The power of visualization

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Models, bloggers, editors, the Fashion world is abundant in beautiful, charming and stylish women and men. Most of them are intensively producing original contents shared on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram and most of them are paid significant amount of money by brands looking to pop up in a cluttered environment. Every fashion week we may appreciate hundreds of thousands of contribution generated by professionals and amateurs shooting in the streets or in location. And some of them show remarkable level of engagement, meaning likes, comments and shares. Still, a question remains without an answer: what the audience actually sees when looking at those pictures? What they do actually like of comments: the brands, the products or the subjects? Do brands get what they pay for or do they simply put their money on a best guess or, worst, because everyone in the industry does so?

   To come up with a solution to the problem about the issue there are at least two ways: to ask to individuals what they have seen or to go through neuroscientific research. We chose the second option and tested 40 pictures versus a panel of women of different countries. Ready? WHO posted WHAT shot, WHERE and WHAT the designated audience really saw Publisher, Content, Context are the three main areas of investigation to understand if a post was successful or not for the audience. Through EEG, we measured the Engagement (the emotional interest in a picture) and the Excitement (the positive reaction to the picture). Furthermore with the Eye Tracker we spotted which parts of the pictures attracted the attention of the panel. And the winner is, well let’s say that there are winners and losers of course and not necessarily the ones we may expect. EEG RESULTS PUBLISHER The first evidence is that Brands still hold the helm of Engagement, performing better than any other group. Celebrities follow together with Bloggers and, sorry about that, Media to close the ranking. When it comes to Excitement we can appreciate a significant reaction for VIP/Models and Bloggers while Brands still perform very well.

Vip / Model! Brand / Store / Designer! Blogger! Fashion editor / Magazine!

Engagement!

Vip / Model! Brand / Store / Designer ! Blogger! Fashion editor / Magazine!

Excitement!

    CONTENT We are talking about fashion, clothes, accessories so it’s no surprise that pictures displaying Brands deliver the best result. It’s far more interesting to see the low level of excitement delivered by the Vip if compared with Bloggers and Models.

CONTEXT This is the only item for which we have a clear and undisputed winner: pictures taken in the Streets call for higher attention and higher excitement, higher that the Fashion Shows themselves. Backstage is not so appealing as we may think.

             EYE TRACKER RESULTS So now we know that if a brand posts a picture of a model or a blogger in the street engagement and excitement will be at the top. Cool, isn’t it?

Blogger! Model ! Brand! Vip!

Engagement !

Blogger! Model! Brand! Vip!

Excitement!

Backstage! Home! Fashion show! Street!

Engagement !

Backstage! Home! Fashion show ! Street!

Excitement!!

   Though there is another question to be answered: what exactly the audience sees in the picture? Where is their attention focused? Do they look at the picture only or at the text as well? Our analysis was performed on a selection of 40 pictures published by several professionals. Let’s go through three of the most famous journalist, editors and bloggers: Anna Dello Russo, Giovanna Engelbert and Chiara Ferragni.

The first huge evidence is that there is no correlation between the size of the audience and the performance of the photo. If you look just at the quantitative side, if the goal is to reach the wider audience available looking to the Social Media ranking is correct. If you want to achieve a deeper relationship with an engaged audience, then looking at the Engagement and Excitement indexes is the right approach. WHAT THE AUDIENCE REALLY SAW IN THE PICTURES The analysis put in evidence some patterns through the entire selection of the 42 pictures. No matter the author nor the content nor the context, patterns are here and should be taken in consideration when preparing the editorial plan and thinking to hire an influencer. We all know that the quality, the engagement and excitement delivered by these pictures may reflect on the e-commerce performance as well.

Author Location Date Likes Comment Engagement vs average Excitement vs average0,56 0,39

Anna dello Russo New York Street 13/09/15 7908 101 0,56 100,0 0,52 133,3

Street 25/02/16 4288 37 0,56 100,0 0,48 123,1

Park 02/03/16 4326 23 0,58 103,6 0,42 107,7

Giovanna Engelbert Home 05/10/15 2338 23 0,53 94,6 0,38 97,4

Catwalk 17/09/15 2102 16 0,58 103,6 0,28 71,8

Chiara Ferragni Street 25/10/15 80162 448 0,55 98,2 0,38 97,4

NYC 18/09/15 79956 394 0,54 96,4 0,36 92,3

    Anna Dello Russo

    Giovanna Engelbert

Chiara Ferragni

   

WRAP UP

1. The pictures selected here clearly show that attention is always caught by faces and where they look at.

2. The audience does look to see who’s in the pictures sometimes even before than read the account name and the text that comes along or, worst, without even see the dress.

3. Details such as accessories (bags, shoes, jewellery) are the second catalyst.

4. Then in some pictures attention goes on the dress as well, only in some pictures

though.

5. Texts can grab some attention according to the name/brand mentioned.