NEW YORK, June 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- There are
numerous steadfast rules for media and marketing, long held by the
industry as a matter of common sense. Mindshare's NeuroLab is here
to bust them. By challenging long-held marketer assumptions around
ad creative, storytelling, and more, the NeuroLab team will create
new opportunities for brands to connect with consumers and elevate
their work.
Launched in the New York office
of Mindshare U.S., the global media agency network of WPP, the
NeuroLab uses medical-grade EEG (electroencephalogram) and GSR
(galvanic skin response) technology to measure second-by-second,
non-conscious neurological responses to brand stories and media.
The NeuroLab supplements the data from these neurological responses
with pre-and-post Implicit Association Tasks (implicit bias
testing), as well as quantitative survey responses.
"Challenging the status quo is in our DNA and long-held
institutional knowledge is now on the chopping block," said
Adam Gerhart, CEO, Mindshare U.S.
"We invested in the NeuroLab and this myth busting program because
it's not just about staying on top of changes in media and
technology, but actively pressure testing ideologies for our
clients and the industry. And there was no better place to start
than with a medium that has experienced such a renaissance:
audio."
In addition to the initial research on audio storytelling, the
NeuroLab will interrogate other industry myths throughout 2019 and
2020, including rules around creative branding, attention spans,
customization, reach versus frequency, and more. It's not just
about rejecting the status quo, but doing so to raise the bar for
clients and teams—industrywide provocation with purpose.
Neuro Research: Your Head and Your Heart Want Two Different
Things
After measuring their neurological responses, the NeuroLab
surveyed participants to see how they felt about the ads they'd
seen. Respondents said that they preferred the same brand story
told just visually 22% more versus just audibly.
But their non-conscious neurological responses had told
another story. Neuro research found that while participants
thought they wanted one thing, their subconscious feelings wanted
something else. That's not to dismiss other research
methodologies out of hand—but shows how neuro can reveal what
people don't actually know or understand about
themselves.
"Sound and the human experience are intimately and
neurologically linked. It's the first language we learn, and from
infancy is processed faster and with greater emotional
prioritization than any of our other senses," says Arafel Buzan,
Co-Lead, NeuroLab. "But the longstanding rule in creative, that
storytelling requires sight, sound, and motion, has also insisted
that sight is the most important part of that equation. So while
over the years marketers have made the choices to buy visual-only
mediums, the industry has largely devalued the potential of sound
existing on its own for storytelling. Marketers haven't truly
interrogated just how powerful sound itself can be."
The NeuroLab, led by Buzan and Mindshare's James Kelly, is busting the myth that sight
trumps sound. Here is what they found:
1) Audio ads elicit much stronger emotions from
consumers.
- Brand stories told just audibly elicited an average of 21%
higher emotional intensity than brand stories told just
visually.
- Brand stories told just audibly elicited an average of 50%
more positive emotional peaks than brand stories told just
visually.
2) Consumers are much more receptive to audio branding and
calls-to-action.
- At the moment of end branding, audio stories elicited 18%
higher average positive emotional response than visual-only
stories. This resulted in a more positive encoding of the
brand.
- When comparing audio-only ads to visual-only ads or ads that
have both, audio was the only one with a consistent increase in
emotional engagement for the end branding.
- In contrast, consumers were much more likely to shut off
emotionally by the end of visual-only or combined ads. There is
something about audio ads that makes calls-to-action uniquely
positive emotional experiences for consumers.
In addition, implicit bias testing also showed that brand
stories told just audibly elicited three times more positive
brand associations than brand stories told just visually—though
not as much as combined audio/visual stories.
3) Love is a story best told between the ears.
- The research found 40% higher emotional intensity for
audio brand stories that mentioned "love" when compared to
visual-only brand stories that mentioned love.
- There's also much more to explore with the personal connection
of audio. For example, 20% of all strong positive emotional
peaks in audio occurred during the word "you."
The next phase of Mindshare U.S.'s analysis will dive more
deeply into this kind of data, focusing on specific brand nuances
and categories across beauty, retail, travel, and luxury.
Additionally, phase two will further explore the relationship
between neuro performance and measured performance of each tested
ad.
Audio and the Future of Media
Mindshare U.S. has
already been on the cutting edge of audio for the past couple of
years, with offerings for clients such as the Mindshare Discovery
Risk Index (which assesses a brand's risk profile for disruption in
an audio commerce space), a series of customized audio workshops to
determine what a sonic framework would look like, brand strategies
around "incidental loyalty" and more.
"Brands who underestimate the storytelling power of audio do so
at their own risk," says Joe Maceda,
Chief Instigation Officer, Mindshare U.S. "If you're heavily
investing in silent videos, display ads, or other visual media, the
research shows audio is likely a more critical component. It's time
for marketers to take a deeper approach and assess how they can
best leverage this medium."
Test Group Demographics and Methodology
The team
quantified the storytelling power of each sense (audio versus
visual) for participants using neurophysiological metrics such as
emotional intensity and arousal, valence (like/dislike), and
recall. They also measured subconscious association with specific
brand adjectives to explore how stories on each platform drive
association of key brand goals.
This initial research examined 90 respondents between the ages
of 18-54. Although all 90 came from the greater New York region, they were recruited to be
nationally representative across household incomes, ethnicity, and
education levels as seen in the U.S. Census. Recruits were
music streamers (those who use Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, or
Amazon Music) with no pre-existing neurological conditions and
right-hand dominance—and who did not work in the ad industry.
Why specifically 90? Previous academic research in behavioral
sciences has shown that sample sizes of 30 respondents achieve
statistical significance with EEG data. By using a sample size of
90, the NeuroLab can further cut the data by gender, age, or other
survey attributes in phase two of the research analysis.
For more insights on the methodology, please reach to Buzan
(Arafel.buzan@mindshareworld.com), Kelly
(James.Kelly@mindshareworld.com), or Julie Gomstyn
(Julie.Gomstyn@mindshareworld.com)
About Mindshare:
We were born in Asia in
1997, a start up with a desire to change the media world. Now we
are a global agency with 116 offices in 86 countries and billings
of $35bn (source: RECMA). We aim to be our clients' lead
business partner, to grow their business and drive profitability
through adaptive and inventive marketing. We do this through speed,
teamwork, and provocation because in today's world everything
begins and ends in media. We create new things and have fun doing
it. Mindshare is part of GroupM, the media investment management
arm of WPP, the world's leading communications services
group. Visit us
at Mindshareusa.com or MindshareInTheLoop.com and
follow us on
Twitter @Mindshare_USA and Facebook.com/MindshareUSA
About GroupM:
GroupM is the world's leading media
investment company responsible for more
than $45B in annual media investment through agencies
including Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence and m/SIX, as
well as the outcomes-driven programmatic audience company,
Xaxis. GroupM creates competitive advantage for advertisers
via its worldwide organization of media experts who deliver
powerful insights on consumers and media platforms, trading
expertise, market-leading brand-safe media, technology solutions,
addressable TV, content, sports and more.
Discover more about GroupM at www.groupm.com.
Follow @GroupMWorldwide on Twitter
Follow GroupM on LinkedIn
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/groupm
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