In a striking revelation, QMS, a leader in digital outdoor media, has published the results of its latest neuroscience research that sheds light on how dynamic content influences audience engagement and the ability to retain information over time. This study follows their recent partnership campaign featuring GIO, a prominent insurance provider, alongside The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), particularly focusing on the British and Irish Lions rugby event.
The research was executed in collaboration with Neuro-Insight, a firm specializing in understanding consumer behavior through neuroscience. It specifically assessed how audiences reacted to GIO's sponsorship displayed across the digital street furniture network in the City of Sydney, where GIO's creative advertisements were strategically placed next to real-time rugby-related editorial content from SMH.
As QMS gears up for the launch of its fully digital Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games Network, these findings are timely. This new initiative will encompass QMS's national digital large-format billboards, the City of Sydney's street furniture, The Convenience Network, Canberra Airport, and assets along the Gold Coast, potentially reaching 80% of metropolitan Australians.
The insights from the Neuro-Insight study reveal that this innovative approach to adjacent content significantly enhances effectiveness, yielding a 20% increase in long-term memory encoding compared to established benchmarks. Additionally, the study highlighted an 11% rise in overall engagement levels and a remarkable 21% increase in emotional intensity among viewers.
Christian Zavecz, Chief Strategy Officer at QMS, emphasized the importance of aligning brands with culturally significant moments and high-quality editorial content, stating, "Our dynamic content Neuro-Insight study clearly highlights the fact that when brands align themselves within culturally relevant moments and quality editorial, the impact is significant. We saw this to great success with our Paris 2024 Olympics coverage for sponsors brands – and now with the combination of GIO’s message with the trusted sports coverage from the SMH, it’s driven some very impressive results."
He further noted, "Our City of Sydney network is designed for this kind of dynamic storytelling, and these results show how advertisers can use data, content, and environment together to drive genuine attention and long-term memory recollection."
Mark Condon, GIO's Marketing Manager, commented on the effectiveness of the strategy, saying, "This was a smart way for us to connect GIO with culturally relevant moments, and the response proved just how effective that approach can be. It’s a great signal for how we activate the brand moving forward."
Peter Pynta, Chief Commercial Officer at Neuro-Insight, added, "These results clearly demonstrate the power of contextual alignment. This content and advertising ecosystem not only boosts engagement and emotional intensity but also enhances long-term memory encoding, driving stronger brand impact than standalone ads. For brands in highly competitive categories, this approach delivers meaningful differentiation."
This latest study builds on a series of previous Neuro-Insight studies conducted across the QMS digital out-of-home portfolio, reinforcing the impressive outcomes that brands and agencies can achieve when utilizing this strategic approach. Earlier studies have already shown that QMS sites produce above-benchmark effectiveness, including a notable 24% increase in long-term memory encoding within the City of Sydney network compared to Neuro-Insight’s global standards.
