Have you ever wondered which ads placed in the national newspapers are the most effective at engaging readers? Lumen Research do an eye tracking research each week to find out which of the ads were most successful in getting attention: www.lumen-research.com O2 Attention is Attracted to the Redacted This 25x4 on page four gets just above expected levels of standout (77% rather than the expected 73%) but the level of engagement with the ad where it really comes into it’s own (3.4 seconds rather than the expected 2.3 for an ad of this size on this page). Generally people scan ads, rather than read them, getting people to read copy is a challenge which alludes most creatives. When they could have simply used normal copy, O2 have been very clever in their design of their ad. People love knowing things they’re not supposed to, by using redacted text in their ad, O2 got people to read the copy to try and find out what they’re not meant to.

1. lumen-research.comhello@lumen-research.com
04-09-2014
British public love to look at cats An eye-tracking study by Lumen Research

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Attention is Attracted to the Redacted
© Lumen Research Ltd 2014
This 25x4 on page four gets just above expected levels of standout (77% rather than the expected 73%) but the level of engagement with the ad where it really comes into it’s own (3.4 seconds rather than the expected 2.3 for an ad of this size on this page).
Generally people scan ads, rather than read them, getting people to read copy is a challenge which alludes most creatives.
When they could have simply used normal copy, O2 have been very clever in their design of their ad.
People love knowing things they’re not supposed to, by using redacted text in their ad, O2 got people to read the copy to try and find out what they’re not meant to.

3. lumen-research.comhello@lumen-research.com © Lumen Research Ltd 2014
You may be tempted to explain this by saying it just because the British public love to look at cats –true as this may be, it’s clear from a quick glance at the heatmap that people are really engaging with the text.
In fact, on closer analysis, it was found that people engaged with the text for an average of whopping 2.8 seconds, whereas on average people only spent 0.5 seconds looking at the main image.
O2 managed to keep the effort of attending an ad to a minimum while developing enough intrigue to make people feel it was worth reading.