Neuro-research product claims to be a radio advertising ‘gamechanger’

NextGen Neuro uses neuromarketing techniques to measure the physiological and neural signals of an audience to gain insights into why customers make certain buying decisions.

Melissa McNally, Research and Analytics Manager at Kagiso, says her team developed NextGen Neuro after realising that there was a gap in the market for a service that allows brands to test their audio.

“While talking to clients and agencies, we found that understanding emotional engagement to adverts is becoming a more important metric to advertisers. 

A listener-led approach to insights

“Further to this, looking at how consumers want to have a voice when it comes to their brands, we were inspired at [Kagiso Media Radio] to construct a listener-led approach to insights, where co-creation with audiences is promoted in order to create a deeper understanding,” she says in a media statement.

Five radio advertisements from the automotive industry were used to test how things like jingles, the voices used in the advert, and unintentional stereotyping can affect engagement.

“Unlike traditional copy testing, we’re able to establish how the respondent feels about the advert through a physiological response. By using the NextGen Neuro testing, we can predict purchase intent and the general emotional engagement of copy,” explains McNally.

Some of the pilot study’s key findings:

• Jingles work, especially if they are memorable. But steer clear of being too cliché.
• Gender matters. But tone, pitch and pronunciation matter more: The calm female voice used in the one advert was cited as being favourable. However, there are some male listeners that still expect females to act within certain gender stereotypes, although this is not common.
• Age impacts emotional relevance. Younger listeners are less emotionally engaged with adverts, whilst older respondents are more likely to have more negative associations with an advert.

“Brands that appeal to multiple senses are more successful in triggering the brain’s ‘buy’ button. To truly be successful, a campaign or marketing [strategy] should contain every human sense,” McNally says.