Research consultancy Touchstone and sister agency Shoppercentric have signed a global partnership with cloud-based neuroscience provider MindTrace.

MindTrace harnesses existing technology to accurately identify, for any marketing asset, what attracts consumers attention, how they feel about what they have seen and how deep their engagement is.

Retailers can share brand assets - webpage commercials, banners, advertising, packaging, concepts, product, displays, copy - to be tested, and participants, selected from approved research panels, are invited to take part at home via a web browser on their own equipment.

With the participant’s fully informed consent, their webcam is used to collect accurate eye tracking, core facial expression and heart rate data to measure subconscious reactions to the content shown. By combining these three behavioural metrics, MindTrace captures data, at up to 1,000 lines per second, to underpin recommendations for marketing investments.

Jamie Rayner, director at Touchstone and managing director at Shoppercentric, explained that over the past nine months they have been working with MindTrace on the key moments when a buyer’s emotional response and action begins.

“This is a significant step forward in bringing our clients closer to understanding core human behaviour and what truly resonates with today’s shoppers, consumers and visitors – this partnership means we can provide brand owners, retailers and the advertising industry with significantly more intelligence, grounded in reality and truly free of bias.”

Adjmal Sarwary, chief executive at MindTrace said: “We pride ourselves on being able to measure subconscious effectiveness so that we can help customers to make good decisions – that result in more sales conversions.

“Even though these measures are well-known in the neuroscience industry, their wider commercial adoption has been hindered by practicality,” he continued. “Our new technology however, makes it possible to fit into the budget and timelines of every client.”

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