It’s often difficult for advertising agencies to judge if consumers like an ad, or if the ad improves brand awareness. A Spanish company, Sociograph Neuromarketing, is now exploring the emotions created by advertising and bringing them to light.

Whether or not an advertisement stays in the public’s mind can be determined through peoples’ fingers…the same ones they use to click from one webpage to another or to change the channel during ads. That’s where hidden emotions can be found. And a Spanish company, Sociograph Neuromarketing, is examining them in order to bring these emotions to light.

The technique is called neuromarketing and it can explore the subconscious mind in order to decipher what consumers feel but don’t express verbally.

For example, the technique can be used with two groups of people who see the same ad but with different types of background music. All individuals in both groups are connected to a device that is placed on a person’s wrist and fingers. This part of the body is subject to less noise and the data that is collected is more reliable. When the ads are shown the electrical activity on a viewer’s skin is recorded in order to measure the objective reaction of the group.

This data is gathered in real time on a computer, which analyzes the emotions that are generated in each group by the different types of music.

The technique helps to raise an advertiser’s comfort level by letting them know how the public reacts to their ad before it is released. It can also provide recommendations or suggest modifications that would highlight the brand during the moment in the ad when viewers are paying the most attention—thus increasing efficiency—or determine if seconds can be cut that don’t have much impact.

Such corrections can be made before the ad campaign has begun, thus saving time and money for the advertiser.