Is Kate Moss Worth It?

As part of Think’s weekly omnibus survey we recently eye tracked several luxury perfume magazine advertisements and were surprised by the result: Supermodel Kate Moss did not attract any more attention than an ‘unknown’ model.

93% of readers viewed both the Chanel and the Armani Code advertisements.

This interested me and I did some research into what may be happening here and I found inspiration from beyond the grave. No I’ve not developed psychic powers, I read Scientific Advertising published in 1923 by Claude Hopkins, he wrote:

“So with beauty articles. Picturing beautiful women, admired and attractive, is a supreme inducement. But there is a great advantage in including a fascinated man.”

I’m interested in doing more research on this idea to see if it is still true despite the significant changes towards equality since 1923. If you have examples of advertisements using this technique please forward them to rob at thinkeyetracking.com.

The best performing advert was from D&G with 96% of readers engaged with the advert. This is hardly surprising given that it’s a veritable role call of super models including Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova!

The worst performing advertisement was for Daisy by Marc Jacobs with just 73% of readers engaging with the advertisement. As W.C. Fields once said, “Never work with children or animals.” Did you notice the kitten?

At Think Eyetracking we have a very easy to understand model of what makes a successful creative, an advert must do three things:

1) Get the viewers attention

2) Deliver the viewers attention to a key message

3) Make a difference!

I’m not suggesting that the value of using Kate Moss or any super model in an advertisement is limited to their ability to attract attention. What I am stating is that with good art direction it is possible to achieve great stand out and you don’t need to pay super model fees to get super model results!

The study carried out by eye tracking 30 women who read through a copy of Marie Clare.

As part of Think Eye Tracking’s carbon positive policy each approved comment on this and any other blog article on the site we will pay for a tree to be planted in Carbon Clear’s Sustainable Community Tree Planting India.