Neuromarketing is an exciting field that is redefining what we think we know about our customers, their decision-making, and the processes that govern how they think and act.

1. HCD Seminar Series:
Applying Neuroscience to
Communications Research
April 16, 2014

2. Welcome and Introduction
Glenn Kessler
President and CEO
HCD Research, Inc.

3. Webinar Objectives
• Provide an overview of the applications of integrated Consumer Communications Science
• Discuss variation in neuromarketing methods and tools
• Share case studies and experience using specific methods for specific problems
• Learn the science of psychophysiology/neuromarketing

4. HCD Approach to Neurocognitive Market Research
4
• Cognitive and neuro/psychophysiological methods answer different questions
 Cognitive research can address how people feel
 Applied neuroscience and psychophysiological methods can address the
reason for a cognitive response
 One method does not replace another
• No single research method answers all questions and satisfies all research
requirements. Different tools should be considered to solve different research
questions.
• Results of cognitive/psychophysiological methods should be integrated and
interpretations and recommendations should be the focus of reports…not the
technology used to obtain data.

5. 5
A Consumer Experience
Research Company
Sensory
Experience
User
Experience
Brand
Experience

6. Sensory
Experience
User
Experience
Brand
Experience
Sensory
Experience
User
Experience
Brand
Experience
6
Sensory Experience
• Taste (flavor)
• Touch (somatosensory)
• Vision (colors, images, viscosity, etc.)
• Smell (fragrance)
• Product Innovation (ingredients, new products/technologies)
• Product Use/Packaging

7. 7
Sensory
Experience
User
Experience
Brand
Experience
User Experience
• Website Usability
• Interactive Digital Media
• Apps
• User Interface
• Digital Advertising

8. 8
Sensory
Experience
User
Experience
Brand
Experience
Brand Experience
• Brand Identity
• Positioning
• Concept
• Messaging
• Packaging
• Advertising

9. Early-Stage Application
• The diagnostic power of integrated cognitive and psychophysiological methods is greatest in early-stage product
and concept development.
• The sensitivity of this technology allows marketing and product development teams to observe the impact of
nuanced variations across potential…
9
Product Names and Logos
Color Schemes and Images/Photography
Product Claims/Positioning/Messaging
Product Concepts
Animatics and Storyboards
Product Spokespersons

10. Arthur Kover, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Fordham University
Yale Management Fellow
Former Editor of the Journal of Advertising Research
Professor Paul Bolls, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Strategic Communication, Missouri School of Journalism
Co-Director, PRIME LAB, Missouri School of Journalism
Michelle Niedziela, Ph.D.
Neuroscientist and Chief Methodologist, HCD Research
Joe Messina
Director of Marketing Sciences, HCD Research

11. Communications Research in the
New Research World
Arthur Kover, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Fordham University
Yale Management Fellow
Former Editor of the Journal of Advertising Research

12. Communications Research
12
- A Conversation -
A
Researcher
The
Public
Words: Not Total
Communication

13. Total Communication
Filtered
• Words
Unfiltered/Emotional
• Gestures
• Body Language/Posture
• Eye Contact
Hidden
• Heart Beat
• Startle & Awareness Responses
13
Conventional
Research
“New”
Research

14. Limitations of Conventional Research
14
Advantages Disadvantages
Captures conscious response Does not capture subconscious response
Large, representative sample with
statistical validity
Question phrasing/interviewer can bias
results
Cost-effective Inaccuracies in self-reporting
Fast turn-around

15. New Research Techniques
• New techniques supplement/expand current
research
Unmediated, not filtered
Uncontrolled ‘rationally’
Very quick
Recognizes the hidden elements of human response
15

16. Moving Forward
• BUT, how to combine these (new and older)
approaches to reveal a complete response?
• And how to overcome:
Resistance to change among researchers; and
Single-minded reliance on the new approaches?
• This webinar provides a path and an answer
16

17. Applied Neuroscience:
What is consumer neuroscience
& how can we use it?
Michelle Niedziela, Ph.D.
Neuroscientist and Chief Methodologist, HCD Research

18. How do people see, interpret and behave in the world?
18
Non-conscious Conscious
Speak & Act
Deliberate
& Analyze
Determine
Meaning &
Value
Form
Impressions
What is Applied Consumer Neuroscience?

19. •Psychology
 Self-report, questionnaire,
psychoanalysis
 Assumes people can
consciously access
why they feel a certain way
•Neuroscience
 People don’t know why
 “why” is not constant
 May never be aware
19
Why not just ask?

20. 20
Peripheral
Nervous System
Central Nervous System
(Brain & Spinal Cord)
What How
Blood Flow fMRI
Electrical
Activity
EEG
Choice
Behavioral
Experiments
Applied Consumer Neuroscience Methods
What How
Facial
Expressions
Automated/
Expert Coding
Facial Muscle
Movement
EMG
Eye
Movement
Eye Tracking
Perspiration EDA, SCR, GSR
Heart Rate
Respiration
EKG, strain gage
Cognitive
Accessibility
Behavioral
Response Time

21. 21
= FEAR
Psychology & Emotion: Discrete

22. 22
Multi-Modal Approach
• Visual depiction of the
"emotional distance" between
experiences
• Divided into two or three
dimensions known
as valences (how negative or
positive the experience was),
arousal (extent of reaction to
stimuli) and
approach/avoidance
• These dimensions can be
depicted on a 2D or 3D
coordinate map
Psychology & Emotion: Multidimensional
Arousal
Approach/
Avoidance
Emotional
Valence

23. Pleasantness
Arousal
PleasantUnpleasant
Mild
Intense
23
Bored
Miserable
Angry
Afraid
Happy
Astonished
Glad
Relaxed
Tired
Content
Sad
Distressed
Disgust

24. Arousal
Approach/
Avoidance
Emotional
Valence
neutral
pleasant happy
surprised
ecstatic
excitementinterested
enjoyment
24

25. 25
What How
Facial
Expressions
Automated/
Expert Coding
Facial Muscle
Movement
EMG
Eye
Movement
Eye Tracking
Perspiration EDA, SCR, GSR
Heart Rate
Respiration
EKG, strain
gage
Cognitive
Accessibility
Behavioral
Response Time
Classification
View
Emotional
Valence
Attention
Arousal
Approach/
Withdrawal
Arousal
Approach/
Avoidance
Emotional
Valence
Implicit
Testing
Applied Consumer Neuroscience Methods
Peripheral
Nervous System

26. 26
fMRI – Academic neuroscience research
• Great for spatial, structural resolution
• Emotion:
 Amygdala – emotional significance, basic needs
(fear)
 Thalamus – wakefulness & relay
 Hypothalamus – hormones, nts (reward, arousal)
 Hippocampus – memory
 Fornix – output for memory, executive function
 Mammillary body – memory
 Olfactory bulb – smell
 Cingulate gyrus – affect, motor/muscle control,
attention, emotional awareness/consciousness
 Basal ganglia – motivation
 Orbitofrontal cortex – decision/emotions
 Prefrontal cortex – anticipating, regulating
emotions
 Ventral striatum – emotion/behavior
 Nucleus accumbens – goal directed emotion,
addiction
 Insula – body emotion (PNS), taste (disgust)
 Cerebellum – emotional regulation
 ETC…
Neuroscience & Emotion: fMRI

27. 27
Neuroscience & Emotion: fMRI

28. 28
Neuroscience & Emotion: EEG

29. 29
Central Nervous System
(Brain & Spinal Cord)
What How
Blood Flow fMRI
Electrical
Activity
EEG
Choice
Behavioral
Experiments
Applied Consumer Neuroscience Methods
Emotional
Valence
Structure/
Anatomy

30. 30
What How
Facial
Expressions
Automated/
Expert Coding
Facial Muscle
Movement
EMG
Eye
Movement
Eye Tracking
Perspiration EDA, SCR, GSR
Heart Rate
Respiration
EKG, strain
gage
Cognitive
Accessibility
Behavioral
Response Time
Peripheral
Nervous System
Central Nervous System
(Brain & Spinal Cord)
What How
Blood Flow fMRI
Electrical
Activity
EEG
Choice
Behavioral
Experiments
Applied Consumer Neuroscience Methods

31. Follow me on twitter: @HCDNeuroscience
Find me on LinkedIn: Michelle Niedziela
Email me: michelle.niedziela@hcdi.net

32. Media Psychophysiology:
The pathway to valid and valuable
Biometric Marketing Science
Professor Paul Bolls, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Strategic Communication,
Missouri School of Journalism
Co-Director, PRIME LAB, Missouri School of Journalism
Scientific Consultant, HCD Research

33. 33
Validity
Validity depends on basic science
targeted at determining the psychological
meaning of nervous system activity
PRACTICAL BENEFIT
Value
Value depends on identifying specific
biometric measures that index concepts
critical to effective brand communication
and insightful data analysis
Biometric Research “Value Proposition”

34. 34
Media content
‘the stimulus’
Delivered via
a new interactive
technology
‘into the mind’
of the audience
Emerging effects
‘the response’
Intervening process
embodied in the
brain leads to…
Approach observes brain activity in real time as
consumers experience and interact with brand
messages offering insight into how and why
messages succeed or fail
Media use is a dynamic
across time interaction
between embodied
‘mind’ and ‘media’
The Biometric Marketing Communication
Science Paradigm
Media use engages ‘intervening processes’ in
cognitive / emotional form, observable though
psychophysiological measures
(e.g. EEG, cardiac activity)

35. Measuring “Mental Experience”
with Brand Communication
35
Qualitative Interview,
Self-report Scales,
And Behavioral
Observation
Memory
Tests
Biometric
Measures
Eye
Tracking
Dynamic Processes Model of Mediated Message Processing
Complex social
environment consisting
of across-time
interactions between
messages and
message receiver

36. Biometrics Impact Score
36
BIOMETRICS IMPACT SCORE
Stopping Power
(First 6 Seconds)
Magnitude of the Orienting Response as a composite measure of
Cardiac Deceleration (Heart rate) + Arousal (GSR) + Emotion* (Facial
EMG) In The First Six (6) Seconds
• Extent to which an ad is likely to succeed at capturing attention in a
cluttered advertising environment
Sustained Positive Engagement
Composite measure of Cardiac Deceleration (Heart rate) + Arousal
(GSR) + Emotion* (Facial EMG) For The Remainder of Exposure
• Extent to which an ad is likely to maintain attention and relatively
strong levels of arousal with desired emotional response
Brand Immersion
Composite measure of Cardiac Deceleration (Heart rate) + Arousal
(GSR) + Emotion (Facial EMG) During Branding Moments**
• Extent to which an ad evokes a brand-favorable response during
presentation of the branding elements
Biometrics Impact Score
The Composite Score of All Three Metrics
* The use of Positive Emotion as measured by Facial EMG is determined by the Creative Brief
** All ads featured a single primary branding moment in the last 6 seconds of the exposure.

37. Biometrics Graph Interpretation
37
A decrease in heart rate indicates viewers are paying
attention to the content.
An increase in heart rate indicates viewers are accessing
memories and are not attending to details in content.
An increase in arousal is most likely due to a more
conscious level of interest. However, it is critical to
remember that interest is not the same as attention.
Arousal usually tapers off over time.
It is important to consider positive and negative emotion
as independent responses. Any increase or decrease in
one response does not automatically result in the
opposite response in the other. This is known as coactive
emotional response.
X Axis = Rate of Change Y Axis = Length of Exposure (sec)

38. 38
Message testing (ads, concepts, positioning)
Communication Contexts for Holistic Biometric
Marketing Research
Branded content optimization
Entertainment / Information content testing
Website optimization
Digital, interactive, mobile platform testing
Product sensory experience

39. Integrated Research in Action
Joe Messina
Director of Marketing Sciences, HCD Research

40. Case Study: Commercial Testing
2013-2014 Campaign

41. Biometrics Impact Score* Vs. Clutter
• GE is the most effective of these ads at driving attention, engagement and positive emotion, and thus achieves a
Biometrics Impact Score that is much greater than the HCD Benchmark.
• Toyota achieves a Biometrics Impact Score of 1.3, which is weaker than the HCD Benchmark, as well as commercials
placed in clutter.
41
*Composite measure of Brand Positive Stopping Power, Sustained Positive Engagement and Brand Immersion
1.0
1.3
6.4
3.8
7.2
3.7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Taco Bell
Toyota
Swiffer
Old Spice
GE
HCD BENCHMARK
BIOMETRICS IMPACT SCORE*

42. Emotional Diagnosis Over Time (Biometrics)
• The introduction (lobby scene) does not create an emotional response, which is detrimental to the commercial’s
performance as it could lead to loss of engagement before the main message is revealed.
• Once the message (the financial offer) is revealed , there is a meaningful emotional response.
42
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
PositiveFacialEMG
ChangefromBaseline
Positive Emotional Response
Negative Emotional Response
Indicates statistically significantly superior/inferior to the HCD Benchmark
Call-To-Action (Top 2 Box) Toyota
(n=150)
HCD Benchmark
Prompts Me to Seek Additional Information 42% 30%
Likelihood to Talk to Friends and Family About Commercial 38% 33%

43. Case Study: Ad Concept Campaign

44. Purpose:
• To understand which concept most effectively drives a relevant emotional response
to the product and motivates trial purchase.
• The messages are identical for each ad.
• The visual depiction of the message is different and is the focus of the test.
Methodology:
• Integration of Biometrics and Eye-Tracking with traditional quantitative survey
methods
Selecting a Lead Concept For New Ad Campaign

45. Emotional Response to Ad Concepts
1
2
3
4
5
EMOTIONAL IMPACT
• The emotional response of Concept A is more positive, while the Concept B shows higher negative emotion
driven by graphic element 2 and the bottom graphic element 3.
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
Increases in negative responseHigher positive response
Concept A Concept B
Positive Negative
1
2
3
4
5

46. CALL-TO-ACTION
Call-to-Action Measures
Concept A
(n=101)
A
Concept B
(n=103)
B
Motivates to purchase Product X Top-2 Box 79% 65%
Motivates seek additional information Top-2 Box 75% 63%
Motivates to Visit the Website Top-2 Box 65% 61%
Driving Factors for Call-to-Action
Concept A
(n=101)
A
Concept B
(n=103)
B
Message
Effectiveness
Clarity/Ease in Understanding Top-2 Box 81% 77%
Relevance Top-2 Box 90% 80%
Other Measures
% Found Aspects that Encourage to Seek
Additional Information
72% 58%Concept A Concept B
Positive Negative
More positive emotion can
be linked to viewers
thinking the graphics are
more encouraging.
Which Concept Is The Winner?
• The stronger positive emotional response to the visual elements of Concept A leads to more effective
communication and ultimately higher motivation toward purchase.

47. Case Study: Testing Video Advertising
within Website Environments

48. Purpose:
• To understand how consumers engage with online video advertisements across
different website environments.
• Provide insight for branded web property owner to provide its advertising clients
with a data story to prove that ads placed in branded content are more effective than
when placed in generic sites.
Methodology:
• Integration of Biometrics and Eye-Tracking with traditional quantitative survey
methods
• A mix of videos were utilized across all environments to ensure a robust market mix
of consumers.
• Consumers were between the ages of 25-54 years old.
• Must watch videos on the Internet at least once a week.
Testing Video Advertising within Website
Environments

49. Branded 1 User Generated Video (UGV)
Test Materials

50. To be as brave as the people
we help
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
ATTENTION
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
AROUSAL/INTENSITY
-0.5
-0.25
0
0.25
0.5
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
The large
black border
serves to keep
viewer’s
attention
locked up in
the ad window.
AD ENGAGEMENT
LOW MODERATE HIGHBiometrics for Branded Website
• Ads placed in a relevant context on a branded website are more engaging.

51. To be as brave as the
people we help
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
ATTENTION
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
AROUSAL
-0.5
-0.25
0
0.25
0.5
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
Some visual
engagement on
the ad is lost to
surrounding
content.
AD ENGAGEMENT
LOW MODERATE HIGH
Biometrics for UGV Website
• Ads placed in the User Generated Video environment do not effectively grab
attention.

52. Key Metrics
Branded 1
A
UGV
B
Biometrics
Attention
Arousal
Emotion
Ad Recall
% Unaided
% Aided
Call-To-Action
Purchase Interest (top 2 box)
Click on the Ad
Search to find out more
Other
Communication
(Top 2 Box)
Impression of the Brand Is More Favorable
After Viewing Ad in Website Environment
Ad Fit with Website Environment
Ad Is Relevant to Website
Results from Key Metrics
• While ads placed in generic UGV sites can potentially get more traffic, ads placed in contextually relevant, branded
sites get more attention that is sustained, and therefore are more memorable and motivating.

53. You have Questions?
We have Answers!
Please enter your questions now, or feel free to contact us individually:
Glenn Kessler: Glenn.Kessler@hcdi.net
Arthur Kover: ArthurKover@gmail.com
Michelle Niedziela: Michelle.Niedziela@hcdi.net
Paul Bolls: MediaBrain99@gmail.com
Joe Messina: Joe.Messina@hcdi.net