The initiative is being led by Italy MD Massimo De Benedittis. The company has already funded some research into neuroscience techniques, results for which are due to be published soon.

De Benedittis said: “I’m really enjoying the opportunity to push the efficacy of client decision-making by developing new platforms and creating new knowledge across different practices.”

Non-verbal response techniques are considered by many researchers as a better way of capturing immediate and instinctive emotional reactions to brands and products, unlike written or spoken responses which involve an element of reflection and post-rationalisation by the survey participant.

You can read more about measuring emotion in our special report.

• In other news, Synovate has announced a partnership with in-store intelligence firm VideoMining to run the Centre Store MegaStudy, which will meld behavioural, transactional and attitudinal data to understand the path-to-purchase of grocery shoppers.