I’ve heard rumors from a couple of sources that EmSense, one of the early pioneers of neuromarketing, is shutting down. At this point, I have been unable to reach anyone within the company to address this topic. Their corporate office answered the phone via automated attendant, but the operator and finance department failed to respond and a “mailbox full” message was received in each case.
EmSense raised $9 million in venture capital in 2009, and earlier this year introduced a simple headset to allow over-the-web neuromarketing studies.
The most recent tweets about EmSense are suggestive, but not definitive by any means. (That’s an image, not a live stream!) For the latest Twitter activity, click here.
If anyone has hard info on this, please post a comment or contact me via phone or email as described here.
Over on the neuromarketing group on LinkedIn, Ron Wright (of Sands Research) certainly is claiming so. No idea whether it is true or not.
Interesting!
I’ve for a long time had some doubts over the Technology that Emsense use. A small array of “dry” electrodes by all accounts is not sufficiently reliable to capture a good EEG signal which allows for robust analysis of brain activity.
Whether this is a harbinger of doom for the neuromarketing discipline per se is anybodies guess. My feeling is that neuroscience in general has contributed massively to market research and marketing thinking in the past few years and it’s be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Whether direct physiological measurement has a future though is open to debate.
In the past Emsense have worked closely with both TNS and Millward Brown. I wonder where this leaves the WPP neuromarketing proposition?
I don’t think this is any kind of harbinger of doom for neuromarketing, Ian. In fact, Innerscope just announced a $9.5 million funding round to ramp up their activity.
Roger
i have been a participant of the Emsense survey group and i was not given any notice as to whether or not they are shutting down. i was receiving invitations to do surveys at the rateof 1 or 2 a week, but i have not received any in the last month or so. i still have their equipment and they still owe me for a survey i took. if anyone has any info on this i would like to know what is happening as i really enjoyed these survey’s.
Sorry to hear that, Robert. Last I heard, they were still working on finding a buyer for their assets. Good luck!
Robert, just saw an update here. Looks like no actual news yet, though it’s possible a new owner could reactivate the home studies:
http://www.research-live.com/whats-happening-with-emsense?/4006529.blog
I’ve been waiting over a month too for a new survey, when I try to access their website it sends me into never never land and they owe me for two studies, hope they eventually show up was a good experience