Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Marketers playing head games
London-based firm Mindmetic's Web site reads like the description of an imaginary evil company in a Philip K. Dick science fiction novel: "Mind reading technology!" "Predicting pre-conscious emotional response!" "Revolutionizing market research by revealing true emotions!" While the claims are bold, the company is banking that neuromarketing will become big business. The field of neuromarketing aims to use brain imaging and EEG technology to measure consumer preference and the effectiveness of advertising by observing how various stimuli affect brain activity: Which commercial is more persuasive? What package design is most alluring? Neuromarketing first stirred controversy in the US in the middle of the last decade with news of neuromarketing studies at Emory University and connections to Atlanta-based consultancy Brighthouse, whose corporate clients were very interested in these technologies of persuasion.
Mindmetic is keeping that dream alive, having recently announced a partnership with European ad firm Bark Group. According to the Bark Group, they'll leverage Mindmetic's research "in its marketing campaigns, giving it a scientific edge on the competition, and further ensuring the efficacy and success of its campaigns." From a newswire article released today by Integrity Media, and paid for by Bark:
Neuromarketing techniques are used to study consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Among other measurements such as tracing eye movements and monitoring body temperature, Mindmetic uses electroencephalography to measure activity in the cortical region of the brain to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and determine what part of the brain is telling them to do it. The information can be used to determine what colors, sounds and words get certain reactions in the minds of consumers, giving marketers like Bark a strategic edge when designing campaigns.
Bark’s interest is clear: it wants to leverage this state-of-the-art technology to craft higher efficacy campaigns, to design copy and advertisements that are tailored to elicit both conscious and subconscious consumer reactions.
If it is successful, Bark holds something very special, an advertising currency that it can spend on its clients as it wishes.