Measuring the effectiveness of a TV commercial through neuromarketing.

Advertising is one of the most important aspects in the world of marketing and, if studied in the right way, it can really make a difference in terms of visibility of a company. Ads must be created to attract the attention of the consumer – with an attractive storytelling – and arouse emotion, in order to increase brand recognition. 

The story must be unique, appealing and clear; the storytelling is the heart and therefore the important aspect of any video, it must engage, create empathy and arouse emotions. Furthermore the presence of elements which may be unexplained but immediately associated with the brand, is fundamental, because our mind quickly decodes associations rather than rational reasoning.

Making a commercial, which typically takes a very short time, is an art to be declined with these parameters. It is not always simple, but a neuromarketing test is very useful to verify that this happens, avoiding a waste of money.

Creative agencies often produce one or more versions of a single commercial and offer them to companies, but we now know that, beyond the creative idea itself, even the smallest hint can be perceived by the consumer in a more or less constructive way for effective storytelling, good association with the brand and effective emotional involvement.

We show you one of the commercials analyzed by BrainSigns at the beginning of its activity in this field, to understand what a neuromarketing test can do.

This is the advertising of an online insurance company, interested in assessing the effectiveness of two versions of commercials of 30 seconds each: a first version aired with obvious communication difficulties and a second one improved and tested to be sure of the effectiveness of the changes made.

The company has decided to investigate this issue taking advantage of neuromarketing techniques, pursuing the following goals:   

• understand which version of the commercial was the most effective
• provide suggestions to reduce the commercial to 15 seconds.

The instinctive perception of test subjects has been evaluated by BrainSigns with the following technologies:

• EEG sensors (electroencephalography) to measure cognitive reaction and brain interest level;
• HR and GSR sensors (heartbeat and skin conductance) to measure emotional reaction;
• Eye-tracking to highlight areas of increased eye-pointing intensity and the level of exploratory movement on videos

and a short final interview. 

Through this test it was possible to give the go-ahead to the second version of the commercial that contained only little but important changes: an introductory speaker and the continuous presence of the logo.

Thanks to these very little changes, the participants were finally able to better understand the commercial and in particular the “Offer”; the second version in fact obtained systematically higher scores for the index of interest and emotion.

Small differences can improve the whole perception of television advertising.

After highlighting the best moments of the advertising, based on the insights of neuromarketing collected after testing the two versions of the 30-second commercial, it was possible to provide the customer with some ideas on how to successfully optimize the reduction of the commercial.

When the 15-second commercial was aired, there was a 17% increase in the average number of requests received on the company’s website within 60 minutes following the broadcast of the commercial.

This case history of neuromarketing is described in more detail here.    

Which elements can improve the purchasing process in the fruit and vegetables department?

BrainSigns in collaboration with Agroter, a consulting company specializing in the marketing of fresh food products, has already conducted a study to investigate the purchasing dynamics of the fruit and vegetable category and to better understand what can help promote sales and to make it a more immersive experience. In 2016, it was the first study applied with neuromarketing techniques in Italy.

The participants, equipped with a shopping cart and a shopping list, visited some departments of a supermarket in Rome: biscuits, detergents and fruit and vegetables. During the test they wore sensors for the acquisition of the electroencephalographic signal (EEG) and for the detection of the point of sight (Eye-Tracker), then short interviews were conducted with the participants.

The use of these technologies allowed to measure the emotional’s level, cognitive involvement and focus attention of participants in different departments, and in exposure conditions of layout, packaging and presence of promoters at the entrance of the store.

Agroter, focusing on the fruit and vegetable sector, was aware of the real decrease in consumption of fruit and vegetables despite the opposite is stated on the basis of data collected from traditional research.

According to the Agroter Fruit and Vegetable Monitor, in eleven years of interviews to responsible of purchase, the perception of having increased consumption had the upper hand.  For this reason it was decided to investigate this phenomenon through neuroscientific technologies pursuing the following objectives:

• explore the effect of the visual attention elicited by different apple’s packaging on consumer behaviour
• understanding how different strategies of product placement on the shelves, can affect the consumer behaviour
• study the impact of promoters outside the store

This Neuromarketing study has shown that innovative packaging, simplicity, display clarity and the element “reassurance”, determined in this case by the promoter present at the entrance of the supermarket, can do much to improve customer satisfaction.

Managers and communication experts will be able to consider these aspects of research for a future relaunch of the fruit and vegetable department.

The promotion of fruit and vegetables is certainly a challenging and very complex issue but this neuromarketing study has shown clearly that it is possible to get better. It has shown with a short experiment some key elements not detectable only with traditional analysis techniques that they take more time.

Learn more: click here to read the full article   

BrainSigns has received 2 awards as Italian excellence for the category Research and Training in the splendid location of the Aula dei Gruppi Parlamentari within the Camera dei Deputati.

On 19 June the Gala of Made in Italy was held with the presence of institutional authorities, politicians and public personalities of the show business and the press to reward  the “Italia of the credit” and those who have distinguished themselves by quality, entrepreneurial spirit and professionalism.

Prof. Fabio Babiloni, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of BrainSigns, present in the list of the Top Italian scientists and first Italian author to publish scientific articles on neuromarketing applications, has been awarded in the category Research and Training, for being distinguished in the research and international scientific dissemination activities of neuromarketing and for the application of this discipline in the business world.

Ing. Gianluca Borghini, Bioengineer of BrainSigns, also received an award for his excellent international contribution in the development and application of Bioengineering methodologies in operational contexts, such as aviation and air traffic control.

We are proud of receiving these achievements for the work done in the areas of Research and Training, since the event represents an important opportunity to enhance the excellencies of our country.

On May 20^th BrainSigns will host a workshop at Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer" – Central Library "Fabrizio Eusebi" on the use of neuroscience applications outside the lab. 

Out of the Lab employment of Neurophysiological measures: clinical applications and beyond

The half-day is organized by BrainSigns, a spin off company of the Sapienza University leader in industrial neuroscience field, through the employment of techniques coming from neuroscience, bioengineering and psychology fields. The workshop includes lectures with topics ranging from neurophysiology to artificial intelligence and signal processing, highlighting the relevance of neuroscience applications in out of the lab applications, from clinical use, to operational environments and everyday applications. The workshop is supported by the HOPE, WorkingAge, BrainSafeDrive and SIMUSAFEDRIV projects.

Organizers: Dr. Pietro Aricò (bioengineering researcher at BrainSigns srl), Dr. Gianluca Borghini (bioengineering researcher at BrainSigns srl), Dr. Gianluca Di Flumeri (bioengineering researcher at BrainSigns srl) and Prof. Fabio Babiloni (scientific director of BrainSigns srl company and Professor at Sapienza University)

Chair: Dr. Pietro Aricò

Co-Chairs: Dr.Giulia Cartocci (Neurobiology Researcher)

Keynote Speakers: Dr. Manousos A. Klados, Prof. Hong Zeng, Prof. Viviana Betti.

PROGRAM   

• Welcome session – Dr. Pietro Aricò [9.30-9.40]  

• Dr. Manousos A. Klados - Lecturer with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Aston University- Keynote Speaker [9.40-10.15] (30minutes + 5minutes Q&A) 

Partial Least Square Correlation in Neuroscience: Theory and Examples
PLS is a latent variable method for relating the variation in one data-table (responses) to the variations of another data-tables (predictors). Together we will explore so the theory as the interpretation of PLS, while we will see how it can be applied in two different neuroscientific fields 

• Dr. Giulia Cartocci - Invited Speaker [10.15-10.30] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Neurophysiological measures of listening tasks in hearing impaired patients
Hearing impaired patients developed their auditory system in a non-physiological way, it is worthy then to investigate their cognitive reaction to auditory verbal and non-verbal stimuli, also in challenging auditory conditions such as in presence of background noise. This assessment can allow objective measure of listening effort and identification of neuroplasticity-related peculiar EEG patterns in this kind of patients. 

• Dr. Nicolina Sciaraffa - Invited Speaker [10.30-10.45] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Multimodal approach for neurophysiological modelling and classification of attention levels
In a human-automation system an appropriate level of attention allows the operator to receive information from the surrounding world retaining only the important ones. This presentation shows that it is possible to classify different levels of attention using features derived from brain or eyes activity and highlights the relationship between such different sets of feature.

• Prof. Viviana Betti - associate professor at Sapienza University of Rome - Keynote Speaker [10.45-11.20] (30minutes + 5minutes Q&A) 

The role of naturalistic behavior in shaping behavior and intrinsic brain activity
The talk will present a novel framework to explain what information, if any, is coded in intrinsic patterns of correlated activity, through MEG and fMRI studies. In particular, It will be tested how the effector we use to interact with the external environment contributes to behaviour and intrinsic brain activity.

• Coffee Break [11.20-11.40]  

•  Dr. Gianluca Borghini - Invited Speaker [11.40-11.55] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Machine-Learning Approach and Data Fusion for the Stress Assessment
Stress is a word used to describe experiences that are challenging emotionally and physiologically, therefore the capability to objectively assess and track user’s stress level would be very important. The talk will show how the knowledge of the stress impact on neural and physiological processes allows the right stress characterization.

•  Dr. Gianluca Di Flumeri - Invited Speaker [11.55-12.10] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

The neurophysiological approach to investigate the driver’s perception of different road situations 
Car driving is considered a very complex activity, consisting of different concomitant (sub-)tasks, thus it is crucial to understand the impact of different factors - e.g. road complexity, traffic, external events, etc. - on the driver’s behaviour and performance. This presentation shows the suitability of an EEG-based machine learning algorithm for such a kind of application in real driving condition.

• Prof. Hong Zeng - Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Technology, Hangzhou Dianzi University, China - Keynote Speaker [12.10-12.45] (30minutes + 5minutes Q&A) 

Driver mental states classification: a lightGBM-based EEG analysis method
EEG-based fatigue detection has been increasingly investigated. However, how to find an effective method to timely and efficiently detect the mental states of drivers still remains a challenge. We propose a light-weighted classifier, LightFD, which is based on gradient boosting framework for EEG mental states identification. The comparable results show LightFD could achieve better classification performance, the decision efficiency, as well as better transfer learning performance.

•  Dr. Patrizia Cherubino - Invited Speaker [12.45-13.00] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Using neurophysiological tools to decode Consumer Behaviour
Neuroscientific technologies can be effectively employed to better understand the human behaviour in real decision-making contexts, also for marketing purposes. Neuromarketing studies seek to investigate different brain areas while experiencing marketing stimuli to find and report the relationship between customer behaviour and the neurophysiological system.

•  Prof. Luigi Bianchi - Invited Speaker [13.00-13.15] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Neurofeedback at the BraINterface Lab
Neuro-feedback is a process through which a subject can learn to control and modulate some central nervous systems functions, which are translated and converted into a visual, acoustic or somatosensory representation. A versatile software platform suitable for building a wide range of NFB systems will be briefly illustrated.

•  Dr. Pietro Aricò - Invited Speaker [13.15-13.30] (10minutes + 5minutes Q&A)

Human-machine interaction assessment by neurophysiological measures employment
This presentation will be focus on the employment of neurophysiological measures to assess the human machine interaction effectiveness in operational environment, and on the advantages with respect to standard assessing measures (i.e. subjective ones). In this regard, neurophysiological measures can be used to compare new technologies, with the final purpose to enhance operator’s experience and/or increase safety.

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