Journal of Marketing Management

How Emotional Arousal and Attitudes Influence Ad Response: Using Eye Tracking to Gauge Nonprofit Print Advertisement Effectiveness
Lisa M. Sciulli1 Ph.D; Charlene P. Bebko1 Ph.D; Parimal Bhagat Ph.D.

Abstract
The research objectives for this work were to determine whether an individual’s willingness to donate to a cause was impacted by emotional appeals and attitudes toward the ad, helping others, and charitable organizations. Eye tracking was utilized to identify three areas of interest (AOIs) for print advertisements including Brand\Logo, Face, and Text. Time to First Fixation (TFF), First Fixation Duration (FFD), Fixation Count (FC), and Total Visit Duration (TVD) were four metrics calculated for the AOIs to determine if any of these gaze patterns revealed whether contributions to nonprofit organizations were influenced by different advertisement appeals. The results indicated a positive relationship between the emotion aroused by an ad and a respondent’s engagement with that ad based upon select AOIs and attitudes toward the ad. Also shown were significant relationships between attitudes toward the ad and identified AOIs and willingness to donate. Donation likelihood was positively related to attitudes toward helping others and social cause organizations. Results for the four metrics revealed that Text generated the most significant relationship with the three AOIs followed by Face, and then last, Brand\Logo.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jmm.v5n1a1