On the second Sunday of each month, AMT Lab celebrates data by sharing a nugget of information from survey data analyzed by us or others working in the field. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we are going to celebrate what our brains love.

Brain research is confirming what data analytics on our marketing campaigns has told us for years: people like visual content. The Center for Media Research recently published a study that helps demonstrate why. Simply put, our brains are wired to read visual cues. Our brains have learned how to read text. Again, that might seem obvious but the processing speed may be surprising. Neuroscience studies demonstrate that images are processed 60,000X faster than text. Furthermore, 80% of words on a page are frequently unread by the brain. This explains why tweets, posts, and emails with images and videos have a higher conversion rate and why human faces seem to be the best catalysts for action. 

For many arts managers this information reinforces what has already been demonstrated through internal observation and data.  Hopefully this data can fuel an even greater strategic approach to using images and videos to increase sales and donations. Content created online must have a strong narrative thrust to captivate our audiences, and pictures speak a thousand words. The moral of this story seems to be: use visuals always and choose your pictures wisely.

As you venture through your Valentine's Day, this data might be useful for personal uses. Good luck!

Images by Dierk Shaefer and martinak15, licensed under Creative Commons.