Neuromarketing: A Bibliometric Analysis of Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Technologies used in Advertising

The new technological advances have changed advertising practices in recent years. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality are some of the tools used by marketers today. As customers interact with the new way of advertising, and due to its novelty, it is important to study their response. Neuromarketing can be a useful tool in this case, because it provides data on the cognitive and emotional drivers of consumer behaviour. This study explores whether neuromarketing is implemented for a better understanding of consumers’ reactions when exposed to advertising that uses AI/AR or VR.

For this study, the Systematic Network Literature Review (SNLR) was used, combining a systematic literature review with bibliometric network analysis, using VOS Viewer. In order to better analyse and understand the gap in the literature, two queries were structured. Firstly, 567 research studies were filtered in Web of Science for Query A, which uses keywords such as “neuromarketing”, “consumer neuroscience”, “EEG” or “fMRI”. After applying filters for type of article, language, years and category, 217 were chosen for this study. On the other hand, Query B is based on the keywords used for Query A, but also adds keywords such as “artificial intelligence”, “virtual reality” or “augmented reality”. The database for Query B before the filters was 59. After this process, 217 research studies for Query A and 18 research studies for Query B were analysed through a co-occurrence analysis in VOS Viewer. The maps and the clusters reveal that neuromarketing is a developing field with an increasing integration into business research, but studies that combine neuromarketing with artificial intelligence and immersive technologies are still exploratory, despite their growing adoption in advertising practice. This study offers a view of the current research landscape, identifies structural gaps and shows further research opportunities.