggedin.
These results were also compared to a previous study performed by NeuroFocus that measuredresponsestoadvertisingacrossthreesimilarcontexts:a30-secondadpresentedinatypicalTVcontext,thesameadembeddedinacorporatewebsite,andthesameadpresentedonaFacebookproduct/servicepage.
NeuroFocusmeasuresfocusonkeyconsciousandsubconsciouselementsofhowconsumersrespondexplicitly and implicitly to sensory experiences (like watching an ad or reading a webpage) alongthreecoredimensions:Attention,Emotion,andMemory.Thesemetricscapturedirectsubconsciousbrainactivitywhiletheexperienceisunderway,ratherthanrelyingonrespondents’ownafter-the-factestimatesofhowattentivetheywere,howemotionallyengagedtheywere,orhowlikelytheywouldbetoremembertheexperience.Advertisingcannotelicitattitudechangewithoutatleastsomechangeinthesethreecriticalneurologicalresponsestothead.
Allthesemeasuresarebasedonwell-establishedandrecognizedbrainwavepatternsthathavebeenidentifiedinacademicscientificliteratureandadaptedforusewithinadvertising,marketing,andmediastimulibyNeuroFocusscientists. Themetricsarecalculatedasanaverageacrossthefulldurationofthe experience and standardizedon a 0-to-10 scale for comparison,with each score having a 95%confidenceintervalof+/-0.2,sotwoscorescanbejudgedsignificantlydifferentfromeachotheratp<.05iftheirscoresdifferby0.4ormore.
Across all types of product andmarketingmaterial tested by NeuroFocus (e.g. print ads, websites,productpackaging,productconcepts,brandmessaging,etc.),thefullspectrumofpossibleresponsesformsanapproximatelynormaldistributiononthestandardized0-to-10scalewithamedianof4.9-5.1foreachmetric.
NEuROFOCuSMEASuRESAND
METRICS
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Metric Definition interpretation (rules of thuMb)
attention •Measuressustainedfocusandshiftsinfocusovertime.
0-to-2:verypoorattention,discardandtryagain
2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableattention,majormodificationsmayberequired
5-to-8:goodattentionrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements
8-to-10:excellentattention,donottrytoimprove
emotional engagement
•Measuresintensityofemotionalresponseandautomaticmotivationalclassificationofstimuli.
•Quantifiesautomatic(nonconscious)classificationofsensoryexperiencesaspotentiallyrewarding(approachmotivation)orpotentiallythreatening(avoidancemotivation).
•Oftendriveschoicesandbehavior.
0-to-2:disengagementoraversiveemotionalresponse,discardandtryagain
2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableemotionalengagement,majormodificationsmayberequired
5-to-8:goodemotionalengagementrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements
8-to-10:excellentemotionalengagement,donottrytoimprove
Memory retention
•Measuresformationofconnectionsandactivationofpersonalrelevance.
•Activatedautomaticallyforexperiencesthatarepersonallymeaningfulandprovideanopportunityforlearning.
•Createsandreinforcesconnectionsthatallowustoretrieverelatedinformationlateron.
0-to-2:verypoormemoryretention,discardandtryagain
2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptablememoryretention,majormodificationsmayberequired
5-to-8:averagememoryretentionrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements
8-to-10:excellentmemoryretention,donottrytoimprove
overall neurological effectiveness
•Acompositemeasureoftheefficiencyofcognitiveprocessing–aweightedcombinationofattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation.
0-to-2:overallverypooreffectiveness,discardandtryagain
2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableeffectiveness,majormodificationsmayberequired
5-to-8:averageeffectivenessrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements
8-to-10:excellenteffectiveness,donottrytoimprove
In addition to measuring direct brain responses during an experience, NeuroFocus also measuresthedegreetowhichmessagesandconceptualassociationsarestrengthenedbyanexperience.This“MessagingResonance”metricmeasurestheextenttowhichtheexperienceprovidedasubconscious“lift”tothoseassociations.
TABLE1.NEuROFOCuSCORE
METRICS:DEFINITIONS
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MessagingResonanceresultsarereportedonasix-levelscalefrom“noresonance”,i.e.nolift(Level0)to“goodresonance”(Levels1-2)to“exceptionalresonance”(Levels3-5).AcrosshundredsofMessagingResonancetestsNeuroFocushasconducted,about65%ofconceptsscoreatLevels1or2,20%scoreatLevel3,and10%scoreatLevels4or5.Forthisstudyofpremiumwebsites,NeuroFocusmeasuredresonancetothreemessagingwords:
• CONNECTING• ADVICE• FOR-ME
Thesewordswerechosenbecause they representsomeof thekeyconcepts thatadvertiserswouldexpecttobe“activated”whenvisitingpremiumwebsiteslikethethreestudiedhere.
The data collectionwas performed at the NeuroFocus lab in Berkeley, CA as part of two separatestudies.
Inthefirststudy,allparticipantsviewedthreestimulion-screenwhiletheirbrainwaveswererecorded:theirownFacebookhomepage,arecentgenericYahoo!homepage,andarecentgenericNewYorkTimeshomepage.Thepageswereshowninrandomizedordertoeachparticipant.
Inthesecondstudy,adifferentsampleofparticipantswererandomlyassignedtooneofthreegroups:
1. AgroupthatviewedtheirpersonalFacebook“NewsFeed”homepage2. AgroupthatviewedarecentgenericYahoo!homepage3. AgroupthatviewedarecentgenericNewYorkTimeshomepage
Allthesepagesinthesecondstudyweremodifiedtocontainasimpleonlineadforawell-knownsoftdrinkbeverageinastandardlocationwheresuchadstypicallyappearoneachpage.
Participants in the second study experienced the following sequence as amovie: the home pageappearedforashorttime.Thecursortraveledfromthecenterofthepagetothead.Fromavisualandauditoryperspective,thecursor“clicked”onthead,andthelinkthentransferredtoaproductlandingpage.FortheFacebookgroup,thelandingpagewasaFacebook“fanpage”forthebeverage,whereasfor theYahoo!andNewYorkTimesgroups, the landingpagewas thecorporatehomepage for thebeveragecompany,asitappearedatthattime.Brainwavesweremeasuredthroughouttheexperienceandresultswerecomputedforeachwholeexperienceandseparatelyforthehomepageandlandingpagesequencesofeachexperience.
Brainresponsesatthelevelofbasicattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivationhavetheadvantageofbeinguniversalacrossstimuli. Whetherweareviewingawebpage,watchinganadonTV,orwalkingalongtheaislesofagrocerystore,attentiontosomething inourenvironment“registers”inourbrainsinthesameway,experiencingemotionalattractionregistersinthesameway,
EXPERIMENTALDESIGN
DEFINING“PREMIuMWEBSITES”
NEuROLOGICALLY
WhitePaperThePremiumExperience:NeurologicalEngagementonPremiumWebsitespage8
andactivatingmemoryregistersinthesameway.ThisisequallytrueforthebrainofaChineseshopperinShanghai,aFacebookuserinKansas,oraTVviewerinFrance.Allnormalhumanbrainsexpressthesebasiccognitivestatesinthesameway.
At NeuroFocus, we have leveraged this universality to build a cross-cultural, cross-category, cross-platform,andcross-modalitydatabaseofneurologicalresponses.Wehavebuiltthisdatabaseacrosshundredsofstudiesandthousandsofstimulioversixyears.Weuseittostandardizeandcalibrateourmetrics,whicharepresentedona10-pointscalethatrepresentsthefullrangeofresponseswehaveobserved.
Neurologicalresponsestowebsitesandwebpages,likeanyotherstimulithatelicitattention,emotion,andmemoryresponsesfromhumanbrains,aredistributedwithinthisdatabaseinaroughlynormaldistribution,withamedianofapproximately5.0.Averysmallnumberoftheverybestwebpageswehavetestedscoreabove8foroveralleffectiveness.Wedefine“premiumwebsites”asthosethatscoreabove6.0onoveralleffectiveness.Empiricalexaminationofsitesthatscoreinthisrangeshowsthemusuallytobeeitherpopular“destination”sitesorportalswithhightrafficandmillionsofregularvisitors,orthewebsitesofextremelypopularbrandsorcompanies.Webelievethesesitesalsotendtobethebestadvertisingopportunitiesforonlineadvertisers.
Incontrasttopremiumwebsites,non-premiumsitestendtobemoregenericcorporatesites,transaction-orientedsites,orpersonalsites.Theypopulatethelowerhalfofourdatabasedistribution.Forthisstudy,wehavecomparedneurologicalresponseswithinthepremiumwebsitecategory.Asthefindingsbelowreveal,allthreewebpagesincludedinthestudyachieveneurologicalresponsescoresthatqualifythemaspremiumsites.
Doneurologicalresponsestothesethreepages–representingthreeverydifferenttypesofpremiumwebsiteexperiences–differ?Andwhatimplicationsdothesedifferencesholdforonlineadvertisersdesiringtooptimizetheironlineadvertisingspend?
Allthreepremiumonlinesiteselicitedabove-average responses from participants intermsof thekeysummarymetricofoveralleffectiveness. Scores for each page werestatistically identical across studies. Thesemeasureshavebeenvalidatedforstatisticalreliabilityacrossstudiesandacrossstimuli.
OveralleffectivenessrepresentsacompositescorethatcombinesAttention,Emotion,andMemory responses in a single compositemeasure of the overall cognitive impact ofthewebsiteviewingexperience.
7.0
6.4 6.6 7.0
6.5 6.4
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
FACEBOOK HOME PAGE YAHOO! HOME PAGE NEW YORK TIMES
HOME PAGE
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
KEYFINDINGS
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TheaveragescoreforparticipantsviewingtheirownhomepagesonFacebook,(bothwithandwithoutadpresented),wassignificantlyhigherthanforeithertheYahoo!orNewYorkTimeshomepages.
Alsoofnote,Study1didnotcontainthetargetadonthethreepages,whereasStudy2did.Statisticallyidentical scores for these two page views, derived from different samples of participants, providesevidencethatparticipantsrespondedsimilarlytotheirFacebook“NewsFeed”pages,theYahoo!page,andtheNewYorkTimespage,whetherornotadvertisingwaspresentonthepage.
Resultsdemonstrate thatpremiumwebsite contentpages attractmuchhigher consumer attentionthantheaveragewebsitetestedbyNeuroFocus.
All three sites scored in the 8.0+ range forattention, signaling significant focus on thesitewhilethepagesweredisplayed inboththeadandnon-adstudies.Thesescoreswerenot significantly different across sites – allscoredinthe8.1-8.4rangeinbothstudies.
ThepresenceofthebeverageadinStudy2hadneitherapositivenornegativeimpactonthelevelsofattentionattained.
Theresultsforemotionalengagementweresomewhatmoredifferentiatedacrosssites.InStudy1,theFacebookpagegeneratedsignificantlyhigheremotionalengagementthantheothertwopages,whileinStudy2itscoredsignificantlyhigherthantheNewYorkTimespage,butdidnotquitereachthe0.4differencerequiredforsignificancevs.theYahoo!page.
Overall,theemotionalengagementscoresarelowerthantheattentionscoresacrossallthreepremiumsites. This difference is in linewith otherNeuroFocus findings. Compared tomorepassivemedia,onlinecontentcommandsmoreattentionalresourcesbecausetherearemanyelementscompetingforattentionatanymoment.Thistendstoproducehigherlevelsofattentionforwebsitesvs.morepassivemedia.
Emotional engagement, in contrast, oftenshows a slightly negative correlation withattention, thus contributing to the loweremotion scores on these sites. Emotionalconnections are more automatic and lesssusceptible to conscious monitoring thanattentional cues. As a consequence, highlevels of attention can have a diminishingimpactonemotionalengagement,which iswhatweseehere.
8.2 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.1 8.2
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
FACEBOOK HOME PAGE YAHOO! HOME PAGE NEW YORK TIMES
HOME PAGE
ATTENTION
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
ATTENTION,EMOTION,ANDMEMORYON
PREMIuMWEBSITES
6.7
6.1 6.3 6.6
6.3 6.1
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
FACEBOOK HOME PAGE YAHOO! HOME PAGE NEW YORK TIMES
HOME PAGE
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
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What ismost interesting in these results is that this diminishingof emotion in the context of highattentionintheonlinecontextissignificantlylessfortheFacebookpagethanfortheothertwopages.Thisisadditionalevidencethat:
The emotional appeal of social media sites appears to compensate for some of the attentional bias demanded by less socially-oriented premium sites.
Finally, looking at memory retention whileviewing these three premium websites,we see yet adifferentpattern. Asnoted inTable 1, memory scores tend to be higherwhenstimuliarepersonallymeaningfulandprovideopportunitiesforlearning.
here we see in both studies that theFacebookandNewYorkTimeshomepageselicit significantly more memory retentionthantheYahoo!page.Thisisnotapositiveornegativereflectiononanyofthesepages,but
simplyvalidatesandquantifiesthecommon-senseobservationthat:
Viewing your own Facebook “News Feed” page triggers more memory processing due to the personal significance of the content on the page.
Viewing the New York Times home page triggers more memory processing because it provides new information and opportunities for learning.
Viewing the non-personalized Yahoo! home page triggers somewhat less memory processing because it is both less personally relevant and less informationally dense than the Facebook and New York Times pages, respectively.
7.2
6.6
7.2 7.2 6.8
7.3
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
FACEBOOK HOME PAGE YAHOO! HOME PAGE NEW YORK TIMES
HOME PAGE
MEMORY RETENTION
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
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TheNeuroFocus“MessagingResonance”methodologyallowsustotesttheextenttowhichselectedmessagesareassociatedwith,andthereforereinforcedby,differentexperiences,suchasexperiencesviewingdifferentpremiumwebsites. InStudy1, threemessageswere testedbeforeandaftereachwebsiteviewing:CONNECTING,ADVICE,andFOR-ME.
Afterviewingone’sownFacebookpage,CONNECTINGshowedaresonanceliftofLevel3,vs.Level2afterviewingtheYahoo!page,andLevel1afterviewingtheNewYorkTimespage(Levelscoresrepresentsignificantlydifferentmagnitudesoflift,p<.05).Thiscanbeinterpretedasmeaningthat,afterviewingtheirFacebookpage,participantsweremorereceptivetowardassociationswith“connecting”thantheyhadbeenbeforeviewingtheirFacebookpage,andfurther,thatthislevelofreceptivitywassignificantlyhigherthanforthesameparticipantsafterviewingeithertheYahoo!orNewYorkTimeshomepages.Also,conversely,theLevel1scoreforCONNECTINGfortheNewYorkTimespageimpliesthatthispageissignificantlylesslikelytotriggerassociationswith“connecting”thantheothertwosites.
Theseresultsvalidateandquantifythedegreetowhich:
The Facebook experience was more about “connecting” than either the Yahoo! or New York Times online experiences.
Finally, we see that theYahoo! and NewYorkTimes home pages both trigger significantly greaterresonancewiththemessageADVICEthantheFacebookhomepage.Weinterpretthistomeanthat:
The Yahoo! and New York Times experiences were both more about getting “advice” than was the Facebook experience. All three premium sites demonstrated good resonance with “for me”.
Afewinterestingdifferencesemergewhenwesubdividemessagingresonancescoresbygender.
Forthemostpart,genderdifferencesarenomorethansingle-leveldifferences,butitisinterestingtonotethat(1)womenassociatebothFacebookandYahoo!withCONNECTINGatLevel3,(2)menhavemuchhigherresonancewithFOR-MEforFacebookthanwomendo,and(3)Yahoo!achievesaLevel2resonanceforADVICEforwomen,butonlyLevel1formen.Inshort:
COMMuNICATINGIMPLICITMEANINGASSOCIATIONSON
PREMIuMWEBSITES
3 2
1 2 2 2
1 2 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
CONNECTING FOR-ME ADVICE
MESSAGING RESONANCE
Facebook Level
of resonance
Yahoo! Level
of resonance
New York Times Level
of resonance
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Men implicitly see Facebook as resonating more with “for me” than women do, and women see Yahoo! and Facebook as resonating more with “connecting” than men do, but otherwise the genders exhibit similar profiles of messaging resonance for each of these premium websites.
AnearlierstudypublishedbyNeuroFocusinconjunctionwiththe2010WinterOlympicsprovidessomeadditionalinsightsonanimportantrelatedquestion.Ourunderstandingofhowdifferentmediaareconsumedisevolvinginthefollowingdirection:
• TVisbelievedtobeamorepassiveandimmersivemedia,andthereforehashistoricallybeenseenasbetterforemotionalengagement.
• Traditionalonlinepropertiesarebelievedtobemorecognitivelyengaging,butlessemotionallyengagingthanTV,sothereforeareseenasbetterforinformationaladvertising.
• Sitesthatincludesocialelementsstandoutasaparticularlyattractiveadvertisingopportunity–benefiting fromtheactivecognitiveengagementachievedbyonlineexperiences,butalsoofferingadegreeofemotionalengagementthatrivalsTV.
Isthismodelsupportedbythekindofneurologicaltestingdescribedinthispaper?
In thisearlier study,NeuroFocusanalyzeda30-secondVisaadcalled“Trip forLife” thatofferedVisacardholdersanopportunitytowinanall-expenses-paidtriptotheupcoming2010WinterOlympics.NarratedbyMorganFreeman,theaddepictedgreatmomentsinWinterOlympicshistoryandinvitedviewerstoenterthecontestandbecomeapartofthathistory.Theadwaswellreceivedandtestedatabove-averagelevelsonNeuroFocusmetrics.
COMPARINGONLINEADVERTISINGTOTV
ADVERTISING
2 3
1
3
1 1 2 2
1
3 2 2
1 2 2 2
1 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
CONNECTING FOR-ME ADVICE
MESSAGING RESONANCE
Facebook men Facebook women
Yahoo! men Yahoo! women
NYT men NYT women
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an ad presented in three media contexts
Totesttheimpactofdifferentmediacontextsonresponsestothisad,NeuroFocustestedit inthreecontexts:
1. WithinatraditionalTVadpod2. AsavideoembeddedintheVisacorporatewebsite3. AsavideoembeddedinaFacebookproduct/servicepage
Theresultsprovidedsolidevidence in favorof thehypotheses thatTVandonlinearedifferent,andsocialnetworkingsitesaredifferentfrommoreconventionalonlinesites.herearetheresultsforthethreecoremetricsandeffectiveness:
First,theresultsshowsignificantlymoreattentionwhentheadispresentedinthetwoonlinecontextsthanwhenpresentedonTV.
Second, the ad generated significantlymore emotional engagementwhen presented in the socialnetworkingcontextthanineitherthecorporatewebsiteortheTVcontext.
Third,theadgeneratedgenerallylowlevelsofmemoryactivationinallthreecontexts(allarebelow6.0)butdidbetteronTVthanineitheronlinecontext.Memoryscoresattheselevelsusuallyindicatethatanadwillhaveweakpersuasivecapability.Itmaybethatviewersimplicitlyrecognizedthelowlikelihoodofwinningthedescribedcontest,anddiscountedmemoryretentionaccordingly.
6.4 6.8 5.9 6.3
8.7
6.1 5.1
5.8
8.0 7.2
5.0
6.6
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
ATTENTION EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
MEMORY RETENTION OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS
30-SECOND VISA AD IN THREE CONTEXTS
Visa ad in TV pod Visa ad on Visa corporate site Visa ad on Facebook product page
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Finally,thesemeasurestranslatedintooveralleffectivenessscoresthatranktheFacebookexperienceslightly higher than the TV experience, and significantly higher than the online VISA websiteexperience.
Inconclusion:
Running an ad in Facebook produces a response profile that combines the strengths of the corporate site experience (high attention) and the TV experience (high emotion).
Neurologicalmeasurementofonlineexperiencesacrosspremiumwebsitesdeliversavarietyofnewinsightsthatareinvisiblewhenusingtraditionalself-reportingsurveytechniques.Wehaveseenthatwebsitevisitors’brainsorientindifferentwaystowarddifferentwebsites.Theyscanthesitesdifferently,getemotionallyengageddifferently,andengagememorydifferently.
All of these differences, we believe, are related to the expectations the brain brings to these sites, and these expectations, in turn, impact how people respond to advertising on these sites and on follow-on landing pages.
Wehavealsoseenconsistencyintheseresultsacrossdifferentsamplesanddifferentdepictionsofthesamewebsites(e.g.,withoutthetargetadinStudy1,withthetargetadinStudy2).
Letusreviewtheneurologicalprofilesforeachofthepremiumwebsitepageswetestedinthesetwostudies:
non-personalized Yahoo! – lightly informational, entertainment-orientedNote: This analysis was only measuring the Yahoo Homepage and not some of Yahoo’s other pages using personalization (eg Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, and My Yahoo).
Emotionalengagementonthenon-personalizedYahoo!homepagewasaboveaverage,comparabletotheNewYorkTimespage,butlowerthanontheFacebookpage.Thisloweremotionalconnection,webelieve,isrelatedtothelessprominentsocialelementonYahoo!vs.Facebook,asreflectedinitslowerresonancewiththeCONNECTINGmessagingword.
AttentionontheYahoo!pagewashighandstatisticallyequivalenttotheothertwosites.
WhereYahoo!wasdistinctivewasinitslowerlevelsofmemoryactivationvs.theothertwosites.Weattributethistothe“lighter”informationalexpectationsforYahoovs.Facebook(socialinformation)andtheNewYorkTimes(hardnewsinformation).
WealsosawsomeinterestinggenderdifferencesfortheYahoo!site.WomensawYahoo!asresonatingmorewithCONNECTINGandADVICEthanmendid.TheseassociationsmayberelatedtothespecificcontentofYahoo!,representedbyprominentdisplayoflinkstotopicsofpersonalandlifestyleinterest.
KEYRESuLTSANDINSIGhTS
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new York times – heavily informational, but neither personal nor social
Thissiteprovidedanexcellentexampleofa“serious”newssite.unlikeYahoo!,therewerenolinkstonon-newstopicsontheNewYorkTimeshomepage.ThereweresubtlelinkstotopicssuchasFashionand“Arts,”buttheoverallfocuswasonseriousnationalandinternationalnews.
Participantsbroughtadifferentsetofexpectationstothissite,andgenerateddifferentresponses.
Aswiththeothersites,attentionfortheNewYorkTimeshomepagewashigh.EmotionalengagementwascomparabletoYahoo!,butstatisticallylowerthanforFacebook.MemoryretentionwashigherthanforYahoo!,andonparwithFacebook.
Where this site stood out was in its much lower association with CONNECTING in the MessagingResonancetest,especiallycomparedtoFacebook,anditshigherassociationwithADVICEforbothmenandwomen.
facebook – social, personal, and informational
Inallofourtests,Facebookelicitedahigherlevelofemotionalengagementcomparedtotheothertwosites.Thiseffectwassignificantatp<.05inthreeoffourcomparisons,andclosetosignificant(differenceof0.3)inthefourthcomparison.
In termsofattention,all threepremiumwebsitesachievedhigh levelsofattention. Thisappears tobeabenefitthatthesethreewell-known,premiumsitesshareasaconsequenceoftheirbrandequityandvisibilityintheonlineworld.Peopleknowwhattoexpect,andtheycometothepagepreparedtoengageintheexpectedexperience.
Formemoryactivation,FacebookperformsmoreliketheNewYorkTimespagethantheYahoo!page.highattentionandmemorygotogetherforFacebook,becauseitofferssomethingnewtolearn–aboutfriendsandpersonally-relevantactivities–everyday.
ThesocialelementwithFacebookwasfurthervalidatedbythestrongerassociationwithCONNECTING,identifiedintheMessagingResonancetest.
until themeteoric riseof socialnetworkingasanewandhugelypopular formof consumeronlineexperience, the difference between TV and online touchpoints as advertising media was largelyformulated as a difference between the highly immersive but relatively passive and cognitivelyundemanding context of TV and the less immersive but highly interactive, information-rich andcognitivelydemandingcontextofonlinebrowsingandwebsitenavigation.Inanutshell,TVwasseenasapassiveandemotionalmedium,whileonlinewasseenasanactive,lessemotional,andmorecognitivemedium.
CONCLuSIONS
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Today, theavailabilityofhighlypersonalizedandhighly socialonlineexperienceshaschanged thisequation.Asillustratedinthefollowingchart,onlinesitesnowofferamuchwiderrangeofengagementexperiencesthansimplycognitiveandinformational.
Media, personal engagement, and relevance
passive active
TraditionalEntertainment OnlineActivity
MoviesTV Informational Personal Social
more immersive
more emotionally engaging
less cognitively stimulating
less immersive
less emotionally engaging
more cognitively stimulating
more immersive
more emotionally engaging
more congnitively stimulating
Inthisstudy,wehaveuncoveredthefollowingimportantfindings:
• Onlineconsumersdoresponddifferentlywhenexperiencingpremiumwebsiteswithdifferentmixes of personal engagement and relevance (informational, entertainment-oriented, andsocial).
• Thesedifferenceshavemeasurableimpactsonhowpeoplerespondneurologicallytothesesitesintermsofimmersion,cognitivestimulation,andemotionalengagement.
• Advertising presented on these sites can leverage these different neurological profiles forincreasedeffectiveness.
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about neurofocus
The world’s leading neuromarketing firm, NeuroFocus (www.neurofocus.com) brings advancedneuroscienceknowledgeandexpertisetotheworldsofbranding,productdevelopmentandpackaging,in-storemarketing,advertising,andentertainment.NeuroFocusclientsincludeFortune100companiesacrossdozensofcategories.
headquarteredintheu.S.andoperatinggloballythroughofficesandNeuroLabsintheuKandEurope,theAsia/Pacificregion,LatinAmerica,andtheMiddleEast,thecompanyleveragesNobelPrizecaliberand Doctorate-level credentials in neuroscience andmarketing from the university of California atBerkeley,MIT,hebrewuniversity,harvard,Oxford,Columbiauniversity,andotherleadinginstitutions,combinedwithexecutivebusinessmanagementandconsultingexpertise.
about facebook
FoundedinFebruary2004,Facebook’smissionistogivepeoplethepowertoshareandmaketheworldmoreopenandconnected.AnyonecansignupforFacebookandinteractwiththepeopletheyknowinatrustedenvironment.FacebookisaprivatelyheldcompanyandisheadquarteredinPaloAlto,Calif.
Formoreinformation,visitwww.facebook.com