No, you don’t need a measuring tape or two #2 pencils to mark either a, b, c or none of the above. That’s old school. These things could only tell us the size of our brain and to some degree how well it worked. I think we all agree our brains have a lot more to tell us.

Now, there are companies like NeuroFocus that measure what’s going on with your brain. When you watch a commercial, they can tell you what aspects of the ad caught your attention, the point in the ad that you became emotionally engaged, and what aspects of the ad you retained in long term memory.

Wow! What marketer wouldn’t want to know the attention value, emotional engagement and memory retention of their ads? This might actually eliminate half of the Super Bowl ads.

And this information from our brain can be just as valuable for fundraisers. Wouldn’t it be great to know what it is about your direct mail letter or website that got your donor’s attention, engaged them emotionally and stayed in their memory?

Let’s keep measuring – even “Abby Normal” brains like mine.