Is banner blindness genuine? Eye tracking internet text advertising

Abstract

Over the last decade or so, the Internet has become a privileged media for advertisement. Despite this increase in popularity, several studies suggested that Internet users 'avoid' looking at ads (what is often referred to as the banner blindness phenomena). This conclusion, however, rests mostly on indirect evidence that participants do not remember the ad content. Therefore, it is unclear whether participants actually fixated the ads and how their gaze behaviour is related to memory for the ad. In the present study, we investigated whether Internet users avoid looking at ads inserted on a non-search website using an analysis of eye movements, and if the ad content is kept in memory. Our results show that most participants fixate the ads at least once during their website visit. Moreover, even though the congruency between the ad and the editorial content had no effect on fixation duration on the ad, congruent ads were better memorised than incongruent ads. This study provides a novel and systematic method for assessing the processing and retention of advertisements during a website visit.

Fixation and Recall of Youtube Ad Banners: An Eye-Tracking Study

“…Hervet et al 3 confirm that Internet users avoid looking at banners. This effect was not incidental, but was due to viewers' direct intent to refrain from looking at banners.…”

“…The greater the recall, the more effective the campaign is expected to be. A few empirical studies have confirmed that there is a small amount of recall of banner promotions amongst viewers 3,4,13 . However, virtually none of these studies has examined recall in the context of video clips placed on YouTube or in conjunction with viewers' fixation behaviors.…”

“…This effect was not incidental, but was due to viewers' direct intent to refrain from looking at banners. Moreover, viewers showed poor recall and recognition of content that appeared on banners; however, these studies were mostly in print, and not online contexts 2,3 .…”

Eye Tracking and Web Experience

“…This information is helpful in capturing the banner blindness phenomenon (i.e., when users ignore provided information) ( (Chatterjee, 2008;Djamasbi, Siegel, & Tullis, 2012a;Djamasbi et al, 2007;Djamasbi & HallPhillips, 2014;Dreze & Hussherr, 2003;Hervet et al, 2011). Studies have shown repeatedly that the same design techniques that can make a perceptual element salient (so that the element can serve as a suitable entry point to the page) can also trigger banner blindness (Djamasbi & Hall-Phillips, 2014).…”

A new approach for Internet advertisements

“…This effect of user ignoring Internet ads is known as "banner blindness" (Benway, 1998;Benway & Lane, 1998;Hervet, Guérard, Tremblay, & Chtourou, 2011). It is reasonable to expect it to happen as well regarding the ad texts shown at the beginning of internet video ads.…”