Ratings and research behemoth Nielsen is doubling down on neuromarketing by completing the purchase of Innerscope Research.
Innerscope first tweeted a link to an Ad Age report:
Nielsen completes acquisition of Innerscope Research, per AdAge: http://t.co/C15bOz3cYV @CMBiometrics
— Innerscope Research (@Innerscope) May 27, 2015
A more detailed release from the company is here.
Nielsen has already been a player in the consumer neuroscience space, having acquired the portion of Neurofocus it didn’t already own in 2011. Nielsen had invested in Neurofocus in 2008.
Innerscope was co-founded by Dr. Carl Marci and Brian Levin. (My 2014 conversation with Marci about measuring engagement is here.) The firm has done more than many in the space to validate and publish its results.
According to the Innerscope release, Marci will be Chief Neuroscientist for Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, which is the newly merged identity for Neurofocus and Innerscope.
The new entity within Nielsen will be headed by Joe Willke, President. One thing Nielsen hopes to gain is getting its research out of the lab and into real environments. Innerscope has in its portfolio its Sensus™ kiosk platform, plus in-home and in-store testing capabilities with wearable devices.
This isn’t the first connection between Nielsen and Innerscope. In 2013, Nielsen executive Bill Moult left that firm to take over as CEO at Innerscope. Previously, he was an advisor to the neuromarketing firm.
I’m sure we’ll hear more about this deal in the coming weeks, but this development is another sign of the growing maturation of the consumer neuroscience space.
What’s your take on this? Does Nielsen gobbling up two of the biggest players in the neuromarketing/consumer neuroscience space worry you, or excite you?
