Kenneth Hein, writing for Brandweek offers us a new term for the advertising lexicon: Visual Vampire.
Wendy’s red wig-clad ads are hard to miss. However, new research shows that the characters in pony-tailed toupees greatly overshadow the products featured in the same ads.
“It is a visual vampire. There is high engagement, but when they show the food it drops like a rock,” said Lee Weinblatt, CEO of PreTesting, Tenafly, N.J.
When consumers are interested in something, their eyes vibrate faster. This is called saccadic eye movement. Special eye-movement recorders that have the ability to record not only where one looks, but the rate of saccadic motion and fixation as well.
The majority (68%) of viewers of the Wendy’s ad were riveted when the wig was on screen, but when hamburgers were shown it fell to 24%.
