You’ve seen advertisements at a bus station, you’ve seen ‘em all, right? It can’t take long to reach a saturation point where such ads become ubiquitous.

Well, that’s not the kind of thing Adshel, one of the leading providers of outdoor-advertising space in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, likes to hear.

The Australian arm of the company released research Thursday that studies just what helps consumers recall such outdoor advertising. Called “Neuroswitch,” the report “was compiled with the help of top Neuroscientist Dr Phil Harris from the University of Melbourne,” Mumbrella reports.

“The report findings point to the importance of active information processing in aiding recall,” Mumbrella notes. “The study demonstrates how merely noticing something is not enough for consumers to recall a campaign and that advertisers should be concerned with deepening engagement.”

In order to get consumers to remember outdoor advertising, marketers need to create “emotional arousal, experiential learning, and sensory branding,” the report states.

Because of this, Adshel will now start measuring emotional response to what it monitors.

Eager to reach "the next billion consumers," BBDO, Microsoft and Ipsos have joined forces "for a proprietary study of multi-platform campaigns leveraging both creativity and technology to identify a ground-breaking framework for marketing success," which they released at the Cannes advertising festival this week.

What's unique about this study, according to Microsoft Advertising's blog post — is the methodology and findings:

"Unlike other digital advertising multi-screen research, we took an approach that has never been done before and applied psychological archetypes—or models of a person or behavior—to put personalities to each device. (These archetypes were pioneered by the influential psychiatrist Carl Jung.) With the study, we set out to determine what’s going on in people’s psyche and understand their emotional connection and response to each screen – the PC, TV, Mobile, etc. For instance, we found the mobile phone is like a ‘lover’ – it’s the most intimate of all the devices you interact with each day, therefore ads should be highly relevant and appeal only to you."

Above, watch BBDO's worldwide CMO, Simon Bond, and Microsoft's global advertising VP Marc Bresseel discuss the research. Bond had more to say after the panel, below.Continue reading...

The proverbial glass ceiling is still firmly in corporate America, as men continue their dominance in the private sector.

Women and minorities are still underrepresented on U.S. corporate boards according to the recent report, “Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards — 2010 Alliance for Board Diversity Census.” Continue reading...

While not quite as out there as EEG-tracking to determine consume responses to brand messaging, eye tracking — which uses webcams to follow eyeballs as people peruse ads online — is getting more sophisticated.

Traditional web tracking techniques provide data on clicking and scrolling patterns, while eye tracking analyzes user interaction, i.e., what’s literally most eye-catching, in between the clicks, as well as what’s confusing or ignored altogether.

Stockholm-based MRC Online EyeTracking uses technology developed by Tobii Technology to literally track viewers' gaze, and defines effectiveness by where and how long people look at individual elements of advertising. 

That analysis is what attracted P&G to sign up with MRC to track the effectiveness of its Pampers brand marketing in Scandinavia.Continue reading...

This week, neuromarketing firm and Nielsen partner, Neurofocus, unveiled what it's calling the world's first wireless full-brain EEG-tracking headset, designed to capture brainwave activity, at the 75th Annual Advertising Research Foundation conference. Attendees were invited to its booth to demo the product (right) and chat with NeuroFocus CEO, Dr. A.K. Pradeep.
 
NeuroFocus, one of the leading neuromarketing experts, is already doing intriguing work for some of the world’s top companies. Pradeep was at the ARF event in New York to showcase Mynd and talk up his firm's methods, which he says are the answer to the flaws that many marketers find in focus groups.

The device took three years to produce, and as Pradeep describes it, the company already has ambitious plans for its use—from consumers donning the headset at home, perhaps using it to sync their mood with their TV viewing options, to medical-related research.Continue reading...

Market research using focus groups is a $7 billion annual industry (according to Esomar) that hasn’t changed much in 50 years. Cue GutCheck, a Denver-based startup that offers the benefits of an average $4000-$10,000 focus group without the cost and hassle.

“Looking at the opportunities for DIY qualitative research, automating the recruitment process and reducing the cost and effort of in-depth interviews was the key to success,” GutCheck CEO Matt Warta told brandchannel. “We’ve lowered the economic barrier to this kind of research.”Continue reading...

The Holy Grail for advertisers is coming ever closer - interactive billboards that recognize and target passers-by with custom ads, as imagined and portrayed for the 2002 neo-noir film, Minority Report starring Tom Cruise.

Digital posters that scan face-traffic and change the display when an onlooker’s attention is caught are now appearing in train stations, on bus stops and on the sides of buildings, but remain generic ads for a limited suite of products.

Digital dressing rooms, allowing shoppers to virtually see outfits superimposed on their likeness are already installed as a "look finder" feature in 77kids, the children’s subsidiary of clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters.

The underlying technology, Radio-Frequency Identification, was developed  by electronics company NEC and is now being researched by Panasonic, Samsung, IBM and others.

RFID employs facial recognition software to determine gender and age and serve up ads that match the demo. The technology, as we've noted, is so sophisticated it can catch the nuance of a frown, a nod, or a raised eyebrow.Continue reading...

We recently took a look at how brands are using eye-tracking software to understand the visual elements of a brand's design that engage the viewer.

Here's how Mercedes-Benz recently used the technology to take a look at the consumer's gaze — including drawing comparisons to the female form. Its goal: to discern, in eye-tracking parlance, the "eye catchers" of its vehicle design.

The luxury brand researchers' conclusion: as in seduction, it's the subtle details that grab attention and excite the target audience. Heck, Dita Von Teese could have told them that!