Digital outdoor shines, Kinetic research reveals

The research assessed people looking at the posters for longer than a second and found that, of these, 33% of people passing the posters looked at the digital screen for longer than a second, while only 15% looked at a static screen.

According to the research, people looked at the static screen for an average of 4.7 seconds, but looked at the digital screen for an average of 7.4 seconds. Postar, by comparison, counts people looking at the poster for a quarter of a second as an ad impact.

The study found digital is more effective during off-peak times of the day. Outside peak hours, almost three times more people looked at the digital screen, rather than the static screen, for more than a second: 38% compared with 13%.

During the commuter peak, the percentage of footfall looking at the digital screen fell to 30%, compared with 18% looking at the static poster.

The study shows people behave differently at the weekend with digital becoming more effective. Over three and half times more people looked at the digital screen than the static poster for more than a second; 47% of footfall compared with 13%.

The research demonstrated that although basic animation of digital copy increases the number of people looking at the screens, after a certain level of animation, additional creative movement appears not to affect attention levels.

If you animate basic digital copy, 28% more people look at the screens, 29% of footfall compared with 37%. When the animation was increased further, however, the percentage of people who looked at the screens reduced to 34% suggesting limited animation is more effective than complicated animation. Kinetic will be doing more research in this area.

For the duration of the study, Kinetic used cameras on top of six-sheets to track 154,062 people over an 11-day period.

The technology tracked the eyeballs of people walking past the posters, rather than relying on respondents wearing headsets, which Kinetic said was a "world first".

Kinetic partnered with three other companies for the research: Tru Media, a provider of real-time, automated audience measurement solutions, creative services agency, Grand Visual, and outdoor media owner, Titan Outdoor.