Cause-related marketing ads in the eye tracker: it depends on how you present, who sees the ad, and what you promote

We compare the effectiveness of three visual types of cause-related marketing ads (product-oriented vs. cause-focused with an image of the beneficiary's face- vs. cause-focused with an image of the social cause), along with two moderators: product type and gender differences. In Study 1, the results of an eye-tracking experiment show that a product-oriented ad leads to a longer fixation duration than does a cause-focused ad. Females process the ads faster than do males, regardless of visual type. A cause-focused ad for a hedonic product results in a shorter fixation duration when an image of the beneficiary's face is used than when an image of the social cause is used. The opposite results are observed for a utilitarian product. Gender differences enhance such differences in ad processing. Study 2 is conducted to validate the arguments for the hypotheses proposed in Study 1. We find that using a cause-focused image vs. a product-oriented image impacts the effectiveness of the ad since consumers process these different visual types of ads differently.