Neon's CEO, Sophie Lebrecht, presents at ONA 2015 about how to use tips gleaned from neuroscience and big data to pick more effective images for your site. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #ONA15attn Audio of presentation available here: http://ona15.journalists.org/sessions/videocognition/#.VgmA_I9Viko

1. Human Cognition, Meet
Video in the Social Age
Sophie Lebrecht, Neon, @lebrechts
11:30am - 12:30pm | #ONA15attn

2. Then…

3. Now…
1 Trillion Images Analyzed 3 Billion Images Served 16-40% Average “Lift”

4. Why do images matter?

5. Images create an emotional connection with the viewer

6. #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik
“Humanity Washed Ashore”

7. Laith Majid & family arriving on the shore of Kos, Greece

8. Laith Majid & family relocated in Berlin, Germany

9. 1.8B images shared on the Internet every day
1.8B Images are shared on the internet every day

11. “Now images not only drive content and
engagement, but increasingly they are the
content.”
Carina Kolodny, Huffington Post

16. Agenda
PART ONE: The science of image perception
PART TWO: Tips for picking images
PART THREE: The future of image selection

17. The Science of Image Perception

18. Vision is a critical source of information

19. Conscious vs. Unconscious Visual Cognition

20. Conscious vs. Unconscious Visual Cognition

21. What drives unconscious
image perception?

22. Circumplex Model of Affect, Russell 1980

23. negative valence positive valence
micro-valence
Valence Continuum

24. negative valence positive valence
micro-valence
Valence Continuum

25. Valence Continuum
negative valence positive valence

26. Lebrecht, Bar, Sheinberg & Tarr, 2011
-0.12
-0.07
-0.02
0.03
0.08
0.13
0.18
0.23
%SignalChange
SP
MP
MN
SN
Neural evidence for a valence continuum

27. Valence Continuum
+24%
“lift”
-60%
“lift”
negative valence positive valence

28. Should I pick an image that is relevant
to the story? Or simply an image with
high valence?

29. People perceive valence consistently, even
when there is no meaning in the image.

30. (a)
(b)
People perceive valence consistently, even
when there is no meaning in the image.

31. Tips for selecting images
viewers will click!

32. Brightness

35. Saturated color

38. Faces

41. Curiosity leads to click-through

42. Instability

44. Off-screen attention

46. How do I entice viewers
without using “click-bait”?

47. The human visual system is sensitive
to detailed information, so you can pick
images with subtle differences that lead to
big changes in click-through.

48. 1. Brightness
2. Saturated color
3. Joint attention
4. Famous faces
5. Instability
6. Off-screen attention
Reasons to select an image

49. 1. Text on the image
2. Blurred
3. Too much of one color
4. Eyes closed
5. Too polished / non-natural
Images to avoid

50. How do I know my image is working?

51. A/B Testing

52. +56%
+72%
+84%

53. The future of digital image selection

54. Multi-platform

55. Live Streams

56. Personalization of content & images

57. Drones capturing news

58. Thank You!
lebrecht@neon-lab.com
@lebrechts
www.neon-lab.com