๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐
By Tzramsoy ยท October 16, 2026 ยท Curated by George's Blog
๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ -- ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ผ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ
๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด
You know the look. Someone walking through a busy shopping street, eyes fixed somewhere in the middle distance, hundreds of signs going past and none of them landing. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ-๐บ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ.
I have spent most of my career studying attention, and I still find this one of the brain's best tricks.
When there is more coming in than it can handle, the visual system narrows. Tatler showed it with eye tracking back in 2007: ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ฃ๐, ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐จ ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ง, and most of all in the first moments after something new appears.
Whitney and Levi call the other half of it ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐๐๐ฃ๐. Pack enough things together and the ones off-center stop being objects and become texture.
I'm going to Japan soon, and wanted to embrace myself for information overload. So I ran two minutes of a packed night-time Tokyo street through the Neurons attention AI to watch it happen. Hundreds of signs in shot. The attention peak never once went into the top third of the frame, where the signs are. About 84% of it stayed at eye level, on the faces coming towards the camera and the path ahead.
Here is the part I like: ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ป ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐น๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐ป. Bigger, brighter, more animation. And that arms race is exactly what creates the stare. Each sign adds load, load narrows the gaze, and the narrow gaze punishes all of them at once.
๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐๐? A face, and whatever sat in the walking line.
A few things I take from this when we test outdoor creative before it goes up:
โข Design for the glance you actually get, at eye level and in the path
โข One thing. The brain will take one thing. Clutter gets charged to the brand
โข A face, a known shape, a single clear word gets past the stare. A paragraph never does
When everything demands attention, the brain protects itself by choosing almost nothing. Make sure you are that one thing.
#neuromarketing #attention #OOH #advertising #CogntiveOverload #neuroscience
Sources:
Tatler (2007), Journal of Vision, https://lnkd.in/e2st2av6
Whitney & Levi (2011), Trends in Cognitive Sciences, https://lnkd.in/eMBkfVxD.