When it comes to the power of visuals, there are A LOT of stats out there! Some of them can be a little hard to believe, and very hard to track down. The stat about processing visuals 60,000 times faster than text is a prime example. It’s a dizzying stat about the effectiveness of visuals, or, it would be if only it could be cited and sourced.

For all these illusive stats however, studies have shown the power of visuals gives communications and messages a much greater impact. Visuals add a new dimension and bring many benefits. We have found five stats, and importantly, wrangled that all important citation that highlight the value of visuals when connecting with key audiences.

The brain can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds

This was uncovered by MIT researchers back in 2013, and appeared in the journal Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. The study tested the speed it takes for the human brain to process information like colour, shape and orientation, and more findings are available publicly here. Beginning with by showing images to two groups of participants for 100 milliseconds, the researchers were able decrease the duration images appeared to just 13 milliseconds and found that participants were still able to identify the images.

The implications for your communications are BIG! If an image just needs 13 milliseconds for it’s meaning to be processed by the brain, think how much information can be communicated over the course of a minute long (or longer) explainer video. It makes explainer videos an amazing way to deliver detailed ad complex messages to key audiences.

Presentations using visual aids were found to be 43% more persuasive

We’re going back to 1986 for this statistic and study, showing there is nothing new about the impact of visuals in comms. This report was part of the Working Paper Series by The 3M company under the title Persuasion and the Role of Visual Presentation Support. The study involved roughly 315 people, with some presentations delivered with no visual support while others featured a range of visual support. The report found that visual support made presenters appear more concise, professional and interesting. But of course the 43% more persuasive stat is the attention grabber!

What does his mean for your your next meeting, event or campaign? It shows that adding visuals significantly improves the perceptions and outcomes of an event or campaign. Fast forwarding to now, developments in technology have meant that videos, animations or infographics are perfectly placed to reach wide audiences.

Presenting material in two media—pictorial and verbal—is generally superior to presenting material in only a single medium

In their 2011 book e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer discovered this gem of a fact. Clark completed her doctorate in Instructional Psychology/ Educational Technology while Mayer is an educational psychologist. In e-Learning… they discuss learning materials and they make the above statement. adding the caveat ‘as long as the pictorial information is well designed and congruent’. We saw this finding among many other insights in the 2015 white paper The Cognitive Science of Learning by Dr Jolly T. Holden. Holden is an Associate Professor on the American InterContinental University Online Master’s of Education (MEd) degree program in Instructional Design & Technology.

This has a clear message for comms more broadly. Mediums that combine visuals and text, such as infographic and whiteboard animation, give marketers the power to give their content added impact and deliver the messages in more effective ways.

People are 323% at following instructions when text and illustrations are combined

This one may seem a little hard to believe for anyone who has ever constructed flat-pack furniture, but imagine trying the at bed frame without it?! We have to be honest, this stat is more of an honourable mention. It comes from a 1982 article in the Educational Communication and Technology Journal, but we haven’t been able to read the original paper for more information context. This is it’s citation.

Still, it suggests some interesting applications in marketing and comms. The research shows that a call to action delivered through a combination of text and visuals will have a much greater impact than if it was just presented in text.

Whiteboard animations create more engagement, sharing and entertainment

Now it’s time for some research of our own! We worked with Professor Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, to conduct research into the impacts of whiteboard animation on a group of 2000 randomly selected participants. Whiteboard animation is a medium we pioneered when we created the RSA Animates and together with Professor Wiseman, we compared it to talking head videos. Our experiment compared a video of Professor Wiseman speaking and a whiteboard animation which used the same voiceover. Download a copy of the report here. We found:

• Viewers were 66% more likely to share the whiteboard animation

• The whiteboard animation resulted in a 15% increase in information retention

• The whiteboard animation was 33% more entertaining

The usefulness for events, meetings and marketing campaigns is clear. If you want to make your information, calls to action and messages stay with audiences and reach bigger audiences, whiteboard animation is the ideal format.

We believe in the power of visuals. They tell stories, make complex or dry information accessible and memorable, while taking your message to the next level and engaged audiences. Since pioneering whiteboard animation, we have used it to bring the messages of corporate, academic and charitable organisations to audiences across the globe. We have used to it tackle subjects ranging from black holes to sales platforms, and we’d love to use it to help you supercharge your story.

Cognitive are award-winning pioneers of whiteboard animation, and the creators behind the RSA Animates series. We help corporate, academic and charitable organisations like the BBC, TED, Coca Cola and Sanofi to tell their stories more powerfully. Find out more about us here.