Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service Announcements

The evaluation of advertising, products, and packaging is traditionally performed through methods based on self-reports and focusgroups, but these approaches often appear poorly accurate in scientific terms. Neuroscience is increasingly applied to the investigationof the neurophysiological bases of the perception of and reaction to commercial stimuli to support traditional marketing methods. In thiscontext, a particular sector or marketing is represented by public service announcements (PSAs). The objective of this protocol is to applyelectroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic signal analysis to study responses to selected antismoking PSAs. Two EEG indices wereemployed: the frontal alpha band EEG asymmetry (the Approach Withdrawal (AW) index) and the frontal theta (effort index). Furthermore, theautonomic Emotional Index (EI) was calculated, as derived from the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and Heart Rate (HR) signals. The presentprotocol describes a series of operational and computational steps required to properly estimate, through the aforementioned indices, theemotional and cerebral reaction of a group of subjects towards a selected number of antismoking PSAs. In particular, a campaign characterizedby a symbolic communication style (classified as "awarded" on the basis of the prizes received by specialized committees) obtained the highestapproach values, as estimated by the AW index. A spot and an image belonging to the same PSA campaign based on the "fear arousing appeal"and with a narrative/experiential communication style (classified as "effective" on the basis of the economical/health-related improvementspromoted) reported the lowest and highest effort values, respectively. This is probably due to the complexity of the storytelling (spot) and tothe immediateness of the image (a lady who underwent a tracheotomy). Finally, the same "effective" campaign showed the highest EI values,possibly because of the empathy induced by the testimonial and the explicitness of the message.