Facebook / Neurofocus whitepaper: consumer engagement on premium web sites

The Premium Experience: Neurological Engagement on Premium Websites

• ComparedtoNeuroFocusnorms,“premiumwebsites”suchasFacebook,Yahoo,andtheNewYorkTimesdeliversubstantiallymoreengagingexperiencesthantheaveragewebsite.

• Consumersdoresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesorientedtowardthreedifferentpurposes:socialnetworking,lightnewsandentertainment,andhardnewsandcommentary.

• Thesedifferencesarerepresentedneurologicallybydifferentlevelsofattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation.

• Allofthesedifferencesappeartoberelatedtotheexpectationspeoplebringtothesesiteswhentheyvisitthem,andtheseexpectations,inturn,appeartoimpacthowpeoplerespondtoadvertisingonthesesites.

• Arelatedstudyofadvertisingonthreemediacontextssupportstheseresults,showingsuperiorattention

emotionalengagementforanadpresentedinasocialmediaonlinecontextvs.onTVoronacorporatewebpage.

©Copyright2011NeuroFocus,Inc.NeuroFocusandtheNeuroFocuslogoareregisteredtrademarksofNeuroFocus.Othercompany,productandservicenamesmaybeservicemarksoftheirrespectiveowners.AllRightsReserved.

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INSIDE

WhitePaperThePremiumExperience:NeurologicalEngagementonPremiumWebsitespage2

CONTENTS

AuThORS

ABOuTThISREPORT 3

EXECuTIVESuMMARY 3

BACKGROuND 4

NEuROFOCuSMEASuRESANDMETRICS 5

Table1.NeuroFocusCoreMetrics:Definitions 6

EXPERIMENTALDESIGN 7

DEFINING“PREMIuMWEBSITES”NEuROLOGICALLY 7

KEYFINDINGS 8

Attention,Emotion,andMemoryonPremiumWebsites 9

CommunicatingImplicitMeaningAssociationsonPremiumWebsites 11

COMPARINGONLINEADVERTISINGTOTVADVERTISING 12

KEYRESuLTSANDINSIGhTS 14

Facebook–social,personal,andinformational 14

Non-PersonalizedYahoo!–lightlyinformational,entertainment-oriented 15

NewYorkTimes–heavilyinformational,butneitherpersonalnorsocial 15

CONCLuSIONS 15

DR.STEVEGENCOJAWEEDMETZ

SOCIALMEDIAANDONLINERESEARChTEAMSNeuroFocus,Inc.

SEANBRuICh,headofMeasurementResearch,Facebook,Inc.

MEASuREMENTRESEARChTEAMFacebook,Inc.


Asonlineadvertisingbecomesamuchlargerpartofadvertisers’spend,aconstantquestioniswhetherandtowhatextentthecontextoftheadmatters–whetherthedigitalonlineexperienceitselfimpactsthe effectiveness of advertising, and whether that experience is best accompanied by a differentadvertisingstrategyandcreativepresentationthanhasworkedinthepastintraditionalmediasuchasTV.

Thequestionsfacingadvertiserstodayarethreefold:

• Doonlineconsumersresponddifferentlywhenexperiencingpremiumwebsiteswithdifferentmixesofpersonalengagementandrelevance(informational,entertainment-oriented,social)?

• Dothesedifferenceshavemeasurableimpactsonhowpeoplerespondneurologicallytothesesites?

• Shouldadvertisingbepresenteddifferentlyinthesedifferentonlinecontexts?Andifso,whatisthebestapproachtooptimizereturnonadvertisingspendacrossdifferenttypesofpremiumsites?

Inthisstudyweprovidethefirstquantitativeanswerstothesekeyquestions.

In this joint study by NeuroFocus and Facebook,we answer two key questions about online userengagementandresonancewithwebsitemessaging:

• Doconsumersresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesthatengagetheirattentionandinterestindifferentways,andifso,how?

• howcanthesedifferentresponsesbeleveragedbyonlinemarketersandadvertiserstooptimizetheirpresenceandimprovetheirengagementwithconsumersonthesepremiumsites?

Weanswerthesequestionsbyexaminingthreeverydifferentkindsofonlinesitesandexperiences:

• Aviewerlookingattheirown“NewsFeed”pageonFacebook• AviewerlookingatthedefaulthomepageofYahoo!• AviewerlookingatthedefaulthomepageofTheNewYorkTimes

WealsocomparethesefindingstoanearlierNeuroFocusstudythatexaminedresponsestoadvertisinginthreedifferentcontexts:

• WithinatraditionalTVadpod• Asavideopresentedonacorporatewebsite• AsavideoembeddedinaFacebookproduct/servicepage

ABOuTThISREPORT

EXECuTIVESuMMARY


Somekeyconclusionsandtake-aways:

• All three web pages studied achieve significantly higher levels of attention and emotionalengagement than“average” web pages, asmeasured by NeuroFocus norms. All three thusrepresent“premiumwebsite”experiences.

• Consumersdoresponddifferentlytopremiumwebsitesorientedtowarddifferentpurposes,inthiscase:socialnetworking,lightnewsandentertainment,andhardnewsandcommentary.

• These differences are grounded neurologically in different levels of attention, emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation,asmeasuredbyNeuroFocusmetrics.

• TheNewYorkTimeshomepageelicitedhighlevelsofattentionandmemory,butlessemotionalengagementthantheothertwopages.

• TheYahoo!homepageelicitedhigherlevelsofemotionalengagementthantheNewYorkTimeshomepage,but less than theFacebookpage,and lessmemoryactivation thaneitherof theothertwopages.

• People viewing their own“NewsFeed”pageonFacebookexhibitedhigh levelsof activationonallthreemetrics:attention,emotionalengagement,andmemory.TheFacebookpagehadstatisticallyhigherlevelsofemotionalengagementthaneitheroftheothertwopagestested.

• Somegenderdifferenceswereobserved:MenimplicitlysawFacebookasresonatingmorewith“forme” thanwomendid,andwomensawYahoo!as resonatingmorewith“connecting”and“advice”thanmendid,butotherwisethegendersrespondedsimilarly.

• All of thesedifferences appear tobe related to the expectationspeoplebring to these siteswhentheyvisitthem,andtheseexpectations,inturn,appeartoimpacthowpeoplerespondtoadvertisingonthesesites.

• Sites that include social elements appear to benefit from the active cognitive engagementachievedbyonlineexperiences,butalsocreateadegreeofemotionalengagementthatrivalsTV.

• Tomaximizeuserengagement,marketersandadvertisersneedtobalancemultipleconsiderationsoutlined inthispaperwhendesigningonlineads,messaging,and interactiveexperiences forpremiumwebsites.

Wesoughttodeterminequantitativelyhowconsumersrespondedtopremiumwebsites,aswellashowtheyrespondedtoonlineadsembeddedinthosesites.Tocompareaspectrumofpremiumwebsiteexperiences, threepopularwebsitehomepageswere tested: an individual’sFacebook“NewsFeed”page(representingasocialonlineexperience),theYahoo!homepage(representinganon-personalized

BACKGROuND


“light news and entertainment” experience), andTheNewYorkTimes homepage (representing aninformation-oriented“hardnewsandcommentary”experience).

Whileparticipantswerepresentedwiththestandardhomepageexperienceacrossallthreeofthesesites,thestudywasnotdesignedtobeanexhaustiveorrepresentativeviewofallofthepagesandcapabilitiesofanyofthethreesites.

Alltestsreportedinthispapercomparedresponsesfroma“generalpopulation”sampleof84internetusers in theunitedStates: 50%men,50%women,ages21-54,withaminimumannualhouseholdincomeof$30,000.AllofourparticipantswerescreenedtoensurethattheyhadaFacebookaccount,butwedidnotexplicitlyincludeorexcludeYahoo!registeredmembersorNewYorkTimessubscriberssinceasubstantialportionofsitetraffictothosehomepagesareuserswhohavenotloggedin.

These results were also compared to a previous study performed by NeuroFocus that measuredresponsestoadvertisingacrossthreesimilarcontexts:a30-secondadpresentedinatypicalTVcontext,thesameadembeddedinacorporatewebsite,andthesameadpresentedonaFacebookproduct/servicepage.

NeuroFocusmeasuresfocusonkeyconsciousandsubconsciouselementsofhowconsumersrespondexplicitly and implicitly to sensory experiences (like watching an ad or reading a webpage) alongthreecoredimensions:Attention,Emotion,andMemory.Thesemetricscapturedirectsubconsciousbrainactivitywhiletheexperienceisunderway,ratherthanrelyingonrespondents’ownafter-the-factestimatesofhowattentivetheywere,howemotionallyengagedtheywere,orhowlikelytheywouldbetoremembertheexperience.Advertisingcannotelicitattitudechangewithoutatleastsomechangeinthesethreecriticalneurologicalresponsestothead.

Allthesemeasuresarebasedonwell-establishedandrecognizedbrainwavepatternsthathavebeenidentifiedinacademicscientificliteratureandadaptedforusewithinadvertising,marketing,andmediastimulibyNeuroFocusscientists. Themetricsarecalculatedasanaverageacrossthefulldurationofthe experience and standardizedon a 0-to-10 scale for comparison,with each score having a 95%confidenceintervalof+/-0.2,sotwoscorescanbejudgedsignificantlydifferentfromeachotheratp<.05iftheirscoresdifferby0.4ormore.

Across all types of product andmarketingmaterial tested by NeuroFocus (e.g. print ads, websites,productpackaging,productconcepts,brandmessaging,etc.),thefullspectrumofpossibleresponsesformsanapproximatelynormaldistributiononthestandardized0-to-10scalewithamedianof4.9-5.1foreachmetric.

NEuROFOCuSMEASuRESAND

METRICS


Metric Definition interpretation (rules of thuMb)

attention •Measuressustainedfocusandshiftsinfocusovertime.

0-to-2:verypoorattention,discardandtryagain

2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableattention,majormodificationsmayberequired

5-to-8:goodattentionrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements

8-to-10:excellentattention,donottrytoimprove

emotional engagement

•Measuresintensityofemotionalresponseandautomaticmotivationalclassificationofstimuli.

•Quantifiesautomatic(nonconscious)classificationofsensoryexperiencesaspotentiallyrewarding(approachmotivation)orpotentiallythreatening(avoidancemotivation).

•Oftendriveschoicesandbehavior.

0-to-2:disengagementoraversiveemotionalresponse,discardandtryagain

2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableemotionalengagement,majormodificationsmayberequired

5-to-8:goodemotionalengagementrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements

8-to-10:excellentemotionalengagement,donottrytoimprove

Memory retention

•Measuresformationofconnectionsandactivationofpersonalrelevance.

•Activatedautomaticallyforexperiencesthatarepersonallymeaningfulandprovideanopportunityforlearning.

•Createsandreinforcesconnectionsthatallowustoretrieverelatedinformationlateron.

0-to-2:verypoormemoryretention,discardandtryagain

2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptablememoryretention,majormodificationsmayberequired

5-to-8:averagememoryretentionrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements

8-to-10:excellentmemoryretention,donottrytoimprove

overall neurological effectiveness

•Acompositemeasureoftheefficiencyofcognitiveprocessing–aweightedcombinationofattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivation.

0-to-2:overallverypooreffectiveness,discardandtryagain

2-to-5:lowtominimallyacceptableeffectiveness,majormodificationsmayberequired

5-to-8:averageeffectivenessrangeforpremiumwebsitesandonlineads,higherisbetter,smallchangescanusuallyachieveimprovements

8-to-10:excellenteffectiveness,donottrytoimprove

In addition to measuring direct brain responses during an experience, NeuroFocus also measuresthedegreetowhichmessagesandconceptualassociationsarestrengthenedbyanexperience.This“MessagingResonance”metricmeasurestheextenttowhichtheexperienceprovidedasubconscious“lift”tothoseassociations.

TABLE1.NEuROFOCuSCORE

METRICS:DEFINITIONS


MessagingResonanceresultsarereportedonasix-levelscalefrom“noresonance”,i.e.nolift(Level0)to“goodresonance”(Levels1-2)to“exceptionalresonance”(Levels3-5).AcrosshundredsofMessagingResonancetestsNeuroFocushasconducted,about65%ofconceptsscoreatLevels1or2,20%scoreatLevel3,and10%scoreatLevels4or5.Forthisstudyofpremiumwebsites,NeuroFocusmeasuredresonancetothreemessagingwords:

• CONNECTING• ADVICE• FOR-ME

Thesewordswerechosenbecause they representsomeof thekeyconcepts thatadvertiserswouldexpecttobe“activated”whenvisitingpremiumwebsiteslikethethreestudiedhere.

The data collectionwas performed at the NeuroFocus lab in Berkeley, CA as part of two separatestudies.

Inthefirststudy,allparticipantsviewedthreestimulion-screenwhiletheirbrainwaveswererecorded:theirownFacebookhomepage,arecentgenericYahoo!homepage,andarecentgenericNewYorkTimeshomepage.Thepageswereshowninrandomizedordertoeachparticipant.

Inthesecondstudy,adifferentsampleofparticipantswererandomlyassignedtooneofthreegroups:

1. AgroupthatviewedtheirpersonalFacebook“NewsFeed”homepage2. AgroupthatviewedarecentgenericYahoo!homepage3. AgroupthatviewedarecentgenericNewYorkTimeshomepage

Allthesepagesinthesecondstudyweremodifiedtocontainasimpleonlineadforawell-knownsoftdrinkbeverageinastandardlocationwheresuchadstypicallyappearoneachpage.

Participants in the second study experienced the following sequence as amovie: the home pageappearedforashorttime.Thecursortraveledfromthecenterofthepagetothead.Fromavisualandauditoryperspective,thecursor“clicked”onthead,andthelinkthentransferredtoaproductlandingpage.FortheFacebookgroup,thelandingpagewasaFacebook“fanpage”forthebeverage,whereasfor theYahoo!andNewYorkTimesgroups, the landingpagewas thecorporatehomepage for thebeveragecompany,asitappearedatthattime.Brainwavesweremeasuredthroughouttheexperienceandresultswerecomputedforeachwholeexperienceandseparatelyforthehomepageandlandingpagesequencesofeachexperience.

Brainresponsesatthelevelofbasicattention,emotionalengagement,andmemoryactivationhavetheadvantageofbeinguniversalacrossstimuli. Whetherweareviewingawebpage,watchinganadonTV,orwalkingalongtheaislesofagrocerystore,attentiontosomething inourenvironment“registers”inourbrainsinthesameway,experiencingemotionalattractionregistersinthesameway,

EXPERIMENTALDESIGN

DEFINING“PREMIuMWEBSITES”

NEuROLOGICALLY


andactivatingmemoryregistersinthesameway.ThisisequallytrueforthebrainofaChineseshopperinShanghai,aFacebookuserinKansas,oraTVviewerinFrance.Allnormalhumanbrainsexpressthesebasiccognitivestatesinthesameway.

At NeuroFocus, we have leveraged this universality to build a cross-cultural, cross-category, cross-platform,andcross-modalitydatabaseofneurologicalresponses.Wehavebuiltthisdatabaseacrosshundredsofstudiesandthousandsofstimulioversixyears.Weuseittostandardizeandcalibrateourmetrics,whicharepresentedona10-pointscalethatrepresentsthefullrangeofresponseswehaveobserved.

Neurologicalresponsestowebsitesandwebpages,likeanyotherstimulithatelicitattention,emotion,andmemoryresponsesfromhumanbrains,aredistributedwithinthisdatabaseinaroughlynormaldistribution,withamedianofapproximately5.0.Averysmallnumberoftheverybestwebpageswehavetestedscoreabove8foroveralleffectiveness.Wedefine“premiumwebsites”asthosethatscoreabove6.0onoveralleffectiveness.Empiricalexaminationofsitesthatscoreinthisrangeshowsthemusuallytobeeitherpopular“destination”sitesorportalswithhightrafficandmillionsofregularvisitors,orthewebsitesofextremelypopularbrandsorcompanies.Webelievethesesitesalsotendtobethebestadvertisingopportunitiesforonlineadvertisers.

Incontrasttopremiumwebsites,non-premiumsitestendtobemoregenericcorporatesites,transaction-orientedsites,orpersonalsites.Theypopulatethelowerhalfofourdatabasedistribution.Forthisstudy,wehavecomparedneurologicalresponseswithinthepremiumwebsitecategory.Asthefindingsbelowreveal,allthreewebpagesincludedinthestudyachieveneurologicalresponsescoresthatqualifythemaspremiumsites.

Doneurologicalresponsestothesethreepages–representingthreeverydifferenttypesofpremiumwebsiteexperiences–differ?Andwhatimplicationsdothesedifferencesholdforonlineadvertisersdesiringtooptimizetheironlineadvertisingspend?

Allthreepremiumonlinesiteselicitedabove-average responses from participants intermsof thekeysummarymetricofoveralleffectiveness. Scores for each page werestatistically identical across studies. Thesemeasureshavebeenvalidatedforstatisticalreliabilityacrossstudiesandacrossstimuli.

OveralleffectivenessrepresentsacompositescorethatcombinesAttention,Emotion,andMemory responses in a single compositemeasure of the overall cognitive impact ofthewebsiteviewingexperience.

7.0

6.4 6.6 7.0

6.5 6.4

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7.5

8.0

FACEBOOK HOME PAGE YAHOO! HOME PAGE NEW YORK TIMES

HOME PAGE

OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS

STUDY 1 STUDY 2

KEYFINDINGS


TheaveragescoreforparticipantsviewingtheirownhomepagesonFacebook,(bothwithandwithoutadpresented),wassignificantlyhigherthanforeithertheYahoo!orNewYorkTimeshomepages.

Alsoofnote,Study1didnotcontainthetargetadonthethreepages,whereasStudy2did.Statisticallyidentical scores for these two page views, derived from different samples of participants, providesevidencethatparticipantsrespondedsimilarlytotheirFacebook“NewsFeed”pages,theYahoo!page,andtheNewYorkTimespage,whetherornotadvertisingwaspresentonthepage.

Resultsdemonstrate thatpremiumwebsite contentpages attractmuchhigher consumer attentionthantheaveragewebsitetestedbyNeuroFocus.

All three sites scored in the 8.0+ range forattention, signaling significant focus on thesitewhilethepagesweredisplayed inboththeadandnon-adstudies.Thesescoreswerenot significantly different across sites – allscoredinthe8.1-8.4rangeinbothstudies.

ThepresenceofthebeverageadinStudy2hadneitherapositivenornegativeimpactonthelevelsofattentionattained.

Theresultsforemotionalengagementweresomewhatmoredifferentiatedacrosssites.InStudy1,theFacebookpagegeneratedsignificantlyhigheremotionalengagementthantheothertwopages,whileinStudy2itscoredsignificantlyhigherthantheNewYorkTimespage,butdidnotquitereachthe0.4differencerequiredforsignificancevs.theYahoo!page.

Overall,theemotionalengagementscoresarelowerthantheattentionscoresacrossallthreepremiumsites. This difference is in linewith otherNeuroFocus findings. Compared tomorepassivemedia,onlinecontentcommandsmoreattentionalresourcesbecausetherearemanyelementscompetingforattentionatanymoment.Thistendstoproducehigherlevelsofattentionforwebsitesvs.morepassivemedia.

Emotional engagement, in contrast, oftenshows a slightly negative correlation withattention, thus contributing to the loweremotion scores on these sites. Emotionalconnections are more automatic and lesssusceptible to conscious monitoring thanattentional cues. As a consequence, highlevels of attention can have a diminishingimpactonemotionalengagement,which iswhatweseehere.

8.2 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.1 8.2

6.0

6.5

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7.5

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8.5

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HOME PAGE

ATTENTION

STUDY 1 STUDY 2

ATTENTION,EMOTION,ANDMEMORYON

PREMIuMWEBSITES

6.7

6.1 6.3 6.6

6.3 6.1

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7.5

8.0


HOME PAGE

EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT

STUDY 1 STUDY 2


What ismost interesting in these results is that this diminishingof emotion in the context of highattentionintheonlinecontextissignificantlylessfortheFacebookpagethanfortheothertwopages.Thisisadditionalevidencethat:

The emotional appeal of social media sites appears to compensate for some of the attentional bias demanded by less socially-oriented premium sites.

Finally, looking at memory retention whileviewing these three premium websites,we see yet adifferentpattern. Asnoted inTable 1, memory scores tend to be higherwhenstimuliarepersonallymeaningfulandprovideopportunitiesforlearning.

here we see in both studies that theFacebookandNewYorkTimeshomepageselicit significantly more memory retentionthantheYahoo!page.Thisisnotapositiveornegativereflectiononanyofthesepages,but

simplyvalidatesandquantifiesthecommon-senseobservationthat:

Viewing your own Facebook “News Feed” page triggers more memory processing due to the personal significance of the content on the page.

Viewing the New York Times home page triggers more memory processing because it provides new information and opportunities for learning.

Viewing the non-personalized Yahoo! home page triggers somewhat less memory processing because it is both less personally relevant and less informationally dense than the Facebook and New York Times pages, respectively.

7.2

6.6

7.2 7.2 6.8

7.3

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7.5

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HOME PAGE

MEMORY RETENTION

STUDY 1 STUDY 2


TheNeuroFocus“MessagingResonance”methodologyallowsustotesttheextenttowhichselectedmessagesareassociatedwith,andthereforereinforcedby,differentexperiences,suchasexperiencesviewingdifferentpremiumwebsites. InStudy1, threemessageswere testedbeforeandaftereachwebsiteviewing:CONNECTING,ADVICE,andFOR-ME.

Afterviewingone’sownFacebookpage,CONNECTINGshowedaresonanceliftofLevel3,vs.Level2afterviewingtheYahoo!page,andLevel1afterviewingtheNewYorkTimespage(Levelscoresrepresentsignificantlydifferentmagnitudesoflift,p<.05).Thiscanbeinterpretedasmeaningthat,afterviewingtheirFacebookpage,participantsweremorereceptivetowardassociationswith“connecting”thantheyhadbeenbeforeviewingtheirFacebookpage,andfurther,thatthislevelofreceptivitywassignificantlyhigherthanforthesameparticipantsafterviewingeithertheYahoo!orNewYorkTimeshomepages.Also,conversely,theLevel1scoreforCONNECTINGfortheNewYorkTimespageimpliesthatthispageissignificantlylesslikelytotriggerassociationswith“connecting”thantheothertwosites.

Theseresultsvalidateandquantifythedegreetowhich:

The Facebook experience was more about “connecting” than either the Yahoo! or New York Times online experiences.

Finally, we see that theYahoo! and NewYorkTimes home pages both trigger significantly greaterresonancewiththemessageADVICEthantheFacebookhomepage.Weinterpretthistomeanthat:

The Yahoo! and New York Times experiences were both more about getting “advice” than was the Facebook experience. All three premium sites demonstrated good resonance with “for me”.

Afewinterestingdifferencesemergewhenwesubdividemessagingresonancescoresbygender.

Forthemostpart,genderdifferencesarenomorethansingle-leveldifferences,butitisinterestingtonotethat(1)womenassociatebothFacebookandYahoo!withCONNECTINGatLevel3,(2)menhavemuchhigherresonancewithFOR-MEforFacebookthanwomendo,and(3)Yahoo!achievesaLevel2resonanceforADVICEforwomen,butonlyLevel1formen.Inshort:

COMMuNICATINGIMPLICITMEANINGASSOCIATIONSON

PREMIuMWEBSITES

3 2

1 2 2 2

1 2 2

0

1

2

3

4

5

CONNECTING FOR-ME ADVICE

MESSAGING RESONANCE

Facebook Level

of resonance

Yahoo! Level

of resonance

New York Times Level

of resonance


Men implicitly see Facebook as resonating more with “for me” than women do, and women see Yahoo! and Facebook as resonating more with “connecting” than men do, but otherwise the genders exhibit similar profiles of messaging resonance for each of these premium websites.

AnearlierstudypublishedbyNeuroFocusinconjunctionwiththe2010WinterOlympicsprovidessomeadditionalinsightsonanimportantrelatedquestion.Ourunderstandingofhowdifferentmediaareconsumedisevolvinginthefollowingdirection:

• TVisbelievedtobeamorepassiveandimmersivemedia,andthereforehashistoricallybeenseenasbetterforemotionalengagement.

• Traditionalonlinepropertiesarebelievedtobemorecognitivelyengaging,butlessemotionallyengagingthanTV,sothereforeareseenasbetterforinformationaladvertising.

• Sitesthatincludesocialelementsstandoutasaparticularlyattractiveadvertisingopportunity–benefiting fromtheactivecognitiveengagementachievedbyonlineexperiences,butalsoofferingadegreeofemotionalengagementthatrivalsTV.

Isthismodelsupportedbythekindofneurologicaltestingdescribedinthispaper?

In thisearlier study,NeuroFocusanalyzeda30-secondVisaadcalled“Trip forLife” thatofferedVisacardholdersanopportunitytowinanall-expenses-paidtriptotheupcoming2010WinterOlympics.NarratedbyMorganFreeman,theaddepictedgreatmomentsinWinterOlympicshistoryandinvitedviewerstoenterthecontestandbecomeapartofthathistory.Theadwaswellreceivedandtestedatabove-averagelevelsonNeuroFocusmetrics.

COMPARINGONLINEADVERTISINGTOTV

ADVERTISING

2 3

1

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1 1 2 2

1

3 2 2

1 2 2 2

1 2

0

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CONNECTING FOR-ME ADVICE

MESSAGING RESONANCE

Facebook men Facebook women

Yahoo! men Yahoo! women

NYT men NYT women


an ad presented in three media contexts

Totesttheimpactofdifferentmediacontextsonresponsestothisad,NeuroFocustestedit inthreecontexts:

1. WithinatraditionalTVadpod2. AsavideoembeddedintheVisacorporatewebsite3. AsavideoembeddedinaFacebookproduct/servicepage

Theresultsprovidedsolidevidence in favorof thehypotheses thatTVandonlinearedifferent,andsocialnetworkingsitesaredifferentfrommoreconventionalonlinesites.herearetheresultsforthethreecoremetricsandeffectiveness:

First,theresultsshowsignificantlymoreattentionwhentheadispresentedinthetwoonlinecontextsthanwhenpresentedonTV.

Second, the ad generated significantlymore emotional engagementwhen presented in the socialnetworkingcontextthanineitherthecorporatewebsiteortheTVcontext.

Third,theadgeneratedgenerallylowlevelsofmemoryactivationinallthreecontexts(allarebelow6.0)butdidbetteronTVthanineitheronlinecontext.Memoryscoresattheselevelsusuallyindicatethatanadwillhaveweakpersuasivecapability.Itmaybethatviewersimplicitlyrecognizedthelowlikelihoodofwinningthedescribedcontest,anddiscountedmemoryretentionaccordingly.

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ATTENTION EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT

MEMORY RETENTION OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS

30-SECOND VISA AD IN THREE CONTEXTS

Visa ad in TV pod Visa ad on Visa corporate site Visa ad on Facebook product page


Finally,thesemeasurestranslatedintooveralleffectivenessscoresthatranktheFacebookexperienceslightly higher than the TV experience, and significantly higher than the online VISA websiteexperience.

Inconclusion:

Running an ad in Facebook produces a response profile that combines the strengths of the corporate site experience (high attention) and the TV experience (high emotion).

Neurologicalmeasurementofonlineexperiencesacrosspremiumwebsitesdeliversavarietyofnewinsightsthatareinvisiblewhenusingtraditionalself-reportingsurveytechniques.Wehaveseenthatwebsitevisitors’brainsorientindifferentwaystowarddifferentwebsites.Theyscanthesitesdifferently,getemotionallyengageddifferently,andengagememorydifferently.

All of these differences, we believe, are related to the expectations the brain brings to these sites, and these expectations, in turn, impact how people respond to advertising on these sites and on follow-on landing pages.

Wehavealsoseenconsistencyintheseresultsacrossdifferentsamplesanddifferentdepictionsofthesamewebsites(e.g.,withoutthetargetadinStudy1,withthetargetadinStudy2).

Letusreviewtheneurologicalprofilesforeachofthepremiumwebsitepageswetestedinthesetwostudies:

non-personalized Yahoo! – lightly informational, entertainment-orientedNote: This analysis was only measuring the Yahoo Homepage and not some of Yahoo’s other pages using personalization (eg Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, and My Yahoo).

Emotionalengagementonthenon-personalizedYahoo!homepagewasaboveaverage,comparabletotheNewYorkTimespage,butlowerthanontheFacebookpage.Thisloweremotionalconnection,webelieve,isrelatedtothelessprominentsocialelementonYahoo!vs.Facebook,asreflectedinitslowerresonancewiththeCONNECTINGmessagingword.

AttentionontheYahoo!pagewashighandstatisticallyequivalenttotheothertwosites.

WhereYahoo!wasdistinctivewasinitslowerlevelsofmemoryactivationvs.theothertwosites.Weattributethistothe“lighter”informationalexpectationsforYahoovs.Facebook(socialinformation)andtheNewYorkTimes(hardnewsinformation).

WealsosawsomeinterestinggenderdifferencesfortheYahoo!site.WomensawYahoo!asresonatingmorewithCONNECTINGandADVICEthanmendid.TheseassociationsmayberelatedtothespecificcontentofYahoo!,representedbyprominentdisplayoflinkstotopicsofpersonalandlifestyleinterest.

KEYRESuLTSANDINSIGhTS


new York times – heavily informational, but neither personal nor social

Thissiteprovidedanexcellentexampleofa“serious”newssite.unlikeYahoo!,therewerenolinkstonon-newstopicsontheNewYorkTimeshomepage.ThereweresubtlelinkstotopicssuchasFashionand“Arts,”buttheoverallfocuswasonseriousnationalandinternationalnews.

Participantsbroughtadifferentsetofexpectationstothissite,andgenerateddifferentresponses.

Aswiththeothersites,attentionfortheNewYorkTimeshomepagewashigh.EmotionalengagementwascomparabletoYahoo!,butstatisticallylowerthanforFacebook.MemoryretentionwashigherthanforYahoo!,andonparwithFacebook.

Where this site stood out was in its much lower association with CONNECTING in the MessagingResonancetest,especiallycomparedtoFacebook,anditshigherassociationwithADVICEforbothmenandwomen.

facebook – social, personal, and informational

Inallofourtests,Facebookelicitedahigherlevelofemotionalengagementcomparedtotheothertwosites.Thiseffectwassignificantatp<.05inthreeoffourcomparisons,andclosetosignificant(differenceof0.3)inthefourthcomparison.

In termsofattention,all threepremiumwebsitesachievedhigh levelsofattention. Thisappears tobeabenefitthatthesethreewell-known,premiumsitesshareasaconsequenceoftheirbrandequityandvisibilityintheonlineworld.Peopleknowwhattoexpect,andtheycometothepagepreparedtoengageintheexpectedexperience.

Formemoryactivation,FacebookperformsmoreliketheNewYorkTimespagethantheYahoo!page.highattentionandmemorygotogetherforFacebook,becauseitofferssomethingnewtolearn–aboutfriendsandpersonally-relevantactivities–everyday.

ThesocialelementwithFacebookwasfurthervalidatedbythestrongerassociationwithCONNECTING,identifiedintheMessagingResonancetest.

until themeteoric riseof socialnetworkingasanewandhugelypopular formof consumeronlineexperience, the difference between TV and online touchpoints as advertising media was largelyformulated as a difference between the highly immersive but relatively passive and cognitivelyundemanding context of TV and the less immersive but highly interactive, information-rich andcognitivelydemandingcontextofonlinebrowsingandwebsitenavigation.Inanutshell,TVwasseenasapassiveandemotionalmedium,whileonlinewasseenasanactive,lessemotional,andmorecognitivemedium.

CONCLuSIONS


Today, theavailabilityofhighlypersonalizedandhighly socialonlineexperienceshaschanged thisequation.Asillustratedinthefollowingchart,onlinesitesnowofferamuchwiderrangeofengagementexperiencesthansimplycognitiveandinformational.

Media, personal engagement, and relevance

passive active

TraditionalEntertainment OnlineActivity

MoviesTV Informational Personal Social

more immersive

more emotionally engaging

less cognitively stimulating

less immersive

less emotionally engaging

more cognitively stimulating

more immersive

more emotionally engaging

more congnitively stimulating

Inthisstudy,wehaveuncoveredthefollowingimportantfindings:

• Onlineconsumersdoresponddifferentlywhenexperiencingpremiumwebsiteswithdifferentmixes of personal engagement and relevance (informational, entertainment-oriented, andsocial).

• Thesedifferenceshavemeasurableimpactsonhowpeoplerespondneurologicallytothesesitesintermsofimmersion,cognitivestimulation,andemotionalengagement.

• Advertising presented on these sites can leverage these different neurological profiles forincreasedeffectiveness.


about neurofocus

The world’s leading neuromarketing firm, NeuroFocus (www.neurofocus.com) brings advancedneuroscienceknowledgeandexpertisetotheworldsofbranding,productdevelopmentandpackaging,in-storemarketing,advertising,andentertainment.NeuroFocusclientsincludeFortune100companiesacrossdozensofcategories.

headquarteredintheu.S.andoperatinggloballythroughofficesandNeuroLabsintheuKandEurope,theAsia/Pacificregion,LatinAmerica,andtheMiddleEast,thecompanyleveragesNobelPrizecaliberand Doctorate-level credentials in neuroscience andmarketing from the university of California atBerkeley,MIT,hebrewuniversity,harvard,Oxford,Columbiauniversity,andotherleadinginstitutions,combinedwithexecutivebusinessmanagementandconsultingexpertise.

about facebook

FoundedinFebruary2004,Facebook’smissionistogivepeoplethepowertoshareandmaketheworldmoreopenandconnected.AnyonecansignupforFacebookandinteractwiththepeopletheyknowinatrustedenvironment.FacebookisaprivatelyheldcompanyandisheadquarteredinPaloAlto,Calif.

Formoreinformation,visitwww.facebook.com

Facebook / Neurofocus whitepaper: consumer engagement on premium web sites

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