Next phase for billboards: Eye tracking

Out of home ratings can tell you what billboards have been seen.

But they can’t tell you which ones actually resonated with passersby, an insight that would be incredibly useful for media people in creating responsive billboards.

Just imagine being able to predict what would engage people and swapping creative in and out accordingly. Or knowing where the best place to put the call to action would be.

That’s the promise offered by eye-tracking technology, and it could be the next phase of OOH research.

There are several companies offering this type of service, including Tobii Pro, a Swedish company that has also worked with video game producers.

“Eye tracking research is perfectly suited to evaluate how successful a given billboard is in capturing attention. In the past few years, this tool has become fully mobile and completely unobtrusive,” says Amanda Hammill, director of client services at Tobii Pro.

There are a number of ways the information from the eye trackers could be used.

“It provides accurate data on what consumers see. What billboards are most likely to catch the eye? Which ones are most likely to be ignored? What aspects of a billboard are most visible? Do consumers notice the call to action? Which version of the billboard is the most effective overall?” Hammill says.

Why isn’t this technology yet widespread, when it offers so much promise?

“In the past the technology was primarily optimized for screen-based lab testing and was difficult to apply in the real world,” Hammill explains.

“This is no longer the case, and we are already seeing a substantial uptick in inquiries regarding evaluation of out-of-home ads. So far this interest has translated into a number of research projects in vehicles, stadiums, stores, malls, event spaces, and out on the street.”

Eye tracking does require wearing special eye-tracking glasses, which looks sort of like Google Glass.

The glasses monitor where your gaze goes.

Hammill notes that eye tracking is already widely used for other areas of advertising.

Should it be adapted for billboards, they’ll simply be catching up.

“Eye tracking research is commonly applied to online ads, print ads, television ads, mobile ads and pretty much every other type of marketing,” she says.

One can imagine a day not too far off where anyone who designs billboards and other outdoor advertising will use the technology in every piece of creative they turn out, the way writers use spell checkers.

It could come very soon. You can find eye-tracking glasses and software on the internet starting at $500.

Tags: advertising ooh, billboards, eye sensors, OOH, ooh advertising, out of home, the new out of home