Neurophysiology uncovers secrets of TV commercials

Abstract

Advanced neurophysiological technologies (EEG, EMG, GSR) may serve as a bridge between what can be consciously expressed, and what is hidden in the human mind. Such application of neuroscience to advertising may finally help to better understand the interplay of attention, emotions, and arousal—constructs of great importance to advertisers. Our study tried to demonstrate how neurophysiological measures can be applied to test marketing communication and the effectiveness of creative idea execution. We aimed to show how brain waves analysis of emotional reactions to a Sony Bravia the “Balls” TV ad helps to identify a seemingly irrelevant and irrational element of this ad—i.e. the frog scene—and appreciate its instrumental, not only artistic, power. We wanted to see whether such an affective iconic priming effect occurs on a neurophysiological level and can be traced down with EEG measures and frontal asymmetry paradigm. The study confirmed most of our predictions and yielded yet another empirical example of how a small, peripheral element turned out to be a key-moment in advertising persuasion. We believe that such new measures will soon become a part of a standard research portfolio which integrates traditional, verbally-based methodologies with non-verbal brain waves based technologies.