Touchstone and MindTrace for Neuroscience Partnership

UK-headquartered B2B and B2C researcher Touchstone and sister agency Shoppercentric have partnered with cloud-based neuroscience provider MindTrace, to identify which market assets attract consumer attention and understand how they feel about what they have seen.

Netherlands-based MindTrace offers neuromarketing testing using only a webcam. The firm's software claims to convert any webcam into a 'mind reader', by measuring what people see (eye tracking), how they feel about what they see (emotion tracking), and how that affects their excitement levels by measuring heart rate.

Through the partnership, brand owners and retailers share brand assets (webpage commercials, banners, advertising, packaging, concepts, products, displays, copy etc.) 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 consent, their webcam is used to collect eye tracking, core facial expression and heart rate data to measure subconscious reactions to the content shown. According to MindTrace CEO Adjmal Sarwary, the deal will enable the partners to gain a 'whole new level of understanding behaviour and the choices that humans make'.

Jamie Rayner, Director at Touchstone and MD at Shoppercentric, comments: 'Over the past nine months we have been working in partnership with MindTrace, to remove questions that take participants out of their System 1 thinking (the way consumers make most of their decisions: quickly, intuitively and emotionally). MindTrace works wholly at those key moments when a buyer's viewing, emotional response and action begins, keeping participants firmly in System 1 where the buying decision is truly made. 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.'

Web sites: www.touchstonepartners.co.uk , www.shoppercentric.com and www.mind-trace.com .