Cars Fight for Attention in Skoda's Eye-tracking Interactive Experience

Creative agency 18 Feet & Rising has launched its first digital campaign for ŠKODA – an interactive online experience called ‘Fight for Attention’ – for the new third-generation Fabia car.

The campaign is the first advertising creative to use pupil eye-tracking technology, measuring and displaying the results of the user’s interaction with the film in real time. The ground-breaking technology, developed by Visage Technologies, was adapted and integrated into the site by tech partners B-Reel

The user experience starts with the calibration of the user’s pupil movement with the computer’s webcam. A 90” split-screen film follows, featuring two Fabias racing through a number of locations, fighting for the user’s attention.

At the end of the race, the eye-tracking allows the site to calculate which Fabia stole most attention during the race, work out what they saw and missed, then create a personalised infographics of the eye movement and unique viewing statistics.

Users can share all of this to their social media channels and have the option to book a test drive with a local dealer and sign up for notifications about phase B, due to launch later in February.

In Phase B, users will be able to create their own films using a built-in editing platform. They can then submit their films to fight for attention against the ŠKODA drivers. By sharing these battles to social media, they invite friends to take part and increase their chances of topping the leader board by stealing more attention than their country competitors.

The campaign site, due to roll out across 32 European markets from Monday 16th February, has been developed and built in partnership with B-Reel.

Andrew Barnard, Business Director, 18 Feet & Rising said: “Genuine innovation is about overcoming the unforeseen and delivering a new experience; this campaign lives up to that, and then some. The end result reflects the combined ŠKODA/ 18 Feet & Rising ambition to continue redefining the brand by creating unexpected experiences for the consumer.”

Theun de Bruijn, Technical Director from B-Reel’s London studio said: “We have no doubts that key to the success of the Fight for Attention campaign is the marriage of innovative technology with Skoda’s distinctive style and brand language. In the case of Fight for Attention we’re using real-time eye tracking as a tool to take the concept of user choice into fresh, new directions. Instead of presenting a single moment of choice after finishing the experience, the user's attention is continuously tracked and automatically evaluated when they reach the goal. All of which is handled directly in the browser window, seamlessly integrated into the user journey.”