Lots has been written about the ads which recently aired during the US Superbowl .. host to the most expensive ($2.4 million per spot) on US television.
This year a company decided to wire up a bunch of consumers in the name of research to measure their brain patterns during the broadcast of the various ads. The brain patterns are suppose to indicate how the brain emotionally responds while the ads are being played.
According to the article at CNET,
The researchers at UCLA and FKF Applied Research used fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging, to measure the activity of brain regions associated with key emotions in viewers. “NFL Dreamers” elicited strong responses in the orbito-frontal cortex and the ventral striatum, two brain regions associated with the processing of rewards, they said.
Sounds interesting, except the article goes on to say
“Almost all the ads induced their greatest activity in the amygdala, a center of the brain most associated with detecting threats or danger,” Joshua Freedman, a UCLA clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and co-founder of FKF Applied Research, said in a statement.
These results seem to support my belief that interuption marketing is on the way out, and brands need to start learning to engage consumers in participative or experiencial marketing.
