September 11, 2017 - Touring the showroom in an automobile dealership is one of the most important parts of the car-buying process. The ability to engage a vehicle in person in all its dimensions is often the tipping point for cementing a purchase. To better understand the influence these spaces have in the car-buying experience, eye tracking provider Tobii Pro partnered with Dx3 Canada and Toyota Canada to measure the car buyer’s journey in a showroom.

The results: car brands only have a 20-second window to influence a consumer’s opinion, and, within that window, not everything from the showroom is going to have an effect.

Here are the key findings:

• The vehicles were the star attraction, capturing more attention than touch screens, brand ambassadors, or any other test area element; participants spent about 30 seconds on average viewing the interior and exterior of the vehicles. 
• The insides of the vehicles were viewed most carefully, especially the consoles, gear shift, and instrumentation, which accounted for close to 70 percent of consumer attention. While walking around the outside, consumer eyes were focused primarily on the vehicles’ side body lines and aesthetic features.
• Millennial shoppers tended to review the same material and features as older shoppers; however, older shoppers spent more time with almost all elements of the study environment. Millennials gravitated to the interactive displays, while older shoppers viewed the textual elements of the display with greater attention.
• All promotional materials and features were seen; they captured attention but not long enough to have a significant impact. Conversely, digital screens and interactive displays had a high level of engagement and were the real eye-catchers, capturing approximately 50 percent of all attention to showroom promotional elements.
• Informational materials don’t have to be that sophisticated, but they do need to be well positioned. Among the most viewed features was a freestanding “Safety Tower” with creative collateral highlighting key safety features of the vehicles. The Tower was central and upfront in the showroom, generating increased engagement from consumers.

“When it comes to attention, brands often overestimate the level of consumer engagement that they have to work with,” said Mike Bartels, senior research director at Tobii Pro Insight. “Consumers start with a broad scan of what is out there, but then they zero in on specific things to the exclusion of everything else. In this all-or-nothing, high-stakes sales environment, it is critical that automotive marketers understand which features influence shoppers to buy and how the showroom can be optimized to make them commit. Through eye tracking, we objectively determined what registered with potential buyers, both young and old.”

How the study was conducted:

Eye tracking research experts from Tobii Pro Insight fitted 92 study participants with Tobii Pro Glasses 2, a wearable eye tracker, and asked them to explore Toyota’s interactive automotive showroom at the Dx3 conference as they would normally do when shopping for a car. The showroom included a Corolla and a RAV4 surrounded by a variety of promotional materials, digital displays, and Toyota brand ambassadors.

The glasses unobtrusively recorded what the consumers paid attention to, for how long they focused on something, and what they ignored, whether that was the vehicle’s exterior, under the hood, or a piece of promotional material. The consumers were divided into two groups: millennials and older shoppers. The collected behavioral data was analyzed to understand what elements of the vehicle and marketing materials had the biggest impact on purchase intent.

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More information and media assets:

• Click here to download the full white paper, “Eyeing for Attention: Automotive Eye tracking analysis”
• Click here to view a video on the Tobii Pro Insight study for Dx3 Canada and Toyota Canada
• Visit the Tobii Pro Insight page for more details on the technology and research team behind the study

Contact:

Eric Mercer, Direct of Content, Dx3 Canada, Phone: 1-647-317-5764, email: emercer@dx3canada.com

Cecilia Lago Albright, PR & Communications Manager, Tobii Pro, Phone: +46 707 43 13 45, email:cecilia.albright@tobii.com

Anthony Suarez, Media Relations Manager, North of Nine Communications, Phone: +1 212-614-4331, email:anthony.suarez@nof9.com

About Dx3 Canada

Dx3 is Canada’s largest conference and trade show focused on digital marketing, digital advertising and digital retailing. It brings agencies, brands, publishers and retailers together for two days of networking and education.

Dx3 2018 is March 7-8, 2018 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, featuring more than 30 educational sessions, 100 exhibitors and 4,000 attendees from Canada's leading brands and agencies.

About Tobii Pro Insight

Tobii Pro leads the market in bringing eye tracking insight to commercial brands, researchers, and organizations. Tobii Pro Insight is the company’s team of researchers conducting attention-based studies, helping the world’s top commercial brands better understand how their products and messages can better engage with customers. Tobii Pro Insight provides venue selection, panel requirement, expertise, eye tracking hardware, analysis software, workflow, and execution. This includes small qualitative studies to broad globally-based studies. Customers include Microsoft, Google, Ipsos, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and 18 of the top 20 global advertisers. www.tobiipro.com

About Toyota Canada Inc.

Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) is the exclusive Canadian distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Toyota has sold over 5 million vehicles in Canada through a national network of 286 Toyota and Lexus dealerships. Toyota is dedicated to bringing safety, quality, dependability and reliability in the vehicles Canadians drive and the service they receive. TCI’s head office is located in Toronto, with regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax and parts distribution centers in Toronto and Vancouver. Toyota operates two manufacturing facilities in Canada. Having produced more than seven million vehicles, popular Canadian models built at these facilities include Toyota RAV4, Toyota Corolla, Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h hybrid. For more information on Toyota and Toyota products, please visit: www.toyota.ca.

Caroline O’Connor

North of Nine Communications

230 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003

O: +1.212.614.4965 M: +1 508.361.9636 E: Caroline.OConnor@nof9.com

@Nof9PR