By: Cassidy Delamarter, University Communications and Marketing
One of Florida鈥檚 largest passenger rail services is experiencing an increase in ridership 鈥� and leaders of a Florida Department of Transportation program that promotes alternatives to commuters who drive alone attribute some of this success to guidance from an interdisciplinary team of researchers at USF who combined eye-tracking technology and social marketing to improve the impact of marketing campaigns.
As part of a collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation, researchers from the USF , a College of Public Healthexpert and the Muma College of Business Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation tested a variety of materials from Commuter Assistance Programs across the country to develop data-driven marketing guidelines to improve the effectiveness of commuter marketing efforts.
鈥淚t leveraged our skills,鈥� said Robert Hammond, director of the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation in the Muma College of Business. 鈥淭his project provided us with an exciting opportunity to collaborate, be a resource for our community partners and leverage our Customer Experience Lab鈥檚 unique assets to provide novel insights.鈥�
The team monitored the eye movements of 60 participants as they studied various ads and videos, such as the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority鈥檚 promotional video of a new commuter app and a Delaware Commute Solutions flyer. Eye-tracking software generated heat maps and metrics of areas of interest, revealing clear patterns of focus.
Among many findings, the data showed participants tended to focus on faces, the left side of the ad and messages surrounded by white space. Areas of the ad least noticed were on the bottom and especially on the bottom right. The study participants also answered a series of questions to provide a measure of the materials鈥� perceived effectiveness in persuading drivers to alter their commuting behavior.
Based on the findings, the team generated guidelines to revise the marketing materials and improve their effectiveness. When they retested the materials, they found a 24% improvement in comprehension, attractiveness, acceptability, relevancy and persuasiveness.
The results were even more impressive for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority鈥檚 campaign to encourage ridership by offering free Uber ride vouchers to and from its rail stations, located between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, to resolve first and last mile connection issues. The initial flyer resulted in only a third of people who downloaded a voucher using it. After learning about USF鈥檚 new guidelines and making adjustments, a majority of vouchers were redeemed.
鈥淲e applied the lessons learned from the CUTR effort and we redesigned our flyer. What we found was by making these changes, it was a huge success and a lot of that we attribute to the creatives for this flyer because we basically use this design for everything,鈥� Jeremy Mullings, project director for the , announced during a recent webinar hosted by Best Workplaces for Commuters.
鈥淭he guidelines that we have developed, and the lessons learned are informative towards new projects coming down the pipeline,鈥� said lead investigator , associate professor of social marketing in the College of Public Health. 鈥淭his work will be instrumental in allowing us to develop communication materials and strategies that are personalized, targeted and relevant for our target populations.鈥�
The USF team hopes these results will help additional transportation programs make further improvements and believes the findings could be widely applicable to marketing materials in a variety of industries.
鈥淧rofessionals don鈥檛 necessarily need to do the neuromarketing test to find out what could be improved with their materials,鈥� said , director of Transportation Demand Management program at CUTR. 鈥淭he value lies in the best practices we found 鈥� those can be used to improve marketing materials without testing.鈥�