Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing for video: what it is and how to use it

By the neuro-viral team · Updated 25 Oct 2026

Neuromarketing is the use of brain and body measurements to study how people respond to marketing: ads, packaging, trailers, websites. Instead of asking people what they thought afterwards, it looks at what happens while they watch.

How neuromarketing measures a response

• fMRI tracks blood flow in the brain while someone watches. It shows which regions respond and when, at the cost of a scanner, a lab and a small panel.
• EEG records electrical activity from the scalp. It is cheaper and follows fast changes, but says less about where in the brain a response comes from.
• Eye tracking shows where people look on screen, second by second.
• Skin and heart measures such as skin conductance and heart rate follow arousal.

All of these need real people in a session, which is why classic neuromarketing studies are usually run on a few finished ads rather than on every rough cut.

Predicted brain response: neuromarketing without the lab

A newer approach uses a brain-encoding model: a model trained on fMRI recordings of people watching video, which then predicts the average brain response to a new video it has never seen. neuro-viral uses one such model, v2neuro. You give it a video and get a curve of the predicted response for every second, the brain system leading each moment, and a 3D map of 360 labelled regions.

Because nothing has to be booked, you can run it on every cut, compare two versions second by second, and do it before anything is shot again. See how the AI video analysis works.

What neuromarketing can and cannot tell you

A brain response, measured or predicted, tells you how a video lands second by second: where it builds, where it dips, which moments stand out. It does not tell you who will see the ad, what they will pay, or how a campaign will sell. Targeting, offer and timing decide much of that.

For our own model we tested the predicted curve against real viewing data and found no link to audience outcomes, and we publish that result in method and limits. The honest use is to choose which cuts are worth a live test, then let the test decide. We compare the two approaches in neuromarketing vs A/B testing.

Neuromarketing examples you can open

• Famous ads on the brain: Nike, Volvo, Old Spice, Apple 1984 and more, second by second.
• Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and HBO Max trailers, scanned as they come out.

From the curve to a better cut

Once the weak seconds are marked, the AI video editor can cut, shorten or rewrite them from a chat and render the new version, so you can scan it again and compare. Agency teams use this to compare cuts of a video ad before launch.

Questions

What is neuromarketing?

The study of how people respond to marketing using brain and body measurements, such as fMRI, EEG, eye tracking and skin conductance, rather than only asking them afterwards.

Is neuromarketing only for big brands?

Lab studies with real panels are costly, so they are usually run on a few finished ads. A predicted brain response from a model needs no lab, so it can be run on every cut, including by small teams.

Can neuromarketing tell me how an ad will sell?

No. No single brain measure tells you how a campaign will sell. Use it to pick which versions are worth a live test.

How does neuro-viral do neuromarketing?

It runs your video through v2neuro, a brain-encoding model trained on fMRI recordings, and shows the predicted response for every second of the video.