Cleveland Indians Use Tobii’s Wearable Eye-tracking Technology to Study Ballpark Ad Spaces

CLEVELAND and WASHINGTON — May 29, 2014 — The Analysis Division of Tobii Technology, the leader in eye-tracking research solutions, announced today the results of a Tobii Insight project with the Cleveland Indians that studied in-park advertising. The study leveraged Tobii’s expert researchers and innovative wearable eye-tracking technology to provide team advertisers and sponsors with first-of-their-kind media values based on the actual fan experience.    

In this unprecedented study, Tobii’s Insight team helped the Cleveland Indians develop and execute a comprehensive and cost-effective eye-tracking market research study that conveniently and accurately determined how often fans looked at in-park signage.

“We are extremely excited to now offer our sponsors media values based on actual in-park fan viewing data, complemented by existing TV-derived media values,” said Steven Shin, sales analyst for the Cleveland Indians. “From initial strategy meetings to study design to data evaluation, we thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with the Tobii Insight team. It was extremely easy to conduct the study, the data captured was accurate, and the overall results provided tremendous insight and value for our marketing and business operations teams.”

For the study, Tobii provided the following support:

• Defined the scope of the study and determined the best eye-tracking tools to capture key data points.
• Managed the experimental design and implementation of the study at the ballpark.
• Processed and analyzed the eye-tracking data.
• Collaborated with the Cleveland Indians to refine results in terms of media value.

During the study, 47 fans were recruited over a three-day period to wear the Tobii Glasses while they watched a game from a variety of seating areas throughout the ballpark. The fans’ visual behavior was recorded in 30-minute samples.

As a result, the Indians and Tobii developed a methodology to define media values for in-park viewing of specific signage. This allowed the Indians to quantify the considerable fan attention that the main scoreboard and dynamic signage received within the ballpark.

“We developed Tobii Insight as a consulting service to allow more organizations to use and gain the benefits of eye-tracking research,” said Barbara Barclay, general manager of Tobii North America. “And we continue to see new and innovative applications and opportunities for us to work with a wide variety of businesses and organizations to help them study user behavior, identify opportunities and issues, and measure and compare performance.”

Media Contact:
Kristina Messner, Senior Vice President of Public Relations, Focused Image, +1-703-678-6023, kmessner@focusedimage.com.