Attention Research Proposal for a product with two ads

Instructions: 

Choose a product or other “offering” (e.g., Diet Coke) and find two ads for it from 2018-2024. The offering can be anything, like a good, service, event, or activity. Both ads need to come from the same type of medium (e.g., magazine, commercial, podcast, etc.), but can be from different specific sources within that medium. For example, if the medium you choose is podcasts, then the Diet Coke ads you select could be from Planet Money and Radiolab podcasts.

Begin by briefly (in a sentence or two) describing each ad. What offering do the ads promote? In what main ways do the ads differ? Please attach the ads to the assignment (photo, screenshot, or link to the source). 

• Next, state your hypothesis: which ad do you predict to be more likely to attract consumers’ attention? State your reasons for formulating this hypothesis: what, specifically, about this ad will make it more attention-getting? Be sure to support this hypothesis with what you’ve learned in class and from the readings. 
• Now, propose two research methods to test this hypothesis. 
• The first one should NOT be an experiment. That is, it should describe how you could find correlational evidence that is consistent with your hypothesis out in the real world, but it should not involve causality / random assignment to different conditions. (We saw some examples of non-causal data in Class 2: see slides 25 and 30-32.)
• The second research method SHOULD be an experiment. I.e., it should involve your intervening by randomizing things or people to different conditions. In this case, “things or people” can be consumers, locations, days, or any other unit you think makes sense.

For each research method, discuss how you would implement these research methods. In other words, describe exactly what would happen. Who would your participants be? What would you ask them to do, or what kind of data would you seek out? You can assume that you have no cost or time constraints in implementing your methods. 

• For each method, describe exactly how you would operationalize attention. That is, how would you measure attention to know which ad better attracted attention? For example, would you ask participants which ad got their attention? Would you test their memories for the ads? Would you monitor whether the ads distract them from some other task? You can be creative, but be sure to explain how you would determine whether an ad has gotten someone’s attention. 
• You should use different operationalization categories for your two methods. For example, if for your non-experiment you are measuring attention by observing behavior, your experiment should use a survey scale or a biological marker.
• Discuss the advantages and the limitations of each of the research strategies you’ve developed, focusing both on the experimental versus non-experimental dimension, and the different attention operationalizations you’ve chosen. Don’t just copy the pros and cons from your notes: be specific and thoughtful in describing how these pros and cons would play out in the settings you’ve created.