Cutting Edge Neuro-Technology Helps Fine Tune Ads For This Year's Super Bowl
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Super Bowl Sunday is the best day of the year for both die-hard football fans and companies looking to capitalize on the largest television audience of the year.
With millions of dollars at stake, CBS2's Scott Rapoport took a look at some of the new technology being used to measure which commercial will win the advertising game.
For many viewers the commercials are the real draw during the big game and this year, major brands are spending more than ever to grab our attention.
"Every 30 seconds of air time is five and a half million dollars," Spencer Gerrol, founder and CEO of SPARK Neuro, said, "You don't have time to waste a single second."
It's not easy for every brand to hit it out of the park, so more and more marketers are employing the help of an Electroencephalogram (EEG), which gauges just what will strike the fancy of the some 100 million people expected to tune in on Sunday.
"We work with the biggest brands," Gerrol said. "(We) optimize the engagement of their content before it even airs."
SPARK Neuro is a neuroanalytics company at the forefront of this technology.
"Your brain is constantly releasing electrical impulses and we're reading all of those electrical impulses," Gerrol said. "So when we look at the ad, we look for where are the peaks, where are the times that you were incredibly excited, incredibly attentive and where are the times when we may have lost you?"
Based on the information gathered, the ad is then refined.
"By the time you see it, you enjoy it," Gerrol said.
The process is much more accurate, he says, than asking people for their opinion.
"If we had a focus group, we would have a lot of people piling on with whatever somebody in the room who seemed popular said," Gerrol said.
Scott Rapoport gave it a spin, and Gerrol says his biggest reaction was a shot of actress Rebel Wilson playing the part of Amazon Alexa.
"I'm saying you found this to be enjoyable for whatever reason," Gerrol quipped.