Toronto’s Globe & Mail published a fairly lengthy story on neuromarketing, with a lot of discussion of Nielsen Co.’s acquisition of NeuroFocus. The story recounts an anecdote from the latter’s CEO, A. K. Pradeep:
Dr. Pradeep cites a study for a large financial services company, which he will not name. “We were given six ads to analyze,” he says. “I pulled out one ad and I said that this ad in our minds was the best possible ad. The chief marketing officer stopped me and said, “Pradeep, I just want you to know that through all the conventional testing we’ve done, the ad you picked out was rated the most mediocre among the entire bunch.”
Dr. Pradeep asks forgiveness of his language when he recounts that his response was, “Oh shit ” I wondered if my life had come to a halt.”
After a dramatic pause, the CMO continued: “It’s funny, however, that the ad resulted in the greatest number of calls to the call centre.” [From the Globe & Mail – Advertising’s Holy Grail by Jennifer Wells.]
(The first neuromarketing story content also seems to have been repurposed into another article by Wells, The Brain Guy wants to get inside your head: Are you paying attention? Are you engaged? Are you remembering what you see?. )
