5 Neuromarketing Examples to Help You Create Better Commercials

We have some shocking news for you.

1 out of 5 advertisements causes a drop in sales (Jones, 1995). Think about it; you just spent millions of dollars on media budget to broadcast the perfect ad. But after several months of airtime for your masterpiece on national TV, you don't see the numbers soar. 

Even worse, you see your sales drop. How could this have happened?

Fortunately, neuromarketing research can help you answer this question - right from the start, before you show your campaign to the general public. A method such as EEG combined with eye tracking is able to predict what the impact on sales will be and reveals exactly which shots have a positive effect on the brain - and which should better visit the montage.

By using neuroscience, you prevent investments for future campaigns from harming sales and instead ensure that you make maximum impact. Because in the end it is really our brains that decide whether we put something in our shopping cart and pay or not. But how does that work in practice? How can neuromarketing help you? In this blog, we'll show you 5 neuromarketing advertising examples to paint a better picture!

Neuromarketing Advertising Example # 1. Hidden reaction revealed for Cheetos

We always say: people don't do what they say and don't say what they do. Of course you can ask people anything about your ad and they will always answer. But unfortunately not always an answer that benefits you … 

Cheetos found confirmation for this. They asked focus groups for their opinion on one of their advertisements.

The people in these focus groups told Cheetos that they really didn't like the commercial in which a woman plays a joke on her friend by filling her white laundry with orange Cheetos. However, when Cheetos examined the advertisement with neuromarketing, the EEG measurements showed that people did enjoy the advertising. They thought it was funny! Apparently, the people in the focus groups were secretly afraid of appearing anti-social.

This typical example of neuromarketing advertising research shows how neuro-data can detect hidden responses and get rid of social desirability. Ultimately we want to know what people really feel, given this is the driving force behind purchasing behavior.

Neuromarketing Advertising Example # 2. The Importance of 1 Clear Focus Point

In neuromarketing advertising research, brain data is usually combined with eye tracking data. This way you can see exactly where people are looking and how the brain responds to this.

One thing that we often see in our own studies at Unravel Research is that approach motivation (which is a positive predictor of purchasing behavior) decreases as soon as there is no clear focus point in an ad. The brain doesn't like it when we don't know where to look.

That is why it is important to avoid using multiple focus points. Make sure people know exactly where to look! There are a lot of techniques for this.

One clear focuspoint

Several focus points

Neuromarketing Advertising Example # 3 What are you watching?

A third neuromarketing advertising example confirms humans are social animals. That is of course not front-page news. We love to monitor other people's behavior. We look at others to decide where to eat, what book to read, and which club to queue at for a night out.

We not only monitor the behavior of others, we also monitor their gaze. With this in mind, we can cleverly apply this knowledge in commercials or advertisements. Let's consider the following example where neuromarketing methods such as eye tracking reveal viewing patterns.

In this ad, the spots on the heat maps show where people look the most. Warmer tones indicate that more eyes were looking at that point. The heatmap of the first image shows us that everyone has viewed the baby's face. Unfortunately, the baby's face caused the rest of this ad to escape most of the attention. Unfortunate! 

But what happens if you make the baby look at the text content? Voilà, a shift in attention to where you actually want people to look! It can be that easy!

Neuromarketing Advertising Example # 4 Zooming In and Out of Emotions

Another example of something we often see in brain data is that camera movements have a major influence on the success of an ad. Zooming in or out is perfectly paired with the emotion we feel during this movement.

What do I mean by that? When the camera zooms in and comes closer, we also zoom in mentally. We feel involved! Zooming out has the opposite effect. So, if you want to keep the attention of a potential customer, there is a simple take-home rule: avoid zooming out camera movement. 

Yet there is an exception. Zooming out can work positively when it reveals new information to the viewer. For example, when in such a case a second character hidden behind one comes into view by zooming out.

Neuromarketing Advertising Example # 5 The Frog Effect

Do you remember the Sony Bravia commercial, in which thousands of balls bounced through downtown San Francisco? Neuromarketing advertising research showed that there is one specific moment in this advertising that arouses extremely positive emotions.

I don't know if you can remember the commercial, but I'm referring to the moment when a little frog jumps out of the drainpipe (1:42 min). The funny thing is, this shot was not planned at all.

Sony Bravia also tested the ad without the frog. What happened? When the frog was not part of the ad, attention dropped extremely throughout the ad! Even during the scenes that were not related to the frog at all, such as with the product USPs and the call to action! 

This is why we named this the frog effect: a specific shot that carries the entire ad!

Now you have seen 5 typical neuromarketing advertising examples. But of course there are many more to learn from. Would you like to know more about neuromarketing research? Then give us a call. We have the coffee ready for you in our living room lab!

Want to learn more?

You can make great impact in your sales with neuromarkting. Do you want to learn how, with brain data? Check out the Complete Neuromarketing Essentials Training. In 9 lessons you will discover how you can apply neuro insights directly.