Neuromarketing 2021 Series - Submissions

Neuromarketing 2021 Series - Submissions

All members of the NMSBA receive a ballot this week. Watch the video pitches (and/or read the submission text) below and vote for your favorite through the online ballot.

1. How neuromarketing can help a micro-enterprise to differentiate itself from the competitors (Marco Baldocchi)
2. Using Neuroscience to Build Brand Purpose (Constantinos Pantidos)
3. Leveraging Neuroscience to Encourage Green Consumption and other Pro-Environmental Behaviors (Michael Smith)
4. Online business, remote life: The story of how everything changed (Lana Babii)
5. Tackling the Future of Socially-Charged Advertising (Elise Temple & Patty Goldman)
6. Neurochat – Communication solution for disability patients (Alesya Chichinkina) 
7. Neuro research for UNICEF promo campaign “Talk Against Violence” (Nikolaos Dimitriadis)
8. Plastic waste in personal care and beauty. How can brands successfully reimagine their products? (Karine Trinquetel)
9. Hesitation matters: the impact of uncertainty during covid-19, a multimarket study (Nick Saxby & Dorota Reykowska)
10. Five Mistakes to Avoid in Social Marketing - Case Study of a Greenpeace Sensibilisation Video (Bart Norre & Sophie Hoffman)
11. Is the climate changing only for penguins? (Yener Girisken)
12. Applying neuro- and behavioral science to drive behavior change – How to nudge consumers towards healthier, more sustainable diets (Andreea Tarasescu)
13. Mad Men or Sad Men: Is advertising pressing the right emotional buttons? (Graham Page)
14. Activating Brand Purpose With a Stigmatized Group (Tyler Milfeld & Andy Smith)
15. What The World Needs Now: Sustainable Neuromarketing (Row Hashemiyoon)

1. How neuromarketing can help a micro-enterprise to differentiate itself from the competitors (Marco Baldocchi)

How neuromarketing can help a micro-enterprise to differentiate itself from the competitors
• How a small food company in Italy has managed to make itself different;
• What emotions remained to the customers of the lived experience;
• Is food or experience the important thing?

We used electroencephalogram, GSR, eye tracking to understand the emotional reactions of customers during and after the food and wine experience. The difference between "standard" analysis and biometric analysis is evident and has allowed the company to improve its perception and to differentiate itself from competitors by leveraging the right archetype
The public can understand the real influence that the product has on the customer's mind and what, instead, is the perception of the surrounding elements such as: environment, people, emotions. Also for the micro-enterprise. Our main question was: is neuromarketing just for big brands?

2. Using Neuroscience to Build Brand Purpose (Constantinos Pantidos)

• This presentation unlocks the neurobiological usefulness of purpose and reveals the mechanics of purpose in the brain. It helps to capture the engaging power of purpose. Being inspired by the purpose of others and the ways this becomes possible is analyzed.
• Building the foundations of success of brand purpose and mapping the characteristics that make it meaningful and engaging help prepare the organization and consumer to live and breathe purpose. Using neuroscience strategically to define brand purpose even during the pandemic makes all this possible.
• Examples of brand purposes that worked and their reasons for success are analyzed

What the audience can learn

• How success is not just based on the purpose itself but mainly on the way the brand purpose is triggered in the brain.
• What the specific neural requirements for a brand purpose to work are.
• The way(s) to define the right purpose for a brand.

3. Leveraging Neuroscience to Encourage Green Consumption and other Pro-Environmental Behaviors (Michael E Smith)

• Learn the key psychological/conceptual frameworks that researchers have used to describe and predict the formation of “green purchase intent”.
• Understand the challenges and barriers that cognitive resource limitations, automaticity, and mental heuristics and biases pose for sustainability-oriented behavior change efforts.
• Review brain-based best practices for implementing marketing strategies and communications that can succeed in overcoming such barriers and successfully shape pro-environmental marketplace behaviors in diverse consumer audience segments.

This presentation will review key findings and evidence-based marketing strategies that help promote successful market adoption of products and services that can reduce environmental impacts and advance circular economy goals.  It builds on decades of research from experimental psychology, cognitive and social neuroscience, neuroeconomics, and socioeconomic theory to deliver an improved understanding of barriers to, and opportunities for, successfully transitioning to a green consumer economy. In addition to reviewing the major frameworks that have helped advance discussion of pro-environmental behavior change, the presentation will consider basic facts about the neuroscience of mental effort, learning and habit formation, stimulus valuation, emotion, and social cognition, and will consider the implications of those facts for green marketing efforts. It is based on a book that will be published in 2021 [M. E. Smith (forthcoming) Inspiring Green Consumer Choices: Leverage neuroscience to the shape marketplace behavior. Kogan-Page, London]. 

4. Online Business, Remote Life: The Story of How Everything Changed (Lana Babii)

In 2020, millions of consumers changed their usual habits and started buying everything online. Some businesses have boomed in several hours, even not in days. Others closed forever. Humans can adapt to any conditions. But what about the companies we work for? How are they overcoming the 2020 crisis?

Companies are not so flexible as humans. But humans are smart enough to find the entry from any critical situation. CPG companies have a strong need to understand users' behavior in digital channels like Walmart, Target, Amazon. E-commerce platforms are even more interested in understanding fast-changing users' behavior to boost conversions. In current realities, businesses need not just adapt but do research in a faster and more efficient way than ever before. We need to pay maximum attention to AI, behavioral economics, and automation. The presentation covers:

1) What technology in fact will completely revise the approach of obtaining insights, learning user behavior, and taking business decisions. 
2) How powered by AI solutions help to observe user behavior as if you were sitting near him, understand what drives his attention as if you see through his eyes, read his emotions and reactions. 
3) How will look our future where devices can understand humans' desires.

The audience will be able to uncover how to effectively measure users' behavior, improve the digital products in a way that will make the new world a better place for living.

5. Tackling the Future of Socially-Charged Advertising (Elise Temple & Patty Goldman)

Dr. Elise Temple (VP Neuroscience, Nielsen Neuroscience) and Patty Goldman (VP Strategy & Evaluation, Ad Council) speak on the challenges of socially-charged advertising and the science behind doing it right, using examples from 7+ years of partnership and over 100 PSAs tested with neuroscience.

Now more than ever, consumers are looking to act upon advertising that aligns with their values. But this type of messaging can be risky if companies don’t understand how viewers will react before making that leap. Neuroscience can be used to help marketers of all kinds avoid this risk by understanding a truer ‘why’ behind consumer behavior and perception.

The discussion will include learning the fundamental science behind why our brains may make cause-related marketing a difficult task, how this science comes to life illustrated by campaigns on sensitive social issues, and why having results based in automatic, unfiltered brain responses were so important to communication effectiveness.

The audience will learn the fundamentals of how our brains process information, best practices to optimize communications, and the tremendous impact Neuroscience testing can have.

Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience uses continuous EEG measurement to identify key brain measures proven to link to behavior change based in both academic research as well as validation with outcomes like sales and other behavior.  This data coupled with eye-tracking and facial action coding enables us to identify key moments that viewers find powerful.

6. Neurochat – Communication Solution for Disability Patients (Alesya Chichinkina)

Global problems:

• The lack of communication tools for patients with severe speech and movement disorders is a serious problem on the way of their socialization.
• Demand for rehabilitation for the people with neurotraumas who retain the cognitive function of the brain
• Humanity requires the dementia prevention tool for older people

NeuroChat is a hardware and software system, implemented on the user's computer. The headset registers the patient's neurophysiological parameters and transforms mental effort into specific commands for the computer keyboard. This technology also allows working with other devices, such as communication panels with medical personnel, manipulators, etc.

The patient wears a comfortable headset designed for long-term usage, which registers the EEG signals and transmits data to the device by BlueTooth channel. Mental intentions are being transformed into a real set of symbols on the screen. The person types text letter by letter without using voice or any movement. The special user interface allows to accelerate the process of intelligent input and make the online translation into the language of the interlocutor.

Field of application.

• After an acute disturbance of cerebral circulation (strokes);
• After traumatic brain injury;
• With infantile cerebral palsy (cerebral palsy);

7. Neuro research for UNICEF promo campaign “Talk Against Violence” (Nikolaos Dimitriadis)

Mind It joined the project “Talk Against Violence” and conducted neuro research for UNICEF Ukraine to find out how psychological violence influences individuals.

People are generally unaware of psychological abuse: 1 of 2 Ukrainians unable to recognize manifestations of psychological violence according to InMind research for UNICEF Ukraine. However, 75% of children in Ukraine are regularly subjected to violent discipline, as well as 1 100 000 Ukrainian women are facing domestic violence every year. In order to motivate people to have a talk with their families, and thus not to let violence in their relations in the future we did a neuroscience experiment to show people what psychological violence is and why it is so destructive for people.

Actors were hired to play the role of aggressors insulting people while looking at a camera. Participants were recruited to stand in front of a laptop in a lab environment to measure their brain and body responses as they watched the videos of the aggressors insulting them. We measured emotional reaction, level of engagement, and cognitive load with EEG and pupil dimension and distance from the screen with eye-tracking. We got surprising results, measuring emotional reaction and we were able to identify negative responses similar to physical violence.

The results of the experiment were highlighted on TV with another experiment done with the TV host herself.

The video of this neuro experiment was watched by almost 2 million people (in Ukrainian language), won Bronze award in Kyiv International Advertising Festival and was listed among the best cases of Ads of the World in 2019!

8. Plastic waste in personal care and beauty. How can brands successfully reimagine their products? (Karine Trinquetel)

• Seen as one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste, the personal care industry needs to rethink its products looking at packaging, format, components, or even business model to eliminate plastic and drive adoption in markets. We have run a research program to help brands successfully reimagine their products.
• We will share how different routes to innovation that can drive the adoption of sustainable products
• Overcoming the Value-Action gap is one of the key challenges to success for more sustainable products. We offer levers for brands to encourage people’s use of sustainable products

We used a mixed methodology approach based on an extensive review of the latest academic thinking in Dual-Process theory on decision making.
(1) Kantar’s ‘Big Idea’ test to uncover the ‘Feeling of Rightness’ of twelve sustainable options and their appeal at System 1 and 2 levels.
(2) Our chatbot technology to explore in-depth and at scale people’s journey toward less plastic. The analysis was conducted using Kantar’s proprietary ‘Ability to change framework’ to reveal the fuels and frictions to change.

The audience will learn about what it would take for brands in the personal care and beauty category to drive people’s adoption of more planet positive innovation. We will highlight the ‘must do’ to appeal to people instinctively. And we will reveal how to engage people on a most considered level to get them to question their existing choice patterns.

9. Hesitation matters: the impact of uncertainty during covid-19, a multimarket study (Nick Saxby & Dorota Reykowska)

• We ran a multinational online survey enhanced with implicit measurements to evaluate which common opinions regarding Covid-19 truly resonates among people on an emotional level.
• We sought to better understand people’s attitudes and inspire more effective communications.
• Applying reaction time testing (RT) has shown that people are ready for the vaccine only on a declarative level. The implicit measurement showed near-global uncertainty, which explains the current vaccine controversy. We also found that rules and restrictions work better if they address areas of attitudinal weakness and refer to real concerns.

Background on the scientific validity of the idea:

We applied RT to measure TRUE ATTITUDES, beyond pure declarations - free from conformity, post-conscious rationalization or wishful thinking. RT is a short, implicit online survey based on the dual-processing model (Kahneman, 2011), attitudes accessibility phenomena (Fazio, 2009) and the consolidation of the memory trace theory (Hebb, 1947).

We ask simple questions and measure the speed of response. Algorithms then estimate hesitation: the quicker the response time indicates greater accessibility to the attitude.

What the audience can learn:

• The need for simplicity in communications when uncertainty is widespread.
• Why exploring an individuals’ emotional side rather than only on explicit, declarative opinions can make the difference when predicting behaviors.
• A multimarket perspective; the importance of context and cultural differences
• How to navigate sensitive communications, such as government comms, restrictions, and vaccine notices

10. Five Mistakes to Avoid in Social Marketing - Case Study of a Greenpeace Sensibilisation Video (Bart Norre & Sophie Hoffman)

• Case study of attitudinal change of a social marketing campaign based on reaction time testing.
• Which errors to avoid when communicating environmental causes?
• Learn from mistakes to improve your social marketing.

Do fears, tension, and anger happens to be the best emotions to motivate people to act upon social causes? Is it better to only inform? Perhaps none of both…

In this case study, we used reaction time testing based on the iCode smart software developed by Neurohm. Response time measurement reveals the participants' convictions. Fast answers indicate strong and easily accessible attitudes that have the highest potential to influence consumers’ behavior. On the other hand, slow responses suggest that participants are not sure about their attitudes or have not made up their minds yet.

The audience will be able to learn what does not work in this social communication campaign. Based on these insights, they will also discover new ways to improve their campaigns and enhance its impact on people’s behavior.

11. Is the climate changing only for penguins? (Yener Girisken)

The goal of the research was to find the most triggering climate change message in terms of visual and semantic representation. Printed ad alternatives that represent climate change with altering tenses, pronouns, messages, and visuals were tested to understand common unconscious patterns behind the behavior-changing approach to climate messages.

The project combined traditional and neuromarketing research techniques. The results were presented as a keynote speech in various business and academic conferences as well as in the relevant units of the European Union. This study was a crucial part of the most comprehensive climate change project in Turkey that is supported by the European Union. Related peer-reviewed academic paper was published in the International Journal of Global Warming in 2019, June.

Study results attracted great attention professionally and academically. In addition to be published as an academic paper, the findings were included in undergraduate course syllabus in the fields of Science and Social Sciences in major universities.

12. Applying neuro- and behavioral science to drive behavior change – How to nudge consumers towards healthier, more sustainable diets (Andreea Tarasescu)

There is overwhelming evidence that current diets are impacting the planet and diets must change in order to sustainably feed a global population. The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) partnered with Walnut to discover how to nudge this human behavior. Walnut applied behavioral science frameworks and a blended neuroscience methodology approach that included Reaction Time testing, to:
• understand the subconscious drivers of consumer behavior
• identify the right initiatives to truly encourage behavioral change and target consumers at different stages of change
• bring in a new and unique approach that gained traction across the food industry
All of this led to actionable insights, grounded in science, engaging stakeholders across 500+ organizations.

What the audience can learn:
• How to better understand behavior and motivations through a blend of methodologies applying neuro- and behavioral science
• How to drive behavioral change even when it comes to complex and personal behaviors like eating

13. Mad Men or Sad Men: Is advertising pressing the right emotional buttons? (Graham Page)

Over the last decade, advertisers have increasingly focused on creating emotionally resonant ad content, with the knowledge that emotions are a key predictor of sales and brand loyalty. For the past 8 years, Affectiva has applied its Emotion AI to measure ad effectiveness by analyzing consumer emotional responses to video advertising.  

Through our work with 70% of the world’s largest advertisers and 28% of the Fortune Global 500, Affectiva has amassed an unparalleled data set. Containing more than 10 million consumer responses to 53,000 ads in 90 countries, this one-of-a-kind repository is unmatched in scale and diversity and provides unparalleled insights into the impact of emotions in advertising.

Affectiva recently conducted a large-scale analysis of this data and, in this virtual event, will provide insight into key findings on trends in advertising.

Learn more about:  

• How advertisers have become better at telling emotionally powerful stories, but not all advertisers use emotions effectively
• The rise in negative emotions and how consumer responses to ads have become more polarized
• The most effective approaches to advertising that resonate with consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic

14. Activating Brand Purpose With a Stigmatized Group (Tyler Milfeld & Andy Smith)

• Dave’s Killer Bread’s purpose is centered on second chances for ex-offenders, one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States
• Ad testing continued to show that consumers respond negatively to explicitly referencing support for this group
• By re-framing the message around an embedded cultural mindset, we found that the brand can explicitly reference the group and improve public attitudes

Over 65 million adults in the United States have a criminal record, presenting a formidable barrier to employment and starting the path to a better life. Dave’s Killer Bread believes in hiring the best person for the job regardless of their past. Yet, the brand has not actively marketed this purpose because consumers maintain negative attitudes toward ex-offenders, making them one of the most stigmatized groups. Initial ad testing corroborated that explicitly referencing support for this group would result in more negative emotion toward the brand versus a product-oriented message. The question became how to counteract this effect.

By re-framing the message around an embedded cultural mindset, the fresh start concept, we found that consumers report more positive emotion toward the brand. Furthermore, through a series of randomized experiments, we documented that framing the message around the idea that individuals can start anew improves attitudes toward ex-offenders. Our findings have implications for marketing Dave’s Killer Bread brand purpose, and more broadly, changing the stigma around ex-offenders.

15. What The World Needs Now: Sustainable Neuromarketing (Row Hashemiyoon)

While business exists to solve problems and improve the human condition, it doesn’t exist without cooperation. The cornerstone of cooperation is trust, which is also key for stability and risk-tolerance. By extension, uncertainty is the nemesis of business. Yet, we are in a dangerous state of disconnection and mistrust, with our capacity for uncertainty exhausted. Add to this the overwhelming noise of constant marketing, and you have a harsh environment for doing business.

Authentic visual storytelling with full transparency ethically addresses business challenges to create an environment that allows the brain to settle on trust.
1. Visual storytelling with full transparency cuts through marketing clutter (over 12,000 messages per day!) to get – and keep – your potential customer’s attention.
2. Authentic, full-disclosure storytelling addresses and removes multiple barriers to purchasing and lays the groundwork for long term customer retention and repeat purchases.
3. Transparent marketing engenders trust and has been proven to substantially increase customer conversion rates, easily outperforming classic best-foot-forward methods.
Storytelling produces interpersonal neuronal synchronizations in similar brain regions, including the insula and the frontal cortex, in both the storyteller and listener. It creates a sense of affiliation and stable, constructive connections producing a desire to cooperate. Visual cues are picked up by various distributed systems of the brain involved in assessing trust features. Trust is further engendered by full transparency because it’s associated with areas linked to calculating uncertainty.

This combined approach is an ethical use of neuromarketing, which rises up to meet, support, and stabilize the consumer.