The Art and Science of Influence

THE ART AND SCIENCE
OF INFLUENCE
A NEUROSCIENCE EXPERIMENT
SHEDS NEW LIGHT

TABLEOFCONTENTS
4WHAT NEUROSCIENCE
TELLS US ABOUT THE
POWER OF PR AND
EARNED CONTENT
Explaining the setup and science
of a revolutionary experiment that
studies consumers’ neurological
reactions as they view content and,
subsequently, the precise impact all
forms of content have on them
6THE RESULTS: HOW
CONTENT PERFORMS
From awareness to intent to purchase,
this in-depth study reveals precisely
how and why earned content
bests all other forms, with a specific
look at the effectiveness of MSL’s
ECUs (earned content units)
3
INTRODUCTION
A joint initiative conducted by MSL
and SPARK Neuro gives PR pros
true cause for excitement. Includes
exclusive comments from MSL global
CEO Guillaume Herbette about
impact and influence
9THE ROLE OF
NEUROSCIENCE IN
UNDERSTANDING
EMOTIONAL VERSUS
RATIONAL DECISIONS
How communicators can help
brands strengthen the imperfect
relationship between art and
science and, in the process, win
over consumers’ hearts and minds

INTRODUCTION PR-DRIVEN MEDIA:
HERO OF THE DAY
Every brand is a media company now. This message
has undoubtedly been instilled in every communications
and marketing professional. And what it means is that
every brand must create content – lots of it on various
platforms – if they want to influence consumers.
This is a very exciting reality for PR pros as it increases
the value of the services they are particularly expert in
delivering for those they counsel. PR-driven content, such
as earned articles and brand videos, is increasingly proving
to have the highest impact on consumers – at all stages of
their journey, from increasing their affinity for brands (also
known as “brand lift”) to the actual purchase of products.
MSL has particular cause for enthusiasm, too. Last year, the
firm introduced ECUs (earned content units) as part of its
Conversation2Commerce initiative. Though ECUs occupy
the same space as banner ads, they feature headlines
from earned content instead of regular product ads. This
hybrid between digital ads and earned content delivered
significantly more cognitive attention. In turn, the content
stayed in memory longer, brand affinity was improved, and
increased action was encouraged.
Of course, in an ROI-driven world, tangible proof is always
sought as to PR’s real-world impact. In this case, the pre-
vailing query is: How do you know your content is having
that ultimate impact on consumers? Surveys and focus
groups have long been used to make such determinations,
but the answers provided are often limited. But where
those traditional paths fall short, neuroscience is revealing.
Thanks to a recent experiment conducted by MSL in
partnership with SPARK Neuro, what was once only
subjective – how much people are engaged with content
and their emotional experience with it – can now be
directly quantified by reading brain activity and other
neurological responses.
On succeeding pages, you’ll hear from SPARK Neuro
founder and CEO Spencer Gerrol, who will explain
how this revolutionary research enables us to see how
consumers are impacted by content – both consciously
and subconsciously – in ways never before possible.
This includes study of brain-cell activity, sweaty palms,
eye tracking, and facial expressions – all of which were
linked to direct consumer activity. The end result: the
real-world impact of all types of content – banner ads,
TV ads, brand videos, feature articles, even movie
trailers – can now be scientifically proven.
And the best news for PR: by proving that earned media
is the hero of the day for eliciting emotions and driving
sales, neuroscience is further validating the discipline’s
increasing role in boosting brands’ bottom lines.
FROM MSL
As a global public relations and
integrated communications partner
to our clients, MSL is committed
to building influence and
delivering impact.
Influence is where our industry is
headed, but impact is where we
look to grow the tangible value we
bring to clients. By taking a holistic
approach and looking beyond the
boundaries of the traditional PR
industry, we are developing both
influence and impact in new and
exciting ways through the use of
sophisticated data, analytics, and
our new Conversation2Commerce
platform.
Our sponsorship of this experiment
is intended to uncover new learning
about the rise in influence and how
it can be used in smarter and new
strategic ways for communicators
and marketers.
Guillaume Herbette
Global CEO, MSL
3

4
PRINT, ONLINE PUBLICATIONS, social media, television, and digital
ads – to name a few – all form part of an overarching marketing
strategy. However, specific details on how each form of content
affects consumers remain somewhat of an enigma.
MSL, Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications division and one
of the world’s largest PR companies, partnered with SPARK Neuro
to learn how the brain engages with and reacts to different forms of
content. MSL has a passion for helping brands better use the levers
of influence to deliver a new level of meaningful, measurable impact.
The key to this experiment’s success is the application of neuroscience
methods. Asking people to evaluate how they feel about each type of
content would yield little in the way of meaningful results. Scanning
for their actual neurological state, including brain activity and nervous-
system activation, is far more reliable.
In April 2017, millennial women were recruited to browse a controlled
set of online content while hooked up to our series of neurometric
and biometric devices.
THE SETUP
Experiment participants independently browsed Refinery29, as well
as a competitor site. During research, the women were exposed to
digital banner ads, earned articles, and brand videos that were pro-
fessionally produced instructional films featuring specific products.
WHAT NEUROSCIENCE TELLS
US ABOUT THE POWER OF
PR AND EARNED CONTENT
By Spencer Gerrol, CEO and Founder, SPARK Neuro
A new type of content was also
put to the test. MSL, as part of
its Conversation2Commerce
(C2C) initiative, developed
a hybrid between digital
advertising and earned content,
known as earned content units
(ECUs). While occupying the
same space as banner ads,
ECUs are styled differently.
They feature headlines from
earned content instead of
regular product ads.
All content within the
experiment fit into the health
and beauty category. All
participants were recruited for
their interest in beauty content.
Participants were only asked to
browse content of interest. They
were not made aware of what
was being studied so as not to
bias their interactions.
While the site content was
naturalistically presented and

PERCEPTION AND ACTION
To further understand the impact of these various content forms, we
also measured for the effects on branding and buying through pre-
and post-exposure surveys. Unlike traditional surveys, however, our
unique method captures the subconscious decision-making process.
By measuring changes to reaction times, as well as minor movements
of the mouse trajectory (angle of attack), we gain insight into the
implicit process of how decisions are made.
These measures provide a much more accurate view of the range of
consumer responses – be it confidence, hesitance, or ambivalence.
Brand lift. We gave an implicit brand lift survey both before and after
the participants were exposed to content. We measured the extent
to which people had an affinity for each brand and, moreover, if their
“brand love” increased based on exposure to content.
Purchase intent. We measured how content affected people’s
desires to purchase products, again utilizing measures of sub-
conscious decision-making in addition to their conscious choice.
Purchase behavior. To further strengthen the findings beyond
purchase “intent,” participants were given monetary compensation
that could be used in a web store at the study’s end. We tracked
which products people actually bought so as to compare with
biometric measures collected from brain and body activity.
5
subjects decided what to spend time
on, content was also tightly controlled
to ensure a repeatable experimental
design. Select ads and content were
presented in random order to eliminate
the biases of order effects.
THE SCIENCE
While perusing the site, participants
were hooked up to these sensors:
Electroencephalography (EEG).
Brain cells communicate by releasing
chemicals (neurotransmitters) and
electricity. These electrical impulses
are measured on the scalp via highly
sensitive electrodes within milliseconds
of those brain cells becoming active.
This neural activity reflects attention
and emotional processing, providing a
measure of message resonance. While
the most complex to analyze, this data
is the richest source of information on
attention and emotion.
Galvanic Skin Response (GSR).
Surely, you’ve noticed that your palms
sweat with heightened emotions,
whether fear or joy. While you only
notice this in more extreme situations,
it is happening at varying levels all day
every day. When a person is excited,
their nervous system becomes highly
activated and causes pores to open.
These pores release sweat, which
allows the GSR device to measure
electrical conductance on the hands,
a measure of emotional arousal.
Eye Tracking. Visual engagement is
tracked through eye movements and
analysis of visual patterns by meas-
uring saccades (rapid eye movements)
and fixations. Eye tracking tells us
exactly where people are looking
within millimeter accuracy. This offers
a precise view of how people visually
attend to different content, including
how quickly the stimulus draws
attention, for how long, and how often.
Micro-Facial Expression Encoding.
Every grin and pout provides further
evidence of what a person is feeling.
A camera detects tiny movements in
facial muscles and translates these
nonverbal cues into meaningful data.
While facial expressions are less
common while consuming online
content, they add one more layer to
strengthen the overall data.
BY M E ASU RING CHANG E S
TO RE AC TION TIM E S , WE
GAIN IN SIG HT INTO TH E
IM PLICIT PROCE SS OF HOW
DECISION S ARE MADE
Brain actiivity, skin response, eye movement, and facial expression were all
studied to gain unprecedented insight into content’s impact on consumers

Moreover, brightly colored ads were
looked at for 50% longer than duller
colors. Again, we are evolutionarily
adapted to notice bright colors
before less saturated colors.
Both faces with bright colors
in conjunction had a multiplying
effect, getting about twice as
much visual attention as dull colors
with no faces.
HOW DO MSL’s EARNED
CONTENT UNITS COMPARE?
MSL’s ECUs are an advertising/
PR hybrid that takes the value
of cost effective banner ads, but
simplifies the visual design and uses
earned content headings instead of
typical ad messaging. The theory
is that if an article is written about
a product, the press is good, but
it has a shelf life in our 24-hour
news cycle (or event faster these
days). By advertising the articles
across the web, especially alongside
contextually relevant content, the
earned news story becomes more
evergreen.
But does it work? Typical banner
ads are highly designed and, frankly,
more visually appealing. MSL
argues that ECUs’ lack of design is
purposeful, but does this put them
at a disadvantage?
THIS STUDY UTILIZED the most
advanced metrics to shed light on
the details of how people consume
different types of content, including
how it engaged their attention and
emotions and how this translated
into real-world purchasing decisions.
One of the first types of content
we evaluated were banner ads that
sat to the right side of the page
content. These ads are notorious in
the research community for “banner
blindness.” In other words, people
often don’t even notice them since
their main task and motivation is to
look at the content of interest while
avoiding ads.
Eye tracking confirmed that 96% of
the time people stayed focused on
page content, looking at the banner
ads only about 4% of the time. While
minimal, 0.4 seconds out of every
10 is better than nothing, especially
given the low cost of banner ads.
When banner ads appeared, they
tended to attract a quick glance,
for about 0.1 seconds. That’s
because our eyes are attracted to
movement. In fact, human beings
have evolved to sense motion/
change faster than any other visual
attribute. The appearance of an ad is
enough to instinctually yield a single
saccade (rapid eye movement).
After that initial glance, people
decide, not necessarily consciously,
to look away or to take another
peek. If the ad looks relevant, they
may spend a bit more time on it.
However, not all banner ads are
created equal. For example, ads
with images of faces were viewed
23% longer than ads without faces.
Why? Human beings are pro-
grammed to look at faces, especially
eyes. This begins nearly from birth,
developing as early as within the
first couple neonatal weeks.
THE RESULTS:
HOW CONTENT
PERFORMS
6

it increases the chances of storing
content in memory, improving
affinity, and encouraging action.
HOW DO ARTICLES
AND ONLINE BRAND
VIDEOS PERFORM?
Looking at cognitive response as
recorded by brain activity, we saw
an interesting effect.
For context, let’s start with a few
comparison points. After testing
hundreds of TV ads with our brain-
wave technology, SPARK Neuro
measured the average ad attention
at 3.8 out of 10. While some ads
score higher (9.2 is the best we have
measured), the average TV ad does
not foster heightened attention.
Meanwhile, movie trailers on
average score 5.6 for attention,
almost 50% higher than the average
ad. Why? Trailers are typically highly
produced. Moreover, people watch
them by choice, as opposed to
ads, which people prefer to ignore
(unless they are really good).
With those benchmarks in
mind, how do articles featuring
products compare? Attention for
articles scored 4.7 on average.
That is significantly better than
the average TV ad, though not
quite up to standards of movie
trailers. Unlike ads (and more
like movie trailers), people choose
to read articles. That choice
fosters more deliberate and intent
engagement.
We also measured a particular
type of video commonly used in
PR – branded instructional videos.
These videos feature products,
such as Refinery29 videos teaching
people how to artfully apply
different types of makeup while
highlighting a specific makeup
brand. Branded videos scored 5.3
with the intended audience. That
score is better than TV ads and
articles, and it even approaches
movie-trailer status.
TRANSLATING
TO BRAND LOVE
We know that attention was lowest
for banner ads, better for articles,
and better yet for branded videos.
But how does that translate to brand
lift? Experiment participants were
asked to rate each brand before and
after the study.
Digital ads only contributed a
1.4% brand lift. Articles increased
brand affinity 1.6%, which, although
slight, was still a statistically sig-
nificant difference compared to
Perhaps surprisingly, the data
showed a clear and significant
advantage for ECUs. In fact,
eye tracking results demonstrated
that participants looked at ECUs for
twice as long as traditional banner
ads (0.8 seconds vs. 0.4 seconds).
Why is that? The unique visual style
that emphasizes a more minimalist
approach drew attention because
of its simplicity. It also retained
attention due to an absence of too
many distracting visual elements.
Moreover, think about the context
of the situation. People are on a site
reading articles about fashion and,
lo and behold, the “ad” is also
featuring another article about
fashion. The idea of featuring articles
next to other articles feels a lot
more like native, unobtrusive, and
valuable content compared to
most ads that are, frankly, seen
as a distraction. This advantage
proved highly beneficial.
In fact, the benefit of the ECU
goes beyond visual attention. The
challenge with eye tracking alone is
that sometimes your eyes look
at something, but the gears in your
brain don’t turn. In other words, your
eyes can be instinctually attracted
to something, but that does not
necessarily mean the content
registered in your brain.
Using EEG (electroencepha-
lography), we were able to look
beyond visual attention and into
cognitive attention. For the same
amount of looking time, ECUs
showed 16% more cognitive
attention. Considering ECUs
were looked at twice as long,
that’s 32% more brain processing.
When your brain is more engaged,
The idea of featuring articles next to other articles feels a lot less obtrusive than
banner ads to most content viewers - another nod to the impact of earned content
7
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DATA SHOWE D A SIG NIFICANT
ADVANTAG E FOR ECUs, AS
PARTICIPANTS LOOKE D AT
TH E M FOR T WICE AS LONG AS
TR ADITIONAL BAN N E R ADS
BANNER AD

digital ads. Brand videos did an even
better job of reinforcing brand love,
promoting a 3.6% brand lift. These
trends correlate perfectly with the
biometric data.
TRANSLATING
TO ACTION
While increases in brand affinity
are nice, the end goal is often sales.
Measuring for purchase intent, we
observed that digital banner ads
set the baseline at 13%, not much
greater than purchase intent for
no ad at all.
Brand videos doubled the purchase
intent compared to digital ads,
achieving 26%.
Meanwhile earned articles increased
purchase intent to 45%. That’s 3.5
times more than digital ads.
How could it be that articles
performed so much better for
purchase intent whereas videos
performed better for brand lift?
Interestingly, the instructional
videos featured the brands more
subtly, with the main emphasis
being on topics such as how
to apply makeup. This subtle
and elegant featuring of brands
allowed them to seep into people’s
subconscious, affecting how they
feel about the brand or product.
On the other hand, articles
had different advantages. First,
they were more direct about how
they featured products, linking
more clearly with purchasing
choices. Second, the nature of an
article is considered more serious
and more credible; news is looked
at through a different lens than
other brand content.
Despite these clear and consis-
tent results, we still need to
determine how this all translates
to the real world. The challenge
with purchase intent is that it is
just that — intent. The metric,
while meaningful (and even more
accurate because of our unique
way of measuring the subconscious
decision-making influence), does
not necessarily equate to products
flying off shelves.
In order to track something closer
to actual purchases, we set up a
web store and asked participants to
go shopping. They were provided
compensation for the study and
could use some of that money to
buy products that were then mailed
to them after the session.
Fourteen percent of the items
purchased were “foils,” meaning
they were not promoted in any
way during the study. This 14%
sets a baseline from which we
can track improvements due
to content exposure.
Eighteen percent of items pur-
chased were shown in digital
banner ads, a small 4% lift from
no advertisement at all.
Meanwhile, 27% of the products
purchased were featured in brand
videos, a major lift over digital ads
and consistent with the purchase
intent metric.
Topping the chart, earned articles
contributed to 42% of purchases –
again consistent with our unique,
implicit method for tracking
purchase intent.
Needless to say, earned content
has a significant effect and is the
hero of the day.
CONCLUSION: WHAT DO
THESE RESULTS MEAN?
In the social and digital environment
in which people engage today,
earned media and other PR types of
content appear to play a critical role
in both attention and engagement.
Ultimately, while we see clear trends
from one content type to another,
the true value is influenced by the
quality of the content. You can make
a stellar video or a boring one. The
same applies across the board, in-
cluding various forms of PR content.
The most important step goes back
to how we optimize the creative,
encourage risks, and stand out from
the pack. Neuroscience methods
and learnings augment our capa-
bility to measure and optimize
each piece of content.
8

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE IS IMPERFECT. It’s a
constant tug of war. On one hand, a research-driven approach is the best
way to ensure decisions are made with the target audience in mind. On the
flip side, a brilliant storyteller has a uniquely honed intuition. An inspired
artist might not be able to back it up with numbers, but has a sense of when
something feels right.
I’m a scientist who specializes in studying human behavior and cognitive
psychology and then applying actionable research to decisions for
advertising and entertainment. On the topic of research versus creative, you
might reasonably expect that I side with the data scientists. Alas, I don’t.
My team at SPARK Neuro is composed largely of PhD neuroscientists and
some of the brightest minds plucked from academia to influence the real
world. After 15 years of conducting research, we keep seeing the same thing.
To be clear, it’s the format and usage of traditional research that gives me
pause. “Self-report” studies, such as surveys and focus groups, suffer from
many biases – group think (“What he said!”), social-desirability bias (“Don’t
judge me.”), and experimenter bias (“That’s what you wanted to hear,
right?”). Moreover, trying to describe
how we feel forces us to rationalize
a response. Inevitably, the narratives
that we invent leave something
deeper, more powerful, and in-
herently more “true” still hidden.
The challenge is that emotion is
largely a subconscious process. It’s
not something of which we are
constantly or consciously aware.
As such, we can’t expect people
to report on emotion accurately.
Why do you think it takes years of
therapy to figure out how you feel
about your mother?
MARKETING’s HOLY GRAIL:
ATTENTION AND EMOTION
A tree falls in the woods. No one is
there to hear it. Did it make a sound?
The age-old adage teaches us an
important lesson about marketing.
Your content is presented, but
people tune it out. Did your content
exist? Of course it did, but with-
out attracting attention it simply
doesn’t register.
Here’s another riddle: What do you
always have, only sometimes notice,
and have a hard time talking about?
Answer: Emotion. As discussed,
emotion, by nature, is part of a
THE ROLE OF
NEUROSCIENCE
IN UNDERSTANDING
EMOTIONAL VERSUS
RATIONAL DECISIONS
By Spencer Gerrol, CEO and Founder of Spark Neuro
9

subconscious process. It is constantly pushing and pulling us despite the
fact we aren’t always aware of it and often struggle to articulate it.
Attention and emotion are the Holy Grail in marketing. If people are not
tuned in to your message, it won’t register; and if your content doesn’t
make people feel something, it will have a limited effect.
However, attention and emotion are among the hardest things to measure.
Attention is often measured by clicks, impressions, page views, and
television ratings – but these methods have their weaknesses. Just because
an ad displayed or aired does not mean people noticed it; and even if they
did glance at it, that does not mean they paid attention to the message.
Emotion is measured even more subjectively. We simply ask people about
their feelings, beliefs, and attitudes. People aren’t continuously aware of
how emotions affect everything they do. Introspection is hard, even more
difficult to articulate, and surveys aren’t conducive to getting either deep
or specific-enough answers.
Furthermore, if we are to understand how to employ emotion, we first must
unravel how it all works.
REASON, EMOTION, AND DECISION-MAKING
Here’s a choice for you. In my left hand, I have a banana. In my right hand, I
have a chocolate bar. You can only choose one. Which option would be the
more emotional choice? Which would be the more rational one?
We are trained to think that rational decisions are better and emotional
decisions are more destructive. Science disagrees, however.
In fact, I would argue that the artificial bifurcation of reason and feeling is
damaging to how we understand humanity. As such, this misconception of
“rational decisions” is adverse to how we practice marketing.
In 1994, Antonio Damasio, an acclaimed neuroscientist and professor,
published the seminal work that refutes this dichotomy between emotion
and reason. His book, Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human
Brain, introduces a new theory.
In this book, Damasio, through a series of mind-bending case studies,
poses that there is no such thing as a decision without emotion. That’s
worth repeating. It is not humanly possible to make a decision or take
an action without a significant emotional influence. It is not realistic to
believe a person can fully process the variables of a choice consciously
and then come to a conclusion. Cognitive processes such as working
memory would become overloaded by all the potential outcomes and
we would simply freeze.
Instead, our brain takes a shortcut. We feel something. As conditioned by
the combination of life experience and human evolution, if you see a certain
stimulus, your heart rate increases, your palms begin to sweat, you start
breathing faster, your muscles contract, and your eyebrows furrow. This
response is converted to emotion in your brain, which tells you something
about the situation in front of you. You then decide to pursue or avoid a
course of action. This decision shortcut is what you call your “gut.”
René Descartes, a 17th
century French philosopher, mathematician, and
scientist, famously said, “Cogito ergo sum.” Translation: “I think, therefore
I am.” The error, according to Damasio, is that your feelings, not just
cognition, play a critical role in the ability to make clear, rational decisions.
Perhaps it should be: “I feel, therefore I am.”
10

Since we can’t make decisions or take an action without the presence
of emotion, marketers need a better way to measure emotion. But if
we can’t rely on surveys and focus groups to help us dissect emotion,
what can we do?
RESEARCH 2.0: ENTER NEUROSCIENCE
We have acknowledged that the flaws with self-reported data are limiting;
asking people to articulate what is buried in the subconscious creates
unavoidable biases. We also reviewed how emotion is critical to changing
perceptions and behaviors and that without “qualitative” data we are
missing something important.
Qualitative, however, does not have to mean subjective. Enter neuroscience.
Neuroscience involves studying the brain and nervous system and holds the
key to more accurately measuring attention and emotion. Unfortunately, like
most cutting-edge research, neuroscience methods are often confined to
academia and don’t make their way into practical application. SPARK Neuro
exists to create real-world solutions with the scientific methods that are
otherwise stuck in the “ivory tower.”
Instead of asking people, we go right to the source, reading brain activity
and other neurological responses to quantify what is otherwise subjective
— to what degree people are engaged in content, their emotional
experience, and how that translates into decisions.
We use EEG (Electroencephalography) to measure brain activity, GSR
(Galvanic Skin Response) to measure skin conductance, Eye Tracking to
quantify visual attention, as well as computerized Micro-Facial Expression
Encoding to capture every smile and smirk. This combination of biometric
signals gives us deep insights into the Holy Grail — is content captivating
people? How much? And exactly when (down to the second)?
Our metrics, which are processed through complex algorithms that make
sense of thousands of data points per second, have been shown to predict
marketing effectiveness. Higher scores correlate with more sharing and
liking in social media, improved brand affinity, and increased purchase
intent. In other words, when people’s attention is captivated and when their
emotions are stirred, they like brands more and are more likely to buy.
A DIFFERENT RESULT
One of the common complaints about traditional research is that it can
often water down creativity because with surveys and focus groups people
often object to things that violate their expectations. Why is neurometric
research different? When reading how someone’s brain and body responds,
we emphasize different measures of success.
We look for peaks in attention, which are often caused by the unexpected.
A dramatic pause, a surprising twist, and a mystery waiting to be uncovered
are all examples of elements that raise attention. Human beings are
attracted to things that are different, causing increased focus.
We also look for peaks in emotional intensity. A dramatic story with a mix
of positive and negative emotions causes increased engagement. For
example, fear followed quickly by relief and then love creates an emotional
rollercoaster that causes us to focus even harder and remember even more.
Regardless of the medium, it has been proven time and time again
that the most effective marketing messages are those that evoke strong
emotions, surprise you, and seamlessly integrate with the brand.
11
Spencer Gerrol spends every
waking moment thinking about
the intersection of art and science.
As CEO of SPARK Neuro, he leads
an applied neuroscience company
that studies how people think, feel,
decide, and act.
The complexities of how humans
attend to information and experi-
ence emotion push and pull us,
altering our perceptions and in-
fluencing our behaviors. But when
it comes to understanding these
forces, Gerrol notes that traditional
research methods don’t cut it.
As such, SPARK Neuro doesn’t
just rely on what people have to
say. Instead, it bypasses biased
responses by measuring brain
and nervous system activity.
A sought-after speaker, Gerrol
has presented at Google, TED, the
Pentagon, the United Nations, the
White House, and Cannes Lions.
Additionally, Gerrol was honored
at the White House for founding
one of the top 100 companies
started by young entrepreneurs
and was named a Global Shaper
by the World Economic Forum.
Having worked with many top
global brands and film studios,
Gerrol specializes in how to make
advertising and entertainment
truly affect people. His academic
background in the burgeoning
field of Human Factors – the
study of cognitive psychology
and human behavior research as
applied to technology and design
– enables Gerrol to illuminate
opportunities to influence human
behavior through marketing.
SPENCER
GERROL

ABOUT SPARK NEURO
SPARK Neuro is an applied neuroscience company revolutionizing the evaluation
of audience engagement in advertising and entertainment. Instead of relying
on traditional, biased research methods, SPARK Neuro goes right to the source,
measuring brain and nervous system activity so it can see exactly when people
are engaged and when they are not. SPARK Neuro quantifies attention and
emotional levels with second-by-second precision. SPARK’s research is trusted by
major brands including GM, Clorox, Toyota, NBC, Universal Pictures, Telemundo,
and Netflix. SPARK Neuro has been featured for its innovative research by CNN,
ABC News, and The Washington Post.
CONNECT WITH SPARK NEURO
Web: sparkneuro.com
Twitter: @SparkNeuro
Facebook: Facebook.com/Sparkneuro
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/spark-neuro
ABOUT MSL
MSL is Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications and engagement group.
It is one of the world’s largest public relations and integrated communications
networks and provides strategic counsel and creative thinking. It champions its
clients’ interests through fearless and insightful campaigns that engage multiple
perspectives and holistic thinking to build influence and deliver impact. With
more than 3,100 people across more than 110 offices worldwide, MSL is also the
largest PR network in Europe, fast-growing China, and India.
CONNECT WITH MSL
Web: mslgroup.com
Twitter: @MSL_GROUP
Facebook: facebook.com/MSLGROUP
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mslgroup
YouTube: youtube.com/MSLGROUPofficial
Slideshare: slideshare.net/mslgroup
Instagram: instagram.com/mslgroupglobal
For more information about Conversation2Commerce,
email Erin.Lanuti@mslgroup.com or visit www.publicisC2C.com.
Produced by Haymarket Media
© Haymarket Media Group Ltd.

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