PROJECT POSTER: A HOVEL APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POSTER ADVERTISING i, INTRODUCTION The poster medium is a particularly important means of product exposure for the tobacco industry, since in many markets most other routes of comnunicatfng with the consumer are closed, Given this fact It is important to fully understand how this medium works so that it can be used to its maximum potential. To date research has failed to adequately demonstrate how posters work in terms of their ability to increase~ product awareness, We know that posters Ire positioned in a hostile environment competing for attention with traffic, pedestrians, shops and other distracting stimuli, This, coupled with the fact that porters have no movement or sound and consequently few tools to attract attention with, leads to the question: "What factors contribute to a poster site's attention competing valuel" In the absence of a fully comprehensive site evaluation system, there is no way of defining 'quality' and only when such a system is available will advertisers be able to buy poster space with any real confidence, Although site grading systems have been developed they have often been found to be inadequate, For example, in the U,K, the industry relied on the poster model for defining advertising effectiveness of any particular site for many years, The question that this model attempts to answer is: "What is the real potential audience delivered by what the media planner buysll The Poster Model purports to measure opportunity to see (OTS), coverage and frequency delivered by a particular campaign, [t measures OTS by assessing the A value which is the average number of passages past a site per member of the population (a site passage is represented as an OTS), Coverage is calculated as A over A~B, where B (normally taken as a O constant) Is the difference between passages per population ~ loss LA.T. (U.K. rd Elponl limkrd. This repon mull nc~ be copied M Ihowm to urvhwind persons, BATCo document for Legal Senrices : Health Canada 21 Yay 1999 and passage per actual audience. Thus, by adding B to the bottom line of the equation, cover is reduced to take account of.the fact that some DTS are repetitions among the same people, Information concerning site passage is collected by interviewing people and asking then to state which sites they have journeyed past. This interview method was chosen In preference to the traffic count method as the latter gives no indication of the number of repeat journeys, The reliance of the Poster Model on interview for collation of data was one of the grounds on which It has been severely crit~cised. One might, quite reasonably, argue that mere passage past a site does not necessarily represent an OTS~ If the site Is angled away from the line of vision, if It is too high or too low (defiected), or if it is turned inwards frcon the road (e~g~ the posters which are placed on bus shelters and faced inwards for the waiting passengers (adshelsi), then merely being there does not represent an OTSI Clearly, therefore, some classification of the physical characteristics of the site (f,e, Its visibility) must be brought into play when assessing the attention capturing potential of a particular poster site, A second criticism of the model concerns the site grading question. Within any town the sites are positioned in different locations, some of which will attract more site passages than othefs~ The model as it non stands does not take into account the site grading factor, A more recently developed poster site evaluation system, 'namely Poster Audience Measurement (PAM), has gone son way to meeting the shortcomings of the Poster Model, similar to the Poster Model, PAM was devised to estimate a poster sf tels audi ence I However, unlike the Poster Model, the PAM method takes Into account the characteristics of the poster O site Itself, as well as measuring site passages, when assessing U1 the audience value of that site, u IP86 B.h.T. IUK, md Elpnl timil~d 'f his rrpon mug r~l k copied or Jbn to unulhorirld p~nonr CD BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 Within the PAM model a distinction is made between two types of traffic part a site: the motorist and the pedestrian. It is recogn~sed that each has different OTS and hence need to be measured separately, At this stage, the PP~L~ model has been developed to deal specifically with motorist traffic, It is reasoned that since motorist traffic is canalised it is much easier to deal with than pedestrian traffic, This is because, unlike pedestrians, motorists do not act in a random way but in accord with the prevailing traffic conditions, The PAM formula to estimate the motorist OTS can be expressed as follows: vehicles x Occupancy x visibility Factor :Motorist OTS The visibility factor is calculated from the site's scores an a number of variables including location of the site Ie,g, by area and by road type) and the physical characteristics of the site (e,g, whether or not the site is obstructed, its angle of vision, its deflection and the range at which it can be seen), Since the PAM model takes into account both physical characteristics of the site and its location in calculations of that site's audience value, it represents a significant advance over the Poster Model for providing a poster grading system, However, the visibility factor contained within the motorist OTS formula is based on a number of objective criteria which have been subjectively determined as significant in providing an OfS, This leads one to ask the guestion:'How relevant are these subjectively defined criteria to the actual visibility of the poster sftel", Since the cost of renting paster space is often closely related to the physical characteristics of the site it is important to resolve this issue. In the U,K, market for example the prime variable on which costing is based is the size of the poster, ihe majority of paster sites in the U,K, are known as 48 sheets (Z0'x10'), O 1986 8.6T. IV.K. md Elpml limnd. fhjl npon mun nol b~ FcpiJ or therm to un~ulholiled penoru. ~D BA~Co document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 Recent developments in poster advertising have included the Introduction of "Adshels" (40x6O Ins) and "Supersites" (27'x10', 36'x10', 40'x10' and 451110'), examples of all three poster sizes are given In Appendix YI~ The cost of the foraer is approximately one third that of a 48 sheet and the cost of the latter is three times that of the 48 sheet, This clearly raises the Important question as to Whether or not cost differentials based on size are relevant or justified in poster site purchase~ Another criticism of the available grading models Is that they make no attempt to consider the contribution of the poster design itself in attracting visual attention to the s~te~ A related problem is that the models make no attempt to relate an OTS to the consolidation Into the consumers memory of advertising material contained on the sites, Much of what an individual sees In everyday life is never registered, Therefore, it is Important not only for a poster site to present an OTS but also, if the advertising campaign is to be successful, for the design of the pester to be of sufficient Interest that the individual registers the information it contains~ One of the reasons why research conducted to date has been unable to provide a poster evaluation system that not only examines the grading of sites but considers the relationship between visibility and consolidation Is that the methods used have been Inapproprlate~ In the past these two Issues have been treated separately~ The way In which poster grading systems are developed has been outlined, As far as consumers' reactions to posters are concerned, these have traditionally been measured in the laboratory, A typical study would involve consumers viewing a video film of a drive route (a route through a townlcity which has been driven along and filmed) and subsequently attempting to recall those pesters noticed, It is clear that such conditions are not representative of real life since in the laboratory there ,f~ IPBL B,A.T. (U.K. rd Etpon) limil~d Thil npon mull not be Fopad or Ihown Io rnnrhon'~ld ptnonr. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 are few environmental factors to distract attention and consequently this type~of study allows the consumer to focus an inordinate amount of attention to the drive route film, Thus, although the film of the drive route may be considered fairly realistic, the situation in which the consumer is required to view it is not, One obvious way of overcoming the lack of representativeness of this type of approach Is to actually take the consumer out an the drive route, either as a drf ver or. as a passenger, and to use recall and/or recognition as a measure of poster noticeability, In this situation, a recall measure requires the consumer to spontaneously remember advertising material without any memory prompt, When a recognition measure is used, on the other hand, the consumer is given cues to aid recall (e,g, photographs of advertising material), However, there are several problems associated with using recall/ recognition measures alone, Taking recall first, it is known that the recall process Is biased by such factors as: i, Presumed Experimenter Expectations (the consumer will recount only those items thought to be of interest to the experimenter), 2, Response Set (consumers will report only those things that they themselves think are important), 3, Delay Effects (whilst the consumer may not recall certain aspects of their experience imnediately, usually due to unavailability of appropriate internal cues, this Is no guarantee that they will not be recalled later), Whiist recognition avoids the problem associated with unavailability of appropriate memory cues at the time of remembering, it is still subject to the problems of both presumed experimenter expectations and response set, Therefore, depending on the consumer's perception of the situation 19116 B.A.T. [U.K. md Elprl) Limilrd. Thir rrpod murl not k EOP~d or shown to unluthorirrd pnonr BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 recognition 15 likely to be either over, or under, canprehenslue. With no measure of what the consumer actually saw during the drive it is impossible to know how accurate a reflection recognition provides of what was viewed, One further problem associated with both recall and recognition concerns the adaptability of these measures when considering the site grading problem, if a consumer either recalls or recognlses a poster design which is featured several times on the drive route, the measure does not indicate at which location this design was actually seen, A study by Young (4) represents an improvement over previous designs since he actually filmed drivers on a specified drive route in an attempt to determine exactly where they looked, However, such a film will only give an indication of the direction of the line of sight rather than pinpoint exactly where the consumer looked and for how long, The use of eye gaze monitoring equipment provides an opportunity to overcome the problems discussed by allowing the development of a poster grading system based on precise abjective data of factors which influence a consumer In directing their visual attention to a site, Also, when the information provided by eye gaze monitoring is used in conjunction with recall and recognition measures it is possible to give same consideration as to the reasons why, of the designs that are viewed, some designs are remembered and others are not, By using an eye gaze monitor, the way in which an individual visually scans the environment is filmed and is therefore kept on permanent record, The precise documentation of exactly where the consumer looks and for how long cannot be provided by any other measurement approach, There are a number of ways in which eye gale can be monitored, including fixed head harnessing and attaching electrodes to the consumers eyes, These methods are unsuitable where it is desired that the O 1986 B.A.t, IU.K, md Erponl Limied. thir apo~ murl nor be copi~d w shc~wn to unlulhdriKd pnoa. VI BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 consumer is mobile, The recent development of an eyeˇmark recorder has made it possible to monitor eyeˇgaze behaviour outside of the laboratory, By attaching a facial "camera" to the consumer's head, the eye gate monitor simultaneously and continuously records the subject's discrete visual point of interest within his/her field of view, The field of view is filmed by a lens attached to the front of the camera, The subject's visual point of Interest is recorded by filming the movement of an illuminated spot off the eyeball cornea, These films are then superimposed and recorded onto video tape, On viewing the film it is therefore possible to see everything in the slbject's field of view and the movement of their eyes across this view Is shown by a moving spot of light, This report describes an experiment where the actual visibility of posters on a drive route is assessed using eye gaze monitoring, and recall and recognition measures are used to give an indication of the extent to which advertising material is consolidated, 2, OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study were as follows: I, To establish whether or not individuals attend to posters in the environment, 2, On the assumption that individuals do attend to posters in the environment, to determine the prime site variables (e,gl physical characteristics, location and Poster design) influencing the style of that attention (e,g, duration of scanning pattern), 3, To determine (also on the assumption that people attend to posters in the environment) the extent to Which Crl attention translates into recall/recognition of material, 19116 LI.T. [O.K. ~nd Elponl Limiud. Thir Rpn mulr npl k EOPiCd or I~wrO. in un~uthddd p~nonl. BATCa document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 __ _I 3, EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN In order to achieve the above objectives there were two aspects to the design, Firstly, respondents were driven around a predetermined drive route whilst wearing eye gale sonitoring eglpment so that their visual interaction with the environment could be recorded, On completion of the drive route, an inˇdepth interview Has conducted to cover recognition and recall of advertising material featured on the route, Reactions to wearing the eye gaze monitoring eauipnnent were nonitored during the interview, Additionally, as a final debrief, respondents were given the opportunity to view a playback of the video film taken during the drive route, Comments on why particular environmental features attracted attention were invited, Particular emphasis was focused on the attention capturing potential of posters, The drive rode, selected in collaboration with More O1Ferrall PLC Ltd, (a poster site agency operating in the U,K,) was located in central Bristol, The route war chosen to provide a good spread of poster sites in terms of size and location, A map of the drive route is shown In Appendix I, The orange markers on the map serve to indicate the location of poster sites on the route, A description of these poster sites, in terms of number of hoardings (sTtes), size, type of location (head on, parallel, etc.) and poster contentldesign, is contained within Appendix II, The variety, in terms of poster sites, provided by the drive route allows the effects of the following variables on visual tracking behaviour to be assessed at the analysis stage: I, The number of poster sites, 2, The type of locations (head on, parallel, etc,), 3, The size of the posters, 1986 B.A.T.IU.K. Ind ElpPnl limiad, Thi, rrpod mur( not b~ copitd w shown in unlubarilrd ptnonl. BA~Co document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 4, Static opportunities to view (the effect was determined by parking the car next to a predetermined poster site and monitoring the consumers' visual reactions), 5, Adshels (these are 40U x 601 posters placed on bus shelters: since adshels are a new development in the U,K, special consideration is given to them,) 6, The content of the posters (i,e. poster design), 4, RESEARCH METHOD Eighty-two respondents were recruited to participate in the study, The recruitment quotas were set in terms of age, solial class, sex and smoking status, The breakdonn of the sample achieved is shown in Table I, TABLE 1 DESCRIPTION OF SP31PLE Total Smokers NonˇSmokers Sample Sex I Male 17 22 39 Female 16 27 43 Age 17-34 26 28 54 35-45 7 21 28 Social A,B,C1 8 20 28 Class C2,OE 25 29 54 During the recruitment stage information concerning whether or not the respondent was a driver Has collected, All of the respondents participated as passengers in a car as it Has considered impractical to drive the car whilst wearing eye gaze monitoring equipment, IPllb B.A.t IUK, and Elponl limlltd 'Thlr rrpon m~l( IKII a EOpid or ~hcvn Io unlulhoriKd pLnon. Ln BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ10ˇ To avoid biasing visual behaviour, the respondents were not told the true purpose of the study on recruitment, They were led to believe that the sole aim of the exercise was to study the visual scanning behaviour of passengers in a car, The research Has conducted over two time periods, During the first stage, which took place in August (16thˇ21st August 1982), 35 interviews were completed, Forty-seven interviews Here completed during the second stage, which took place in September (13thˇ18th September 1982 and 21stˇ22nd September 1982), The particular weeks were selected in order to Riinimise the possibility of posters being changed during the course of that particular stage of the research, Any unanticipated poster changes were monitored so that the necessary adjustments could be made at the interpretation stage, In order to aid interpretation of the results a distinction is made between number of poster designs and number of poster sites, This is because during each stage of the research a number of poster designs were featured several times during the drive route, In stage 1 of the research there were 57 poster designs and 107 sites, In stage 2 there were 74 paster designs and, due to the erection of some new sites, there were 118 sites, When dealing with the recall and recognition data we are concerned with paster designs end, when dealing with the eyeˇgaze data, poster sites are considered, The fact that the research was conducted over two well separated time periods provided the opportunity to gain some insight into the relative contributions of poster design and poster site location in capturing attention, This is because whitst the poster sites were constant In terms of location across the two stages of the study, the designs on those sites, In the majority of cases, changed, 19(16 B.~.T. (U.K. and E~ponl tim$d. This fepen mesl Mck eopied or Shown (p un~ulhorild pmou. U BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -11ˇ Clearly, in any truly environmental study there is no constancy, Prevailing environmental conditions will be different from one occasion to another, Therefore, the distractions experienced by one respondent will not be the same as those experienced by another, The only way to overcome such problems is to spread the time sample as widely as possible, This was done by conducting the interviews at hourly Intervals from 9,30am until ~,30pP but omitting 4,30pl when the traffic congestion would extend the driving time unreasonably, Additionally, the study was conducted on different days of the week to take account of the fact that environmental conditions will vary by day, 5, APPARATUS (i) Eye Gale Monitoring Equipment As explained previously, the eye gaze monitoring equipment provides an "action replay" of the drive route and of the participants' viewing behaviour, A photograph of the mask together with a schematic diagram is shown in Figure i. The essential features of the eye gate monitor are as follows: (a) Main Objective Lens This lens, positioned on the front of the lask, photographs all that Is in the subject's field of view, Since it is fixed to the front of the head, the lens moves with the head, Variations In light Intensity to this lens are catered for by the fˇstop adjustment, 198b 8kT. (U.K, and Erp~rtl timilrd, This apon mull nor bc ropitd or ~ho*n u un~lriPd pnonr CT1 BAT~o document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 _I _ __ -12ˇ (b) Reticle lamp This lamp provides a spot of light which is positioned off the eyeball cornea. Precise positioning and focusing of this light spot is facilitated by the parallax adjustment, vertical adjustment, lateral adjustment, reticle lamp positioning adjustment and the reticle lamp focus, (c) Dichroic Mirror The light spot serves as a marker for movement of the eye, The image of the light spot moving with the eye is picked up by the dichroic mirror positioned in front of the eye, It is possible to see through this particular type of mirror and therefore it does not obstruct the subject's sight, (d) Reticle lens The movement of the spot of light across the dichroic mirror is filmed by the reticle lens, (e) Fibre Optic and Video Equipment The information filmed from both the main objective lens and the reticle lens is passed through a series of relay optics up the fibre optic, The information from the two lenses is relayed on separate tracks but superimposed on the video film, (11) Mobile laboratory So that the respondent's eye gaze could be monitored on the drive route, it was necessary to adapt the monitoring equipment 19116 B.A.f. (U.K, und Enpcn) limi~~ Thil npPn mlul not k eopitd w Ihou~n ~o unaulborilld pnonl BA'TCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 FIG 1 RO 2051 RESTRICTED VERTICAL ADJUSTMENT FIBRE OPTICS [ONNECtOR f-STOP AOJUStMEN~ RETI[LE LAllp FOcUS, (a LATERAL ADJUSTMENT PARALLAX AaJUSTnEHT HAIH OBJECTIVE LENS R~fl[LE IAMP POSITIOHING ~YI\U, `nlc~aol[ WRAOR AOJUSTMfNt RE'TICLE IAHP/ 'LlETICLE IENS SCHEMATIC OIAGRAM ;~ FIBRE OPtltS RELAY B REIOROfR OPrl[S O Q '--~~I [OnPOSIT~OPTIIS OP~I[S SWf Unp ~ m REUY LEHS Focus I;( ~ OPTla EYE V Y [AF1ERA -~---~-~ lass SPOT UNP YAW PHOTO LENS O sEfˇ rHRa nlRAOR FIEUI OF'VIW - P BATCo document for legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -13ˇ so that it Could be used in the mobile situation, R schematic diagram of the mobile laboratory is shown in Figure 2 and a description is given below, Schematic Oeseriptlan of the Mobile Laboratory The subject (1) is located in the front passenger seat of the car and required to wear the eye gate monitoring equipment shown in Figure i, The light source to the eye gaze monitor is powered by a supplementary battery placed in the rear of the car (2), The information from both the main objective lens and the reticle lens is passed, on separate tracks, up through the fibre optic (3) to the video camera (4), The camera power input is supplied by the car battery itself (5), This same power supply (6) is used to drive the partable video recorder (7), placed in the rear of the car, which makes a permanent record of bath the subject's field of view and their eye movements over it, All supplementary eye gate monitoring equipment (8) is located in the rear passenger seat, The experimenter (9) is also the driver of the car, 6, INTERVIEU FORMAT The precise interview format adapted by the interviewer is given in Appendix Ill, She interview was divided into three stages, The first stage~was designed to cover reactions to wearing the eye gaze monitoring equipment, Particular attention was paid to determining whether the equipment was comfortable to wear and, more importantly, whether the respondent felt that wearing the equipment had biased normal viewing behavidur, Spontaneous recall of advertisaents was covered during the next stage of the interview, From the Interview format it can be seen that question 3 was designed to elicit completely load B.A.t, rU.K, und Fl.ponl limild, Thil report mwr rm~ he copitd w Ihom to unluthorild pcnonl 0; BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 O Y I w W W I~ d u 9w L 1 >E c u ~ro ˇ6 113 Da u~ t ~#W 'O C H ~u o ~O( ow N PCO br PS wa N ~w t LL w 8x sr 'I f I Pd O uo r, ZW oP C-L3 L> W TX u ,o O JC 3 61 LO 3t W I J r 1 O e, WT N 31 Z >u d PI r `hl I II ~SZI I a ~I F I I re, \I II I \ I~ wu I I I- I I II I II I w uO 3 W w~ I >~ u IX M 11 ZC IX (1 Wf o CH Ut wO bu 1 Hu rr Ww ii 0( LU O O BATCo document lor Legal Services : Health Canada 21 lay 191 .14ˇ unprompted recall of posters, However, since the wording of this question was general it was felt that interviewees Mould be unlikely to recall advertisements in response to it, Therefore, questions dealing specifically with advertisements were asked at a later stage (questions 8 and 9), These questions were masked between other unrelated questions so that the respondents did not becomelaware that advertisements were the focus of interest in the study, Recognition of poster designs was dealt with In the third stage of the interview, The interviewer was equipped with photographs of all the poster designs featured on the route plus a number of dummies, The tunnies were photographs of advertisements which had not been featured on the drive route and in many cases had not been part of campaigns featured in the 8ristol area, The respondent was informed that there were a number of dun~nies contained within the photographs, It was hoped that providing this information would reduce the tendency for respondents to claim that they had seen a design which in fact they had not seen. The respondents were asked to sort the photographs into two piles: one pile was to contain those designs they thought they had seen on the drive route and the other to contain those they had not seen, It was stressed that we were interested in what had been seen duri?q the drive rather than on other occasions, Upon completion of the interview, respondents were given the opportunity to view the video film taken during the drive, A cormnentary on why particular aspects of the route had attracted attention was invited, 1 1986 B.A.t. (U.K, Ind Elponl Limited. Thir ~p~n ma~ nor k Fopi~d or sholcl tp unlulhwiKd pmonr, 0\ BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ~15ˇ 7, RESULTS AND ANALYSIS (i) Reactions to Wearfng the Equfpment The first two stages of each interview were recorded on audfotape to provide a permanent, unbiased record of the i ntervi ewee's responses, Due to corruption of certain tapes, however, seven interviews were lost, The information concerning reactions to wearing the equipment and recall of poster designs Is, therefore, based on seventyˇfive respondents, The respondent's reaction to wearing the equipment was covered by the following three questions: (a) "Was the eclui pment uncomf ortable to wear at al 1 i" Nineteen of the seventyˇfive respondents recorded that the equipment was uncomfortable to wear, In all cases the cause for complaint was associated with pressure felt on the bridge of the nose, This source of discomfort was recorded by most participants in the study, However, in the majority of cases this did not lead to an overall evaluation of the experience as being uncomfortable, (b) "Oidyou feel self-conscious wearing the equipmentl" Dnly seven of the respondents reported that they felt selfˇ conscious whilst Hearing the equipment, Upon further questfoning, it was apparent that the respondents reallsed that, since the mast covered much of the face, they could not be recognised whflst wearing the equipment, This knowledge appeared to al levf ate any feelf ngs of apprehensiqn on behalf Of the respondents, 191 BA.'f, (U.K, rna Elpn) LmirB. Thir Rpon mw~ nM be eopird or Ihom to unrbrind ptnonr. Q BATCo document for legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇr6ˇ (c) HOid you feel that the eq~ipment restricted your normal head movements In any wayl" Tnenty respondents felt that the equipment restricted their normal head movements, There were two principal reasons for the feeling of restriction. The first was associated with the height of the respondent, Yery tall individuals found that the top of the equfpment actually touched the ceiling of the car, In all cases this was compensated for by these individuals positioning themselves lower in the car seat, The second reason for reporting restricted head movements was associated with the fact that some respondents felt that they were unable to turn their head a full 180' to took behind, However, these individuals agreed that the occasions for wanting to do this were limited, (ii) Eye Gale, Recall and Recognition The fact that this study was conducted in two stages and that the two stages involved different subjects, different poster designs and to some extent different poster sites means that it Has necessary to analyse each stage independently, Since this approach to the analysis makes somewhat technical reading, a detailed outline of the results is contained in Appendix IY, This appendix also contains a description of the statistical approach to the analysis and definitions of the terms used to describe the poster sites, In this section a surr~nary of the analysis is given highlighting those issues of importance to the strategic use of the information for poster advertising policies, (a) Eye Gaze The results showed that approximately 16,5X of posters were looked at on the drive route, fhis obviously means that a 1911( B.~,T. IU.K, via Erpod) Limilrd, nil npPd nppdlasl ro(k Fopied or lhown u,unlutholixd ptnoor O BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ17ˇ much advertising material is not seen, Therefore, anything that can be done to enhance the visibility of our posters is of value when using this medium, Consequently, an important question is what detennlnes visibilityl Is it the poster design or the poster site itselfl fhe results show that whilst the subject classification factors showed no relationship to viewing behaviour, poster site classification factors were highly related to viewing behaviour, Poster size was significantly related to viewing behaviour, with the odds of a poster being looked at increasing by a factor of 2,0 ~ 0,1 per 100 so, ft, of poster site area, As far as the predominant sites in the U,K, are concerned the odds of looking at a 48 sheet relative to an adshel were 3,6 whilst the odds of looking at a supersite relative to a 48 sheet Here 3,2, However, it is worth noting that only approximately 2~ of adshels were looked at, Also, as far as supersltes are concerned, there were only two featured on the route and they were positioned next to one another in a nearside, headˇon location, The eye gaze results show that location also played an important part in determining whether or not a poster site was looked at, The result that the 48 sheets positioned adjacent to these Supersites also received a disproportionate amount of viewing attention would suggest that location was more important in corrmanding visual attention to the Supersites than their size, A counter argument to the above would be that the reason why the 48 sheet positioned immediately next to the Supersite attracted a good deal of visual attention was because subjects were initially attracted by the Supersite, Since there were no other 48 sheet sites in different nearside headˇon locations It was not possible to test this, The fact that location itself plays an important part in determining whether or not a site is looked at Is seen in the analysis, As far as location is concerned the principal O 1916 B.A.T. IU.K, Ind El~on) lirniad. Thil report mur~ noc a rPpi~d or Jh01M110 unlUdlOd~ld PI~IOIYI. O BATCo document for Legal Services : Health canada 21 May 1999 _ ˇ18ˇ factor in determining whether or not an individual looks at a site is its angle of presentation relative to the line of vision, The ordering of the sites in terms of attracting visual attention was as follows: angled, off/nearside headˇ on, parallel and straight headˇon, The finding that this relation held over both stages of the research indicates that location is more important in determining whether or not an individual looks at a site than the design of the Poster featured on that site, This is demonstrated clearly in Figure 9 where the average number of occasions each of the 107 sites, common to both stages of the research, Here looked at is shown, (b) Length of EyeˇGaze As well as considering the number of poster sites viewed by a subject or, conversely, the number of times a design was leaked at, a mebsure of length of eye gaze was taken, Length of eye gaze was classified on a O to 3 unit scale where: O ˇ did not look at a porter, l:very brief glance at a poster; 2 1 scanned a poster and 3 - scanned a poster for a long period of time (greater than 5 seconds), The rationale for taking this measure was that although a subject may not have looked at many paster sites those that they leaked at they may have spent a long time viewing, which will consequently affect measures of the relationship between viewing behaviour and subsequent recall and recognition, The same thinking Is appropriate to the analysis of the data by poster design, However, figures 10, 11, 12 and 13 show that there is a straight lineˇrelationship between number of occasions viewed and length of viewing, Therefore, findings relating to the eye gaze data would also be expected to hold for the length of eye gaze data, This is demonstrated when the relationship between location and length of eye gaze is explored, 1986 B.A.T. IU.K. md Elanl Limicd. Thil rrpon mun not be co~i~d or therm to unathorirJ pno~u 0~ BATCa document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -19ˇ The average length of eye gaze score was approximately 0,25 units which Indicates that the majority of looking behaviour was fairly cursory in nature, Although the subjects mean length of eye gaze score ranged from 0.03 to 0,64 units this was not related to any of the subject classification factors, As far as the poster site cl~ssificat~on factors are concerned it Has noted that for the static opportunity to view, as well as being more likely to look at this poster, the subjects looked at it for longer (the design featured an this site is shown in Appendix V~), Again, poster size was related to length of eye gaze, with the length of time spent viewing Increasing at a rate of approximately 0,13 units t 0,01 per 100 square feet, The caveats noted in the eyeˇgate data for sire are also relevant here, There were clear differences between the different poster site locations in terms of length of eye gate, These differences reflected those recorded with respect to the eye gaze data, The ordering of locations in terms of length of visual attention received was as follows: angled, offlnearside headˇon, parallel and straight headˇon, The result indicates that as Hell as increasing the chances of your poster being looked at by positioning it in a good location, the design will also be looked at for longer thereby increasing the time available to convey the product message, (c) Recall The total average recall percentage for designs other than adshels was approximately 2l391, However, this data was successively corrected for the contribution of (a) posters not featured an the route tactual average); (b) poster designs O 1916 8.hT. IO.K, md frpnl Limiltd. Thir Rpolt muJt not k copied a shown to un~ulhorixd pcrronl. b BATCa document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -20ˇ recalled with an awareness of the brand they were advertising (branded average); and (c) the poster featured at the static Opportunity to view, Uhen this was done the approximate percentage figures were as follows: 2,18t, 1,771 and 0,83f, The corresponding figures for adshels Were: 0,491 (total average); 0,38 tactual average); and 0,16X (branded average), Correction for static opportunity to view is not relevant here, The above figures show that as far as motorist traffic is concerned, the amount of advertising information consolidated consciously is limited, As far as adshels are concerned, it appears that, taking the eyeˇgaze data Into consideration as welll they are Inappropriate as far as motorist traffic is concerned, The recall data was analysed in relation to the characteristics of the type of poster site the designs were featured on, The odds of recalling the static poster design were a hundred times the odds of recalling a "moving" poster design (i,e. a poster design which had been driven past), There was a consistent effect of poster size, with the odds of recall increasing at a rate of approximately 252 ,10X per 100 sq,ft, This finding is mainly contributed to by the very low recall rate for adshel designs, One further finding of interest is that paster location was not related to recall, thus, although the location of a poster was important in determining whether or not a subject looked at a poster site, factors other than simply looking at the poster featured were important in determining whether or not that poster design was recalled at a later stage. As far as the subject classification factors were concerned, sex, age and sloking status were not related to recall of poster material. An interesting finding from the stage 2 data, however, was the relationship between driving status and recall, It was noted that the more often the subject was O : 1986 &A.T, IUK, md &pon) limil~d. This Epon aur~ ~dl b~ ~opid or !hom co unalori*d p~r, O~ BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ21ˇ a passenger In a car the lore advertising material they recalled, The full implications of this finding are presented in the discussion, (d) Recognition The nuaber of poster designs recognised us approximately r3,92I, Although this result is encouraging there are a number of pointers to the fact that subjects may be over comprehensive In their selection of pasters they claim to recognise, Firstly, an increase in poster designs recognised closely corresponds to an increase in the number of dummy designs selected, Secondly, the majority of designs were recognised but, conversely, the majority of designs were never recalled, Thus, whilst recall may be considered too strict a measure of retention, recognition measures should also be viewed with caution, It is with these caveats in mind that the recognition data is discussed, As with all the measures, the poster presented at the static opportunity to view fared particularly well, The poster designs positioned adjacent to the stationary target also achieved high recognition rates, Another poster design which achieved high recognition Has a Benson b Hedges advertisement (shown in Appendix YI), On a relative basis, this advertisement was also well represented in the recall data. Nuinber of occasions featured on the drive route, location and site of the sites this design appeared on could not have been the reason why this particular poster was remembered, The explanation for its exceptional performance therefore, must be with the design itself. Once again there was no clear and consistent relationship between any of the subject classification factors and recognition rate, However, the characteristics of the poster site itself were related to recognition. Recognition rate Q IP86 B.b.T. IV.K. lad Elpdl limited. Thil rrpan mel na k copied w Ihom to un~uthoril~d p~nonl. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ22ˇ increased with paster site, with much of this effect being accounted for by the fact that very few adshel designs were recognised, As far as location was concerned there was no consistent relationship between this factor and recognition rate, One further question explored in the recognition data concerned the effect of amount of coverage of a design, It was found that as coverage increased then so did recognition rate and that this effect was related to number of presentations rather than to area of exposure, However, it was noted that this relationship appeared to lever out after four presentations and therefore there may have been diminishing returns, However, in this study the fact that no poster design Has featured more than 5 times means that this relationship could not be explored any further, (e) Recall Related ta EyeˇGate and Length af ye.6ate No significant relationship was found between number of poster sites looked at or length of time spent viewing and subsequent recall rate, A more appropriate question of the data, however, is the relationship between number of times a design was looked at or the length of time it was looked at and subsequent recall rate, In this case both relationships were significant, This result, taken with previous results, indicates that although looking at a poster design is not sufficient to guarantee that that design will be remembered, the more that poster is looked at then the greater its chances of being remembered at a later stage, The fact that looking behaviour is not Sufficient to guarantee consolidation is indicated by examples quoted where different designs, leaked It the same number of times, have widely discrepant recall rates, : 1986 b~,T. (U.K, ~~ E~pod) limied~ ThiJ rrpon m~l not be to~kd w shown to unlulhorir~ penon~. BATCo document for legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 __ -23ˇ (f) Recognition Related to EyeˇGaze and Length of EyeˇGale Ihe results far recognition related to eye-gaze and length of eye-gaze precisely mirror those for recall related to eyeˇ gate and length of eyeˇgae, Again examples are given to show that although the chances of a poster design being recoqnised are increased with increased viewing, other factors are important, such as design of the poster itself, In determining whether or not that information will be consolidated, 8, DISCUSSION As far as the tobacco industry is concerned the poster medium is extremely important as a means of product exposure since many other methods of cononunicating with the consumer are closed to the industry, As such, there Is a considerable need to ensure that posters are used to their maximum potential, Within the V,K, various methods of grading poster sites have been adopted, One of the more recent models, which represents a significant advance over previous ones, maker distinctions between motorist and pedestrian traffic and attempts to calculate OTS by taking into account the amount of traffic passing a particular site as well as the site characteristics, ~he drawbacks of this particular model have already been discussed in the introduction, One of the more obvious drawbacks Is that in the development of this model no attempt has been made to objectively determine the criteria claimed to be Important in determining whether or not a site is visible, Additionally, it Rakes no attempt to relate OfS to effectiveness of the medium in terms of consolidation into the consumer memory process, Although various poster grading systems exist in the U,K, the predominant means of costing for a site Is based on site, The majority of sites within the U,K, are referred to as 48 sheets, Recently, however, Supersites have been introduced O 1986 B.A.T. IU.K. Ind Etponl Limi~d. lhil npon mull nol be rapi~d or shaum to uuulhorilcd pnons, BATCa document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ24ˇ and the cost of renting these is approximately three times the cost of a 48 sheet.regardless of location considerations, Another recent development has been the use of adshel advertising, These are the small advertiswnents placed on the side of bus shelters, These are also costed on the basis of size and amount to about half of the cost of a 48 sheet, One obvious question, therefore, is how justified are the sellers of advertising space in charging disproportlonate sums of money for larger sites, The technique described in this report has been designed to represent an improvement on existing methods in the development of a poster grading system, In the analysis of the data, as well as determining the relative importance of the physical characteristics of the sites, the way in which poster content contributes to visibility has been considered, Additionally, consolidation of the advertising material and factors which are important in achieving this are also outlined, The study involved driving subjects around a predetermined drive route whilst wearing eye gaze monitoring equipment, This equipment provides an 'action replay' of the subjects viewing behaviour since it provides a video film of both the subjects' field of vien and where they look on the field of view, Using this infotmation it was therefore possible to know the number of poster sites looked at, which particular sites and the length of time each site Has looked'at, After completion of the drive route the subjects took part in an inˇdepth interview which was designed to cover reactions to Hearing the equipment and consolidation of advertising material from the drive route, The latter was measured using recall and recognition measures, Recall was both cued and uncued, Initially, the subjects were asked to recall anything at all they remembered from the drive route, Subsequently, they were specifically asked whether or not they remembered any advertisements from the drive route, During the recognition test subjects were given photographs of all the posters 19111 BA.T. (U.K. and bpnl limied. This spon lnnsl Mn be copied or shown to unlulhorirtd p~nonr. ~ BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -25ˇ featured an the drive route plus 50Z dummy photographs of advertisements which had not appeared on that drive route and many of which were from campaigns conducted in vicinities outside the one In which the study took place, The study was conducted in two stages which were timed to take place so that the majority of posters which appeared in the first stage were different from those that appeared in the second state (poster turn-around time is approximately 6 weeks in the U,K,), This means that although the majority of poster site locations were the same across the two stages, the poster contents they featured were different, This allows some conment on the relative importance of the poster content compared with poster location in attracting visual attention, Reactions to wearing the equipment were generally favourable, very few subjects reported that they felt self-conscious wearing the equipment, A few subjects reported that the equipment put some pressure on the bridge of the nose but said that they got used to this quite quickly, Although the subjects felt that they could move their head to the left and to the right quite freely, a snail number reported that they felt they Could not turn their head through 180" to look behind the, They did agree, however, that the number of occasions for actually wanting to do this were limited, Both of these problems are overcome by a new model of eye gaze monitor currently developed, This is a completely different design where the weight of the monitor Is distributed evenly around the head and not felt dispr6portionately on the bridge of the nose as with the monitor used in this study, Also, on the new monitor the f~bre optic, which may contribute to the feeling that head movements are restricted, has been replaced by micro infrared cameras placed on the monitor itself, In the data analysis each parameter was dealt with independently and then relationships between then were explored, IPllb th.t. IV.K, ad ElpM1) Limird. Thil rep6n mnl hoc be copied w shown to uvulhwis~d pnonl. BA'TCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ26ˇ The eye gate data showed that 16% of the sites were looked at in stage 1 and 178 of the sites were looked at in stage 2, The percentage figures cannot be compared directly with those given for recall and recognition Since these figures are a percentage of the number of sites (107 in stage 1, and 118 In stage 2) whilst these for recognition and recall are a percentage of the number of designs (57 for stage i, and 73 for stage 2], Nevertheless when the results for recall are taken into consideration Idiscussed later) it is clear that much of the material looked at is never remembered, Thus, whilst it is absolutely necessary for a poster to be looked at to be remembered, other factors are important in determining whether or not information will be consolidated, These will be discussed later, As far as looking behaviour is concerned it was noted that number of occasions viewed and amount of time spent viewing were directly related to one another and, therefore, they will not be discussed separately. Although there was a great deal of variability between the subjects in terms of the percentage of posters viewed over the drive route this variability was not related to any of the subject classification factors, Both site and location of the poster were extremely important in determining whether or not a subject looked at a poster, With respect to size, the odds of a poster being eyeˇgazed increased by a factor of 2,0 ~ 011 per 100 square feet. This would seem to suggest that price differentials based on size are relevant, However, as will be seen from the recall and recognition data this may be true as far as adshels and 48 sheets are concerned but it is doubtful whether this is the case when 48 sheets and Supersites are compared, This is because location also has a strong influence an whether or not poster sites are viewed, It can be seen that the only two Supersites featured on the route are positioned in the prime location as far as viewing behaviour is concerned (nearside head-on location), The as sheets positioned ~ 1916 B.6.T.IV.K. ~nd Elpwll Li~nilrd Thjr rrpon mufl nDe bt EDPiCd or rbwn to u*ulhorilld pmons. BA'fCb document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ27ˇ alongside these SupersiteJ received comparable viewing with them, This suggests that, as far as cost is concerned, it Is better to buy 48 sheets in prime location than to spend disproportianate amounts of money on Supersites costed on the basis of size rather than location. The central importance of location of a poster site in attracting visual attention Is highlighted when comparisons are made between the viewing profiles of the poster sites that were common to both stages of the research. From these profiles it can be seen that those sites that attracted a high degree of visual attention in stage 1 also achieved this in stage 2. This means that as far as attracting attention is concerned, location is of more importance than content of the poster since the contents on the sites had changed between the two stages. Since adshels were new to the U,K, market at the time of this study, they were given special attention in the analysis of the recall data where'the number of adshels recalled is highlighted Independently from the other designs, The recall data was broken down into three categories (average recall, actual average, and branded average) which have been explained previously, Taking 'branded average' only, it can be seen that for stage 1 the percentage recall for adshel designs and others was OX and 2X respectively. The corresponding figures for stage 2 were 0,331 and 1,55X, Size was found~to be statistically related to recall of poster material. This Is not surprising when the eyeˇgate data is taken into consideration which indicates that adshel type posters are very rarely looked at, This means that as far as motorist traffic is concerned adshel advertising is unlikely to be effective, Although the larger poster sizes fared better as far as recall is concerned, the scores were very low, Translated into actual recall rates these percentage figures signify that approximately 1 in 3 individuals may recall one poster 198b B.A~t (U.K, ~nd ElpMI) ~mi~d. Thil rtpon ms mx be coptd w rho~un Io unluthorind pmonl y BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 -28ˇ after being exposed to a large amount of advertising material, This means that as far. as paster advertising is concerned it is necessary to work very hard to get a message across and anything that can be done to enhance this process is therefore beneficial, She findings from the stage 2 data indicating a relationship between driving status and recall of paster material are very provacative, Although these findings were not supported in the stage 1 data It must be remembered that the sample size in this stage was very small, Although all the subjects in this study participated as passengers It was clear from the video fills that those subjects who Here usually drivers were basically acting as if they were drivers even though they were not required to drive, At traffic lights they would continually check the status of the lights, at roundabouts and junctions they would visually check on-coming traffic etc. It may well be the case that using poster advertising to cater for traffic where the majority of passing traffic contains only a driver (e,g, the approaches to major cities where often the car is only carrying the driver on their way to work) 15 ineffective unless it is placed at points where the traffic is stationary, It is seen throughout this research that the poster featured at the static opportunity to view fared well on all the measures taken, Another prime site for motorists may well be directly headˇon in front of then so that they are driving towards it giving them a long viewing time, She three posters that were recalled most in this study were featured in such a position, Although the recognition data is slightly more encouraging, with 16443X of the designs being recognised in stage 1 and 11843X in stage 2, the figures are still low and in any case include recognition of dummy photographs, The finding that an increased recognition score of actual designs corresponds to an increased score on the dummy designs means that the findings relating to recognition must be regarded with caution, O IP116 IA,T. (O.K~ and Elpon) Limird. Shil noon mull nor he copied or shown to unlu0lwiad pe~pn~ BATCo document for legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 Similar to recall, recognition scores are not significantly related to subject classification factors but were significantly related to size of poster site, Recognition was also found to be related to poster location and this is thought to reflect the eye gaze data, One other interesting finding in relation to the recognition data is that recognition of poster material is enhanced by increased exposure to that material, Increased exposure refers to number of appearances on the drive route rather than area of a poster site, Analysis of the poster designs recognised indicates that the static poster and the designs situated fnmediately next to it were in the 'highly recognised" category, Some comment should also be made about the fact that the Bensan & Hedges Chameleon advertisement was in the 'highly recognised' category in both stages of the research, (It should also be noted that this advertisement did well on recall in stage I of the research, and it was pointed out that the physical characteristics of the site were unlikely to have contributed to the result and that, therefore, the content of the poster may have been important in determining its high recognitronirelall scare,i The fact that content is more important in determining whether an individual remembers a poster rather than whether they look at a site is shown when recall and recognition are analysed in relation to the eyeˇgaze data, It was noted that with an increase in one parameter there is a significant Increase in another, Therefore, a poster design that is looked at more often is likely to be recalledlrecognised more often, However, much of the material that is leaked at is never reealled/recognised, Also, it was noted that although different pelter designs may be looked at to the sane extent there is often a discrepancy between them in terms of the number of times they are recalledlrecogni sed, Apart from the posters featured at the static opportunity to view, the designs that stand out as performing pattfeularly well in terms of recognition and recall are usually from there sets of O IR B.A.T. IU.K, ud Elpwll linnlrd. T~I npon mur~ po~ k ~olild W rhova ID unluthaiPd pnom, BATCo document for legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ30ˇ advertisements based on a colmoon theme where information contained with the advertisement involver some sort of riddlelcatch. Examples of these types of campaign are the Benron a Hedges, Micbelln and Heinekin series (see Appendix 9, coNc~s The general c~n~lurions from this study, therefore, are that physical characteristics of the ~ortlr rite are extremely important in determining whether or not an fndivi8ual locis at a poster, RI far as leaking behaviour in concerned, physical characteristics of the site predominate over content, Uithin the ghysical characteristics themselves, apart from the negative effect of adrhels, location is more important than size, Therefore, although it appears justified to charge more for posters which are larger than adshels there is no obvious justification for price differentials within the large poster size categories, Also, it is important to note that, for motorist traffic at least, expenditure on adshel advertising is not beneficial, Although location of the site is more important in determining whether or n6t a poster is looked at, content appears to be important in determining whether or not the information ii consolidated, The types of advertisements that Ire more effective are there where the individual has to work on the aaterial to fully understand the lessagel Given the highly competitive porter environment tin terms of both attracting visual attention and of conveying a message), and the tobacco industry's increasing dependence on the medium, the results of this study suggest that It lay be necessary to review porter buying policies, Rlrol thorough preˇtesting of advertising material should be Conducted to ensure that the desired impact is achieved, In developing advertising material it is essential to be aware that not O IPW &b.t(U.K and Elyi L~mirtl. Ihii renon mw~ no~ k Mpied or shown to uhlulhoirtd pman~ BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999 ˇ31- only is it desirable to ore cryptic nestages bet that the message has to be conveyed very gickiy since, as noted in the results nition, the najarity of porter viewing ii very CUrSOrYI Therefore, If the preˇtesting situ'tion presenting groups of consumers wfth advertising material is to be simulate real life conditions appropriate, it is necessary to and, to do this, tachirtoscopic and eye-gaze monitoring equipent is essential, The tachistoscope allows the presentation of advertising materfal for controlled short durations. The use of this In ~pnjundion with the ly,ˇgan nonitor will enable the researcher to assess precisely (a) the extent to which the message is conveyed in a short period of tine; (b) focussed an and why: ad (c) which part of the nessage as the impact of the material. IPL BIT. IU.X, led hponl ljmIlrd, Thil npon muu pd t~ copied of Ihpm lp lnaulhnilld persons BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 21 May 1999