Stories of our impact
Piloting next generation advertising
Connecting with consumers through gaze-tracking tech
Over 4.5 million passengers travelled through London City Airport last year, making it a very attractive place to advertise. But companies face the difficulty of not knowing whether their advertising is reaching their intended target and making an impact. While brands can track the return on digital advertising spend based on the number of clicks, so far, this hasn’t been possible with so called out-of-home advertising[1].
Unlocking the potential of gaze-tracking technology
The team at London City Airport knew that if they could measure the impact of advertising, their proposition would be even stronger. So experts from Deloitte Digital and Market Gravity[2] worked with the airport to develop outdoor advertisements with gaze-tracking technology, which measures how long people look at adverts and information on display in the airport.
The software provides advertisers with previously unavailable analytics on which media is best to show at different times of day. This allows brands to ‘test and learn’ which ads are gaining the most attention in real-time, allowing them to adapt advertising campaigns for maximum impact - quickly.
So far, we’ve experimented with static and video content, as well as quizzes, on a media wall in London City Airport. The analysis produced some interesting results: people spend more time watching the content on the media screen when the airport is quieter, with engagement falling off by one third when the space was busier, questioning the traditional advertising model of paying more for advertising in areas of higher footfall. Quiz style content, where questions are on the screen for ten seconds before an answer is shown, performed the best, with engagement of these screens rising by around 10 per cent.
With this software, we have brought the best features of digital advertising into the traditional out-of-home model. Pairing advertising and analytics in this way can help ensure brands have a genuinely connected, interactive campaign.
A new place to test your ideas
Within the airport, Deloitte Digital and Market Gravity have opened a lab called The Innovation Gateway, to help brands apply a more experimental ‘test and learn’ approach. The Innovation Gateway can be used for exploring multiple business challenges, from how to appeal to new customers to how to engage them with new advertising, while allowing real-time testing of the content created.
Passengers simply brief the Market Gravity team on their challenge before they fly, and then the team gets to work finding ways to solve it. By the time the passenger has returned, the team will have a customer-tested concept ready to share. A number of clients have already given it a go - so next time you're travelling via London City Airport, pay the lab a visit at Gate 7.
[1] Out-of-home advertising is any advertising that reaches the consumers when they are outside their homes/offices. For example in airports, on the road, train stations etc.
[2] Deloitte acquired Market Gravity, the proposition design consultancy, in 2017
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