Investigation of the use of eye tracking to examine tourism advertising effectiveness

Abstract

Previous studies of printed marketing stimuli have used self-report measures to determine the relative preference for one advertisement among several different versions. This study uses Tobii TM eye-tracking hardware and software along with self-report measures to compare the relative effectiveness of two versions of a tourism magazine advertisement. Data was collected from 25 respondents in a laboratory-based study. Analysis of data shows significant differences between the two advertisements tested with agreement between the eye-tracking and self-report results. These results indicate that eye-tracking methods are useful for analysis of tourist advertising.

A review of eye-tracking research in tourism

“…Eye-tracking is a psychophysiological technique typically used to measure attentional processes and has both advantages and disadvantages when compared to other techniques such as self-report questionnaires, thinking aloud protocols, verbal interviews with respondents and so on (Li, Walters, Packer, & Scott, Online;Scott et al, 2016). Techniques such as self-report questionnaires rely on conscious reflection and memory that can lead to validity issues as attentional processes are not solely dependent on conscious control, may be beyond a respondent's awareness, and occur too quickly to be individually measured using other techniques.…”

“…(Di Stasi, Marchitto, Antolí, Baccino, & Cañas, 2010;Scott et al, 2016) for further exploring the visual possessing. The use of heat maps (Li et al, 2016;Pan et al, 2011;Potocka, 2013;Samant & Seo, 2016) or scan-path/ gaze plots (Hellmann, Yeow, & De Mello, 2017;Scott et al, 2016;Wang & Sparks, 2016) helps researchers to visualise research findings. Researchers define specific AOI in order to evaluate participants' attention to these areas.…”

“…In order to improve advertisement effectiveness, tourism academics have investigated the influence of textual presentation order and graphical presentation on judgments (Hellmann et al, 2017), image characteristics and ethnicity (Wang & Sparks, 2016), text advertisement versus advertisement with block images (Scott et al, 2016), tourism photographs with text (Li et al, 2016) gain-framed messages versus loss-framed messages (Berenbaum & Latimer-Cheung, 2014) and imbibing alcohol (Ellert et al, 2014) on advertising perception. In general, block images advertisement were more effective in attracting and retaining attention compared to the text in advertisements (Scott et al, 2016). Text increases consumer attention toward the tourism advertisement, in particular when the text is in the participants' native language (Li et al, 2016).…”

“…Previous studies used self-report methods to evaluate the effectiveness of visual 4 advertisements after the campaign had been implemented (Kim, Hwang, & Fesenmaier, 2005;Morgan, Hastings, & Pritchard, 2012). In order to design better marketing campaigns`, tourist responses to visual advertising may be evaluated objectively before the implementation stage (Scott, Green, & Fairley, 2016). The study of eye movements has been used in psychology for around a hundred years, and more recently in a number of other disciplinary areas including computer science, engineering and human factors, marketing, and neuroscience (Duchowski, 2002).…”

The role of brand elements in destination branding

“…This study helps to draw useful conclusions on the issues of brand formation and the role of brand elements partly also because it addresses actual visitors, when studies on the success of largely visual stimuli and their meaning most usually take place in laboratories (for instance by using eye-tracking methodology; see Scott et al, 2016). In our study, addressing actual tourists suggests the success of the destination in attracting international visitors (surpassing other destinations) and provides a chance to examine the role of brand elements in this success.…”