Biometric Measures for Interactive Advertising Research

Modern marketers seek new research paradigms to explore preconscious, nonverbal stages of consumer behavior, often turning to brain science because some mental processes, particularly those underlying conscious awareness, may be better understood by analyzing neurophysiological reactions. A new discipline, consumer neuroscience, thus examines the brain and its functioning in a marketing context. This article demonstrates how consumer neuroscience can contribute to existing marketing knowledge, with a focus on two methods: electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking. In interactive environments, it is ideal to administer brain wave analyses in parallel with observations of eye movements. Such an integration can enrich understanding of what emotional reactions consumers experience when they see an advertisement. This study identifies a causal relationship between marketing communication and emotions on an analytical level, such that it reveals which emotional reaction is triggered by each ad element. In other words, it captures what people feel when they look at something. The EEG-eye-tracking integrative approach offers various opportunities to interactive advertising researchers.