Cognition has partnered with Aston University to trial electroencephalography (EEG) technology to be the first UK marketing agency to measure the effectiveness of future marketing campaigns. 

The Company

Cognition was the first marketing agency in the UK to use cognitive and behavioural psychology to deliver better marketing and sales outcomes. Founded in 1998, Cognition covered all the traditional marketing areas but took a highly consultative approach, changing the way organisations think, feel and act through a proprietary blend of marketing, sales, technology and psychology. 

The Challenge

Cognition was looking to trial electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure the effectiveness of future marketing campaigns but lacked expertise in this area and the knowledge required in technology, psychology and decision science was too academic to use consultancy.

The Solution

Behavioural science experts at Aston’s School of Health and Life Sciences and School of Engineering and Physical Sciences will work alongside Cognition to produce a NeuroMarketing Toolkit (NMT). The partnership will see trained psychologists, academics, software engineers, scientists and marketers pool their knowledge to develop pioneering new software capable of processing large amounts of data. Volunteers will be asked to review marketing campaigns while scientists use EEG to measure how their brains respond, allowing Cognition to rapidly produce effective marketing campaigns that help grow businesses.

“The experience of Aston University’s academics is one that cannot be reproduced by another organisation and they have the exact knowledge we need to develop our services.” Dr Peter Hughes, Psychologist and Cognition co-founder.

Additional benefits of the KTP include: 

  • Cognition will be the first UK marketing agency to use EEG technology of this type to measure the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns
  • Commercialising the NMT into a  Software as a Service panel and offering to other agencies.     
  • Enabling Cognition to establish and achieve a substantial market share by year five post-KTP.
     

Team Aston

Leading this project at Aston University is Dr Carl Senior, a behavioural scientist with 20 years’ experience working at the interface between social psychology and organisational behaviour. The project will further benefit from two academic supervisors. Professor Adrian Burgess is a world leader in electroencephalography, a specialised technique which records brain activity by measuring the very small electric signals that are produced by the brain. Dr Sylvia Wong is the second academic supervisor of the project, and is an expert in complex database design, software modelling, structuring and development, which are all vital in transforming data into actionable information.

“The use of EEG in neuromarketing endeavours is a fairly new application and its unique ability to detect very small signals in the brain should enable us to identify the point at which clients start to initiate a purchase decision. We are delighted to be working with Cognition on this ambitious project.” Dr Carl Senior, Aston University

Next steps

The project is expected to complete in May 2022 – look out for more updates by following us on Twitter and checking our webpage. 

For more information about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships or an informal chat, email ktp@aston.ac.uk or call 0121 204 4242.