2013 Neurotalent of the Year Competition

On January 11, 2014

Neuromarketing Science & Business Association organizes for the second time the competition Neurotalent of the Year. The Competition is open to students focused on consumer neuroscience, neuroeconomics, marketing, market research, neuromarketing or other relevant studies. Contestants have the chance to win €3000 cash and a free ticket to Neuromarketing World Forum 2014 (5th-7th of March 2014, New York, USA).
If the outcome of your research is valuable for business and you would like to meet the neuromarketing industry in order to tell them about what your work, then enter the Neurotalent of the Year 2013 competition now! For those who are not eligible to enter the competition, you may vote for one of the candidates until 1st of February 2014.

The participant with the highest number of Facebook likes and two participants chosen by NEUROHM and NMSBA become together the three finalists. From the three winners, the NMSBA and NEUROHM will choose the Neurotalent of the Year 2013, who will also receive a € 3000,- (three thousand euro) cash bonus. All three winners will receive professional training for their presentation during their stay in New York.

So here are the students that are enrolled for this year’s competition:

Benjamin DeVore – Lipscomb University

Companies spend millions of dollars on television commercials and, with little understanding of the neural impact created by media, they hope to elicit some type of emotional response in an audience. The current study looked to analyze emotional reactivity to television by using reality show clips, while analyzing heart rate variability and electrodermal activity, to measure changes in the physiologic state. Statistical significance was determined, which supported the hypothesis that people experience emotional reactivity while viewing different media types, in this case reality television.
Keywords: Affect, Skin Conductance, Heart Rate, Reality Television
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Tomasz Zajac – Aarhus University

As a part of my master thesis, I have tackled the issue of the pupil size of others as an instance of micro expression. By the use of eye-tracking technology, I have measured the distribution of attention in poster advertisements depicting the same woman with either constricted or dilated pupils. The research showed that women pay significantly more attention to facial features of other women when the latter have dilated pupils.

Keywords: eye-tracking, micro expressions, attention, neuroaesthetics, emotions
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Khalid Nassri – CENTER FOR DECISION NEUROSCIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING, COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

By understanding the buying process of consumers, companies can gain vital marketing information about their products. In collaboration with the Center for Decision Neuroscience and an affluent retail company in America, I conducted an in-store study to test this. With the help of mobile eyetracking and mobile EEG, it is possible to follow the movement of consumers through the store and obtain unbiased information of how consumers react to the products they encounter. From the EEG data, we calculate the prefrontal asymmetry index, a significant indicator of purchase behaviour.

Keywords: Neuromarketing, Mobile EEG, Mobile Eyetracking, Prefrontal Asymmetry Index, In-store experiments
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Haley Yarosh – Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Yale School of Medicine

The social context of who is around us, and what they like, strongly influences our choices about products and goods. In this fMRI study, participants watched high calorie and low calorie food pictures, and reported whether they “like”, “dislike” or “feel neutral” about the food. During a second run, we introduced a nutritionist who would be watching them. Participants reported feeling “unaffected” by being watched, but their brain activity changed in key regions. Participants who reported knowing more about nutrition also had increased caudate activity while rating high>low calorie foods.

Keywords: social neuroscience, social media, observer
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Dalia Bagdziunaite – Center for Decision Neuroscience, Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School

Compulsive buying – is it a lack of impulse control, emotion related issue or aberrant relationship between emotions and decision-making? Compulsive buying disorder is a repetitive chronic purchasing behavior overwhelming the urges. Recent eye-tracking study conducted at Center for Decision Neuroscience has shown that it should be understood as behavioral addiction rather than impulse-control disorder, highlighting the stronger bottom-up emotional impact on decision-making. The knowledge about the implicit and explicit aspects of consumer choice offers business an opportunity to reduce the unnecessary stimulation, design more consumer-oriented products, and target the right consumers, emphasizing the ethical marketing practice.
Keywords: Emotions, executive control, value-based decision-making, compulsive buying disorder, eye-tracking, EEG
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Ingrid Rosca – University of Girona

Why consumer behavior based on emotional research is valuable for business? Our brains may process emotions before cognition.’ It is important to assess the factors that underline a behavior. I’ve adapted my research on Prof. A. Damasio’s theory of decision making combining it with less-is-more effects. I will demonstrate that a pattern of induced image consumers can influence business welfare. This is where emotions meet intelligence creating profit.
Keywords: behavioral economics, social psychology, neuromarketing, market research, conscious, unconscious motivations, brand image, consumer behavior, entrepreneurship
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Luna Paladino de Souza – Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

The Neuromarketing´s field pops up within the large uncertainties of Marketing. One must go beyond subjectivity, whether of the researcher and / or researched. Such emerging methodology is objective, presents scientific accuracy and helps on the understanding of implicit processes that can not be made explicit: the emotional processes. In this context, this work sought to establish the degree of understanding and credibility of Neuromarketing, such as its potential in companies headquartered in Brazil.
Keywords: Market Research, Marketing, Neuroscience, Neuromarketing
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Imane Bouzidi – Copenhagen Business School

We all know that brands can have an effect on our unconscious motivation systems and buying behavior. Throughout a behavioral and neuroscientific analysis I examined ´how the Starbucks brand affects the Danish consumer mindset`. In specific I explored how Danes relate to the brand in terms of their emotions and behaviors. Among several psychological brand aspects and consumer neuroscientific theories, the main focus in my study was put on two of the consumer´s motivational systems, namely: unconscious ´wanting` and conscious liking. The study revealed a connection between the level of brand -, recognition, preference, taste opinions (liking) and the amount of consumed coffee (wanting).
Keywords: Unconscious wanting, conscious liking, brand effects, brand preference, Starbucks, motivations system, consumer behavior, Danish consumers
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Lars Frederiksen – Copenhagen Business School

It is widely accepted that scent affects human behavior and regulates cognition. Olfactory stimuli are connected to memory and emotional processing, and prompt emotional responses. I examined the conscious and unconscious dimensions of the processes induced by scent, and hereby treated the use of scents as a potential weapon to affect consumer preference. The study revealed a connection between scent intensity and consumer preference. Weak odors were found to affect consumer behavior in terms of a positive effect on preference, whereas stronger odors are found to induce the opposite effect.

Keywords: Eye tracking, scent marketing, consumer preference
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Peter Lewinski – Amsterdam School of Communication Research

To assess ad effectiveness I used facial coding software that tracks 491 superimposed key-points on a 3D artificial facemask. I gathered online 900 recordings (0.7 million frames) of facial reactions to advertisements and analyzed over 4.1 million unique data points. I reduced the data-gathering costs to 700$ by using crowdsourcing. I found that facial expressions explain 24-37% of variance of ad effectiveness [1] and that exaggerating (i.e. amplifying) one’s expressions leads to enhanced attitudes [2]. One insight for business is that facial coding is reliable, objective and scalable.

Keywords: Facial coding, facereader, advertising, neuromarketing
Read More and VOTE»

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GOOD LUCK to everyone!

All participants will receive the information about the winners at 4 February 2014 latest. For more information contact the NMSBA office on office@neuromarketing-association.com