Ad agencies take up reading minds

LONDON -- Facebook this spring commissioned a San Francisco company called SalesBrain to gauge how consumers responded to ads viewed on a smartphone versus a TV screen. Neural researchers used various sensors to measure perspiration, heart rate, eye movement and brain activity of the 70 participants. Their conclusion: People get more out of information on a mobile phone than a TV, and watching television forces the brain to work harder to combat distractions.

"Our physical closeness to the mobile screen has shifted our perception of the size of the device," said Helen Crossley, the head of audience insights for Facebook IQ, the company's internal market research unit. "It is drawing us in to be more attentive and feel more positive about the content."

A host of new companies founded or staffed by brain researchers have some advice for advertisers: Read your customers' minds. In a world of ever-shrinking attention spans, where consumers flit through social media sites and skip right past online ads, advertisers are turning to neuroscience to better understand how to steer buyers toward their products.

"People are not governed by the rational side of their brains, so the majority of purchase decisions are made irrationally," said Itiel Dror, a Harvard University-trained neuroscientist engaged by London consultants BrandOpus to test the redesign of a logo for Canada's McCain Foods Ltd.

Dror asked 1,700 shoppers in seven countries to match phrases such as "family," "warmth," "mass-produced," and "factory" with McCain's old logo -- the company name inside a plain black box -- and a new one depicting a sun setting over farmland. McCain is rolling out the new version in 160 countries.

These companies use methods such as eye tracking, brain scanners and facial coding -- cameras that analyze people's expressions and assess their mood second by second -- to determine reactions to ads. The Neuromarketing Science & Business Association, started in 2012, has more than 1,000 members in 91 countries.

The field helps advertisers create simple messages that "deliberately mix conscious recall with unconscious," said Dan Machen, director of innovation at HeyHuman, a neuroscience-focused ad agency in London. "We need to think of the recipient's brain as an already over-clocked and overloaded system."

The industry's traditional powers are taking notice. Millward Brown, a research arm of ad giant WPP Plc, said it started exploring neuroscience four years ago and that it now uses facial coding to test every TV spot it works on. In April, London ad agency Dentsu Aegis purchased Forbes Consulting Group, a neuroscience company in Massachusetts.

And ratings giant Nielsen in May bought Innerscope Research, a neuroscience firm in Boston that's helped companies such as Campbell Soup Co. and Yahoo Inc. study customers via biometric tests that monitor heart rates and skin conductivity.

"There's no question we're seeing an uptick not only in business but also in the diversity of clients and the number of those making bigger investments," said Carl Marci, a neuropsychiatrist with an M.D. from Harvard who co-founded Innerscope a decade ago.

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