Canada Post’s “A Bias for Action” Part Two – Neuromarketing Proves the Attention-Grabbing Success of Direct Mail Products

To continue the conversation of Canada Post’s latest whitepaper, A Bias for Action, we all need to pay attention. Or rather, we must pay attention to paying attention.

Delving once again into Canada Post’s neuromarketing study, we discover another way to assess the overall appeal of direct mail marketing–by looking at comprehension. The researchers behind this scientific whitepaper measured participants’ visual attention to various advertising stimuli. They documented the time spent looking at the stimuli, both in total time and in milliseconds. The average times spent viewing the areas of interest (AOIs) were also recorded.

When totals were examined side-by-side, the results proved that the amount of time spent on AOIs was less for direct mail advertisements (4.8%) than for digital media (7.2%).

A Bias for Action stresses that a longer viewing experience does not necessarily mean that an advertisement is better. Like we all do, your customer often stares confusingly at marketing pieces that make little sense to him or her. With this in mind, neuromarketing researchers like to pair biometric approaches (such as eye tracking), with brain imaging tests for context.

Price – promotional details related to cost savings
Product – images of the product in the offer
Logo – logo of mock brand
Social context – images of people interacting, which are processed differently and favoured by the brain.

Direct mail marketing campaigns are physical, tactile experiences that promote easy comprehension for the mind and senses. Direct mailing products draw your customer’s eyes towards your call-to-action. As a visually-superior stimulus that is processed more quickly, direct mail advertisements have a low cognitive load and high motivation scores. To close this chapter of the direct marketing study, the neuromarketing experts have crowned direct mail strategy as the optimal results-giver.

To learn more about this new neuromarketing mail research, our direct mail team at Troi Mailing Services would love to share the story at 1-866-486-0423.

We hope you enjoy more of these valuable insights from A Bias for Action –read it here!