Don't blink, or you’ll miss it! Or perhaps you won’t. While we are surrounding by thousands of advertising messages each day, research has shown that moving messages are significantly more effective in grabbing attention and achieving brand recall.

The study, titled ‘The Momentum Effect’, which was commissioned by APN Outdoor and conducted by media and consumer research company HOOP and neuro-technology research firm Neuro-Insights found that moving bus advertisements increase consumer engagement and memory recall.

This is reportedly the first time that the heightened attention and awareness generated by movement of messages has been scientifically quantified.

Liz Farquharson, managing director of HOOP says: “Through measuring the brain reaction of participants on a second by second basis, it was clear that moving bus advertisements elicit a greater level of engagement”,

This result points to the positive reaction from audiences viewing movement advertisement.

“Once there is a higher level of engagement with the brand, we found that this then results in a deeper level of memory encoding. Memory encoding can increase recall of a brand, and drive greater salience”.

The study also found that engagement with advertising peaked earlier for moving panel advertisement, and that the level of engagement was 45% higher for moving messages against stationary ones. At the same time, moving advertisements resulted in a 33% higher memory peak.

Richard Herring, CEO of APN Outdoor says: “Instinctively we have always known that movement captures attention. A moving bus is something people walking, driving and riding bikes unavoidably notice [and now we have] research that scientifically quantifies engagement levels, as well as the long term effect this has on brand preference”.