Understanding Banner Blindness: An Executive Functions Approach

Currently, consumers increasingly spend a considerable amount of their time online, and this has made marketers accordingly shift their focus away from traditional advertising toward online advertising. Banner ads are one of the most common forms of online advertising. However, despite its popularity, studies show that people often dislike advertising banners and try not to look at them when browsing. Marketers have always been trying to find appropriate methods to overcome consumers’ banner blindness. This research aims to compare the two strategies of a) nudging with a right-ad/right-time (RART) approach versus b) overwhelming with extreme creativity (XC). It used eye-tracking methods to see how well these strategies influenced consumers in an online environment. Our findings showed that creative ads are successful in drawing consumers’ attention and generating a positive attitude towards the brand and advertisement. However, they do not do well for memory-oriented measures. On the other hand, although personalized ads are not effective in catching consumer’s attention, they have a positive influence on memory. The study also suggests examining the level of brand familiarity for the next researches.