Bringing Advertising Closer to Mind: Using Neurophysiological Tools to Understand Student Responses to Super Bowl Commercials

Similar to techniques used by systems designers, marketers have long used focus groups and survey-based tools to gain insight into the thoughts and intentions of their targeted consumers. Now, neurophysiological tools are helping provide an increased understanding of consumers by helping illuminate unconscious thoughts. Here we look to help undergraduate business students gain an appreciation for the nuances of using such neurophysiological tools and what they might offer. A preliminary study is presented where eighteen students in an advertising class participated in electroencephalographic recordings while watching the three nationally top-rated commercials and three nationally bottom-rated commercials of the 2014 Super Bowl. Class rankings of the commercials using the ADPLAN Framework were compared with topological maps of neural activations. Exemplar data is provided here to illustrate findings. Follow-on work is described and considerations for interpreting data in light of the age group sampled and individual differences.