Understanding Unlimited's Human Understanding Lab

Understanding human behaviour and acting on that in relevant ways is the crux and most complex element of the marketing remit. It’s complicated to navigate, and brands can use all the help they can get.

At the heart of Unlimited Group’s Human Understanding Lab (HUL) is the aim to support just that very challenge, bringing human-centric insights to the forefront of marketing strategies, while using its own blend of research, neuroscience, and technology.

Director Simon Collister discusses what makes HUL crucial for marketers to understand and apply in an age of information overload and fragmented media channels.

He explains that HUL operates as an ‘insight engine’, uncovering fundamental human truths through a combination of scientific research and practical business knowledge. This approach is designed to inform marketing solutions that are both deeply rooted in human psychology and tailored to the specific needs of clients across varied sectors.

HUL's multidisciplinary team, comprising neuroscientists, behavioural experts, data scientists, and more, provides unparalleled access to cutting-edge research and technology. This allows for the design and delivery of marketing campaigns that are not only creative but also strategically sound and commercially impactful.

Collister also sheds light on the complexities of human decision-making in today's media environment, the nuances between B2B and B2C marketing challenges, and the role of HUL's digital insight platform, LUCA. He also discusses how Accenture Song's acquisition has enriched HUL's capabilities, providing access to new data sets, tools, and technologies.

How do you explain the work and services of HUL and how it relates to the rest of the Unlimited business? 

 Within Unlimited Group, we believe human understanding is our superpower. The Human Understanding Lab is essentially the insight engine - uncovering human truths across client sectors through research and science and using this to shape end-to-end marketing solutions. This all comes from the deep expertise we embed across our teams, now extending across Accenture Song.

Our community of 120+ neuroscientists, behavioural experts, data scientists, social listening analysts, and technologists gives us unparalleled access to research and technology, allowing us to design and deliver the best solutions for our clients’ challenges. Coupled with broad sector experience - spanning quick service restaurants to financial services; automotive to government and everything in-between - we combine rigorous insight with practical business knowledge.

Sitting at the heart of the Unlimited Group, we are agile: quickly identifying and deploying the most effective insight solutions, whether through social, digital, synthetic data, or primary research. This ensures every campaign is rooted in deep human understanding and delivers actionable insights that power strategic, creative, and commercial impact. 

Is human decision making growing in complexity? And if so why? 

We are certainly processing more information than ever before, but there are also qualitative factors making it more complex for our brains to deal with the media environment.

For example, whether it’s GenAI created content or ordinary people who are now micro-influencers sharing branded content, our brains have more of a challenge in decoding and interpreting what is real versus unreal; or marketing content vs entertainment.

Linked to this is the collapse or fragmentation of media channels which also used to gives us cues around what is marketing content. The rise in biased, often negative, social media content or disinformation also creates problems. Our brains are hard-wired to pick up on negatively biased information meaning this type of content not only propagates faster through online networks but adds layers of potentially disruptive emotional signals in processing information. Add to this the fact that much of this information is being received and consumed entirely context-free and you can see why our brains might be having to work a bit harder. 

You work across B2C and B2B brands - how do those challenges differ between the two and the work of HUL as a result?  

Broadly speaking, while the creative and messaging specifics of B2B and B2C campaigns usually differ, the reality is that humans are humans regardless of whether they work in B2B or B2C. It's a bit of a cliché, but it's true!

The emotional elements of marketing campaigns that capture attention, trigger reaction and drive connections are fairly consistent in all our brains. Therefore, our framework for testing creative effectiveness, 'Affect, Attention, Action’, for example, remains relevant for both B2B and B2C.

We have case studies of successful B2B campaigns where our neuroscience testing has proved that more creative campaign assets have outperformed more conventional B2B assets in very business focused categories – something which can surprise clients. 

Tell us about the role of LUCA and why it is described as ‘the bringer of light’.

LUCA was created as a way to democratise access to data and insight beyond the core Human Understanding Lab team. Our Unlimited planners, creatives, analysts and business directors were all able to login and start running analyses directly. Thus, LUCA’s name was coined: we had a self-serve digital insight platform that 'shone light' on all manner of client and brand opportunities.

 Initially we used it to plug gaps in the broader digital data analysis landscape, giving us access to types of insight we couldn’t at the time get from other sources. As it evolved, we started bringing in client data sources and also more and more generative AI functionality. Initially this helped us conduct quicker analyses of data but over the past six months we have been investing heavily and have a roadmap of exciting synthetic data products which are genuinely giving teams much faster access to novel insight transforming our strategy and planning process.  

Gaining consumer attention is proving increasingly difficult for advertisers - how does HUL support that endeavour best? 

Capturing consumer attention has never been harder — people are bombarded with content, constantly distracted, and more selective about what they engage with. The Human Understanding Lab tackles this by bringing science to creativity: uncovering the powerful, often hidden, human truths that really drive attention and emotion.

We do this end-to-end. First, by gathering novel insights from neuroscience, behavioural science, and data science, we uncover the “nuggets” of human understanding that can spark powerful creative ideas. Then, we validate those ideas through neuroscience testing - ensuring they don’t just stand out, but truly make an emotional difference. Finally, working within Accenture Song, we bring those ideas to life at scale, harnessing AI and technology to deliver campaigns that are both effective and efficient.

This is what makes HUL such a critical growth engine: we close the loop from deep human understanding to creative execution, giving brands the confidence that their marketing will not only capture attention, but turn it into lasting connection and impact.

In the last couple of years has there been any shift in human behaviour that advertisers should consider more? 

The big shift in recent years has primarily been the increased demand for our attention from the external environment - see my answer above on decision-making. But this isn’t just a passive effect of exposure to more media, we are also actively increasing the demand on our attention through, e.g. dual/triple screening.

In terms of how brands should consider this shift in their marketing, it ultimately comes back to how you can seamlessly create a connection with someone in the most efficient way possible. This is partly about ensuring creative content is effective when it comes to triggering an emotional response, so ensuring the affective qualities of your marketing is relevant for consumers' emotional needs. Being relevant and timely is also increasingly more important than ever which is where data science comes in. Ultimately, it all  points to getting the essentials right. In a world of abundant distraction opportunities how brands speak, what they say and when they say it is more important than ever. 

How is the ownership of Accenture Song enriching HUL - what has changed since the acquisition of Unlimited?

Becoming part of Accenture Song has given the Human Understanding Lab a huge boost - both in terms of inbound and outbound opportunities. While plugging data and insight expertise across Unlimited Group it gave us a really unique and exciting set of client projects to work out, the expanded horizon Accenture Song offers us is fantastic. There is genuine interest and demand for our insight-led, tech-powered outputs from such a variety if client areas and use cases.

Equally, being part of the Accenture family means we get to access new data sets, tools, technologies and GenAI projects. This has enabled us to ’supercharge’ our current LUCA platform to start building synthetic data solutions which leverage our proprietary scientific models and frameworks. These can be accessed directly by our planners and creatives, but we will also be plugging these into wider Accenture tooling and solutions, further extending the opportunities for the Human Understanding Lab.