Draftfcb has formed partnerships with academics from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, who will serve as consultants to the new venture.

The partners include Sam McClure, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford, and Eduardo Andrade and Ming Hsu, both assistant professors of marketing at the Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley.

Draftfcb’s San Francisco-based director of account planning Matthew Willcox (pictured) will lead the project as the Institute’s executive director.

He said: “To date agencies and marketers have tended to focus on the emotional and rational aspects of decision-making, but have spent less time trying to understand how instinctual or automatic triggers can be activated through brand messages and experiences.”

“We think investing time and money in understanding these better is a good bet for us and our clients, especially in an environment where brand trust is declining, and where technology is affecting how we receive information and perhaps how we process it.”