Eve Movement Study Of Viewers’ Attention To Sponsorship Signage In Telecasted Tennis Event

With the development of the commercialization of sport event,more and more investments in sport sponsorship have been made by brand.Thus,the evaluation of sport event sponsorship has been a concern for both market and academia.In the process of sponsor communication,there is a black box,which means whether the information reach to viewers and attract visual attention.Eye tracking method is undoubtedly the best way to reveal the visual attention.Also,the background signage of sponsors is an important carrier of communication,and is of great significance to carry out eye movement study of sponsor signage in event telecast.This study built hypothesis through analyzing the domestic and foreign literature related to advertising psychology,sport sponsorship evaluation,eye movement,according saliency-based attention theory and the associative network memory model theory,selected Shanghai ATP Tennis Masters as a study case,used eye tracking method to collect data.The purpose is to reveal the visual attention of sponsor signage in a sport event telecast,to explore the application of eye tracking in domestic sponsorship research,to discuss the impact of different signage placement on viewer’s attention.Also,the founds can provide reference data to event and brand managers,upgrade the signage exposure effect.This study selected a tennis event telecast video as experimental stimuli,selected placement of sponsor signage as independent variables,viewers’ attention as dependent variable,to explore the impact of four different placements(baseline area,sideline area,special location area,net area)on viewers’ attention of advertisement,to explore the effect of visual attention on sponsor recall.The results showed that:(1)In tennis event telecast,the exposure time of baseline area sponsor signage ranks the longest,followed by the special position(speed detector,Rolex’s clock)and the sideline area,the net area’s exposure time is the shortest.The signage exposure arrival rate of baseline area is the highest,the net area ranks second place.We can say the net area is of high exposure efficiency and is cost-effective.(2)Different placements of signage have a significant effect on visual attention,and there is a significant difference in four placements.Among them,the baseline line area has the highest fixation counts and gaze duration,followed by the special location,and finally the net area and the sideline area.There is no significant difference in visual attention between the sideline and the net areas,and the balance can be made when pricing.The advertising effect of the sideline area is the worst.Event managers can focus on other saliency-based elements to enhance visual appeal.(3)The special location area has good visual appeal effect.The difference of men and women’s attention on different placements is not significant.Women has more attention on special position area signage compared to men.(4)The gaze duration on signage is positively correlated with the correct sponsor recall.The significant correlation between fixation counts and sponsor recall was not found.(5)It is easier for consumers who know the sponsor brand to recall correctly.There is no significant effect between brand consumer and recall.When explore the gaze duration and brand awareness at the same time,only the gaze duration of signage plays a major role on sponsor recall.