Your Body Can't Lie: What We Can Learn from Physiological Responses to Digital Marketing

Brandon H. Nutting, Ph.D.

Age of Quantification

But…• These are mostly just behaviors –

behavior can be irrational!• What if we could introduce “human”

things into the data set?

The Heart?• Can the heart reliably tell us

anything?• Yes!• Psychologist and more recently,

media scholars have been working on this for years!

The Heart• Attention – short and long• Short attention – heart slows down

(something changed in the environment)

• Long attention = heart rate speeds up - thinking!

The Heart• Emotion – Positive or negative• The heart is controlled by two areas

of the nervous system• In general:• speed up = positive• Slow down = negative

Ok…• That it an interesting tidbit of

knowledge but we are here to talk about digital marketing…

Digital Marketing• “I am wasting half of my advertising

dollars I am just not sure which half” - John Wanamaker (maybe)

Digital Marketing• The biggest asset to digital

marketing is an increase in the ways we can measure

Emotion• Can we measure emotion?• Why would we want to measure

emotion?

Sure• I like Target• I like this conference• I like Brandon Nutting• Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral,

Disagree, Strongly Disagree

Marketing Today• It is absolutely about building a

connection with a brand• Social media is not a selling platform

– public relations platform• Branding!

Branding• We develop and emotional

connection to some brands – like people

Emotion• Kevin Roberts Author of Lovemarks

said: “I am looking for research that counts the beats of your heart rather than the fingers of your hand” (Roberts 2005 p. 179)

• A study is born: Love Is in the Heart: Physiological Responding to Preferred Brands

Emotion• Viewed 34 Brand Logos for 6 seconds

each – limited to focus on short attention

• Psychophysiological data was collected- Heart Rate

Sustained Interest

That’s great but…• Not all of us have a lab and this kind

of expertise!• Plug: We accept grants and do

contract research• BUT!

But…• Physiological measures are already in

your home!• Recall these “fit” bands are taking it

in real time!• Also, we have other options to avoid

our strongly agree problem

Heart Rate• A python application that detects and

highlights the heart-rate of an individual (using only their own webcam) in real-time.

Eye Tracking• A company called Xlabs uses a web

came to put together eye-tracking data.

Eye Tracking• Recently acquired by Facebook

Summary• Even though most are still trying to

figure out how to use all of this data-we are moving on to even more

• Measurement is key! I like feeling confident.

• Finally – the new technology is very cool!

Final Plug• Follow me on Twitter @NuttingBH• Connect with me on LinkedIn• I teach Social Media Marketing and

Internet Marketing at USD• Email: brandon.nutting@usd.edu