The Outdoor Media Centre [1], trade body for outdoor media owners, today announced new research findings today that showed that people out of home have a 33% heightened alertness than people in home, and this heightened alertness can lead to higher absorption and recall of advertising images.
The research findings were announced at #TheActiveSpace event in the Royal Institution [2]’s Faraday theatre.
The Mindset experiment was run by COG Research [3] and Dr. Amanda Ellison, doctor of Psychology at Durham University [4]. The research analysed 140 continuous hours of monitored skin conductance readings by 20 subjects, who also wore eye tracking glasses throughout their day. Matching the skin conductance highs and lows to actions and places in their daily lives, COG and Dr. Ellison were able to ascertain that people out of home have a 33% heightened alertness than people in home.
“This ground breaking research puts numbers to what we all sense, namely that we move around out of home in a sharper and more focused frame of mind,” says Mike Baker, CEO of the Outdoor Media Centre. “That has a real benefit to advertisers, who can use the Active Space to target consumers at different points in their day. Contextual planning is a real benefit of the outdoor medium, and now we know they our audience is one third more attentive.”
Two other new research studies were unveiled at the same time. Dipsticks Research [5] into Purpose revealed that seven in 10 people on the street are in active purchase mode. six in 10 buy things they were not expecting to buy, and eight in 10 admit to always carrying money on them.
COG Research also teamed up with OnDevice Research [6] to measure people’s Mood. A total of 3,563 individuals were researched via their mobiles at different times of day and in different places. A consistently higher percentage of those out of home claimed to be feeling energetic and active, and indeed took action at a higher rate for outdoor ads compared to other media. 23% searched for more information on a mobile device after seeing a recent outdoor ad, compared to 16% for other media.
COG Research is a multi-awarded research company which specialises in marketing and advertising. Media clients include Thinkbox, Starcom, WCRS, and Associated Newspapers.
All the companies mentioned are based in or near London, U.K..