A campaign for improvement
Editor’s note: Scott Young is president of Perception Research Services, Fort Lee, N.J.
Marketers are spending more than ever on print advertising, yet relatively few companies make a dedicated effort to comprehensively assess and improve their print campaigns. Those that do “test” print often do so as a quick add-on to focus groups, or employ systems and measures (such as day-after recall) borrowed from television commercial testing. These approaches ignore the uniqueness of print advertising and, more importantly, they fail to generate the insights needed to refine and improve executions.
With this thought in mind, I would like to offer several observations about print advertising and share insights gathered from PRS Eye-Tracking studies documenting exactly how readers actually view and consider advertisements. I’ll also suggest several “principles of effective print advertising” rooted in our experience studying the readership and communication of magazine and newspaper advertising.
The nature (and uniqueness) of print advertising
On the surface level, print advertisements and television commercials face the same hurdles: In both cases, executions must break through clutter, hold people’s attention and communicate memorably and persuasively. However, there are fundamental differences between television and print:
- Television commercials have a pre-determined length (perhaps 15 or 30 seconds) and a beginning, middle and end.
- Print advertisements have a pre-determined space (perhaps a single page or a spread) and the reader determines how long he or she chooses to spend with the ad.
In print, the reader is fully in control of how the ad is considered. In this sense, a print advertisement is more similar to a package (fighting for shoppers’ time and attention on the shelf) than to a television commercial. In fact, we’ve seen that average viewing time ranges from a low of three to five seconds up to a high of 15-20 seconds, depending on the execution, the product category and the target audience.
Two guiding principles for testing print advertising
The fact that the reader is in control has several direct implications on how print executions should be studied and assessed. Most importantly, it means that print should never be judged solely on the basis of forced and extended exposure. Inevitably, readers will “play back” many messages if they are asked to consider an ad for a minute or more. However, these findings will be misleading, because many of these messages will not come across in the five to 10 seconds that these readers would actually spend with the execution. However, by the same token, it can be just as misleading to show readers executions for a fixed and arbitrary period of time (such as 10 seconds), because this negates the ability of some executions to hold attention longer. For these reasons, it is most realistic to show print executions within magazine or newspaper clutter and to allow readers to view them at their own pace.
Secondly, if the ultimate objective is to optimize print advertising, a research system must help uncover exactly why a certain execution is falling short. One benefit of print advertising is that it is relatively easy to refine. However, if print testing becomes a scoring system that relies on a single measure (such as brand recall), it will fail to deliver the insights needed to guide improvements. Ultimately, it will run the risk of discarding good ideas, rather than refining and enhancing them.
How print ads are typically read
With print, the reader is also in control of exactly how an advertisement is read, including which specific messages are actively considered and which are ignored. To understand this dynamic, we utilize PRS Eye-Tracking, which allows us to track viewing patterns (starting point, ending point, etc.) and document the percentage of readers actively considering individual elements of an execution (the headline, branding, primary visual, copy points, etc.). When the PRS Eye-Tracking data is linked with recall questioning (regarding branding and messaging), it helps us uncover why an execution may be failing to get an intended message across (Was the message consistently seen, but not salient and memorable? Or was the message buried and frequently missed as readers skimmed the ad?). Here are three of the most important patterns we’ve seen:
- Ads are scanned, rather than read.
It should come as no surprise that even the most engaging print executions are not considered thoroughly by most readers. In fact, when ads are shown in magazine clutter, we’ve typically seen that there is a ceiling of about 15 seconds of average viewing time. This figure holds true even among qualified and sophisticated target audiences, such as doctors and IT managers.
As importantly, we’ve found that the time spent with an ad does not correlate directly with the amount of text. In other words, beyond a certain point (typically four to five sentences or bullet points) adding additional copy is not likely to generate additional reading time. Instead, it becomes a zero-sum game in which each additional message will serve mainly to take readers’ attention away from other elements in the ad.
- Readers start with the main visual.
Many print executions are designed on the premise that readers will start at the top left and work their way downward and to the right in a traditional reading pattern. This is a mistaken assumption; we have consistently found that readers nearly always start with the dominant visual element within an ad. In most cases, this element (usually a picture) is positioned in the center of the page. From this starting point, reading patterns do often take over, as readers are more likely to drift or scan downward and rightward. As a result, messages positioned above or to the left of the main visual (including many headlines) are often missed (see Figure 1).
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While this viewing pattern should lead readers to the brand signature frequently seen in the bottom right corner, we have also found that over 50 percent of readers “check out” of an advertisement before reaching this point. In fact, this is the primary reason that we often see low brand recall or linkage levels.
- Visuals dominate attention.
The tracking of ad viewing patterns also reinforces a basic fact about people: We prefer to take in information visually, rather than verbally. As a general rule, readers spend at least half their viewing time on visual elements; visuals are nearly twice as likely to be seen and actively considered as copy points. In addition, there is an inverse relationship between the length of a copy block and the likelihood that it will be read. Without question, bullet points are more effective than paragraphs in terms of drawing and holding readers’ attention.
Guidelines for effective print advertising
These viewing patterns lead directly to several logical and intuitive principles to help ensure that print executions consistently convey branding and deliver their key messages.
Communicate on two levels
In our experience, the most effective print advertisements are those that “work” in two ways:
- at a glance, in which a three- to five-second scan conveys both the branding and the main idea;
- on a deeper level, in which an additional 10-second “investment” of reading time conveys key support points.
Unfortunately, many print ads bury their key messages and require in-depth involvement to get their point across. These executions may test well in focus groups, but they are less likely to work within magazine clutter.
Communicate branding through the main visual
Many print ads use bold visuals to break through clutter and gain initial attention. However, if the main visual does not include a direct reference to the product advertised, the results are predictable: Readers consistently recall the racecar, goldfish or skydiver in the picture, but fail to link it to the brand. The implication is that it’s OK to use a celebrity in your ad, but make sure that she’s got your logo or slogan tattooed across her arm. A subtler alternative is to adopt a very consistent look (such as the charts in Oracle prints ads) that immediately conveys branding, without requiring readership.
Create a dominant viewing pattern
The best way to hold readers’ attention is to create a clear path throughout the execution by actively leading them from one element to the next. This can be done through effective layout and/or use of visual devices, such as a hand pointing or a football flying.
The single most important point to consider is the positioning of the main visual relative to main messages of the ad. For example, when the main visual is placed in the center of a page, with different elements surrounding it (a headline above, a copy block below, etc.), readers are pulled in different directions. They begin at the visual, but are then left without a clear next step. Often, they bounce around the ad and miss many elements or choose one direction (section of the ad) and never return to consider the other. Conversely, when the main visual borders the advertisement (at the top or left side), it leads readers directly through the ad and helps increase involvement.
Keep it simple and direct
On television, advertisers have far more time and tools, and thus more flexibility to be subtle and perhaps even a bit abstract. In print, where readers must “get it” within five to 10 seconds, it pays to be clear, direct and literal. You simply can’t ask the reader to work too hard, or to invest the time and thought into making a connection between an abstract visual (a mountainside, a busy street, etc.) and your company. On a more general level, it is critical to focus on conveying a singular message or benefit and not try to do too much within a single ad. It’s far better to lead readers to a toll-free number or a Web link than to risk cluttering an ad and getting nothing across. Less is nearly always more.
Art and science
Of course, there is no formula for effective print advertising. In fact, in a world of clutter, we have consistently found that it is distinctiveness (through unique appearance and ad placement) that generates attention and involvement. By the same token, however, it would be misguided to ignore the basic realities of how print advertisements are read.
By applying these fundamental principles to the design and testing of print campaigns and balancing art with science, marketers will be rewarded with more effective executions. They will be able to take breakthrough creative ideas and guide refinements to help them communicate even more quickly, clearly and persuasively.