Direct marketers learn neuroscience

Susan Greenfield's whirlwind trip through the powerful and unprecedented influence that new technologies will have on our minds, and those of our customers, created a highly charged audience at the annual IDM lecture.
...She proceeded to deduce that to engage the consumer of the future a brand must activate a maximal number of "meaningful" pre-existing associations by accessing novel combinations under conditions that minimise distraction.
She then made the "Eureka!" link. To engage the customer, brands need to create an experience of creativity, to engender a feeling of individuality.
The Oxford University neuroscientist professor, who holds no fewer than 25 honorary degrees, then further opened the eyes of the leaders of the direct marketing industry to how this could be done by looking again at how our brain develops and makes connections.
Specifically, she looked at the roots of creativity in the brain, where an abnormally small neuronal network triggers larger ones both in itself and others.