Cirque du Soleil's Science of Awe, created by Burson Cohn & Wolfe in 2018, used EEG technology and neuroscience to measure awe in 280 live audience members
Cirque du Soleil Brings Neuroscience to the Big Top with Science of Awe
Cirque du Soleil's Science of Awe is a 2018 integrated campaign, created by Burson Cohn & Wolfe and published in the United States in August 2018, that used neuroscience, brain-monitoring technology, and artificial intelligence to measure the emotion of awe in live audience members during performances of the show O in Las Vegas.
The campaign's central premise is direct: awe is not simply felt, it can be observed, quantified, and mapped inside the human brain. To establish this, Cirque du Soleil partnered with neuroscientist Beau Lotto and his research organisation Lab of Misfits, deploying EEG monitoring equipment and AI-driven software across ten live performances of O at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. According to a public news release issued by Cirque du Soleil on November 8, 2018, via Canada NewsWire, approximately 280 audience members participated in the study across those performances. Researchers identified 23 distinct moments during the show capable of reliably triggering awe in audience members, as reported by CBC and confirmed in subsequent coverage by Vox.
In the United States, where the live entertainment and leisure sector competes intensely for discretionary consumer spending, the Science of Awe campaign positioned Cirque du Soleil not merely as a touring spectacle but as a scientifically substantiated emotional experience. The campaign sits within the recreation and leisure category and operates as a fully integrated effort, combining live-performance observation, proprietary audience research, and media distribution to communicate a singular brand truth: Cirque's productions generate a neurologically verifiable state of awe. The campaign was later submitted to Clio Awards judging panels, and Jeremy Baka served as a 2019 Clio juror connected to the campaign's recognition pathway, according to Clapboard.
Cirque du Soleil built the Science of Awe campaign around a single, defensible consumer insight: audiences do not attend live performance merely for entertainment — they seek emotional transformation, and awe sits at the apex of that spectrum. By partnering with Lab of Misfits and lead neuroscientist Beau Lotto, the brand moved its value proposition from subjective spectacle to empirically grounded experience, a distinction that carries strategic weight in the competitive United States leisure market.
In the United States, Cirque du Soleil faces ongoing competitive pressure from large-scale live entertainment operators including Live Nation Entertainment and venue-anchored residency programmes in Las Vegas, where O has been staged at the Bellagio for decades. The challenge for any long-running production is sustaining cultural relevance and perceived novelty against rivals whose marketing budgets are anchored in volume and celebrity. Science of Awe answered that challenge not by outspending competitors but by reframing the category entirely, positioning awe as a neurological event rather than a marketing claim.
The global live entertainment market was valued at approximately USD 465.9 billion in 2024 and is forecasted to reach approximately USD 535.4 billion in 2025, according to GlobeNewsWire, illustrating the scale of the sector within which Cirque du Soleil must differentiate. In the United States specifically, where consumer expectations for experiential leisure have risen sharply in the post-streaming era, a science-backed narrative offered Burson Cohn & Wolfe a credible platform to reach both mass-market audiences and opinion-leading media. The campaign's timing at SXSW further amplified its reach, placing the neuroscience findings directly in front of the technology and culture communities most likely to disseminate and validate them.
The Science of Awe campaign's creative execution centres on a research methodology as its primary storytelling device. Rather than producing a conventional advertising film or experiential activation, Burson Cohn & Wolfe constructed the campaign around genuine scientific inquiry conducted inside a working Cirque du Soleil production, making the research process itself the content.
Across ten performances of O in Las Vegas, EEG headsets were fitted to audience members to monitor brain activity in real time, while AI software analysed the resulting data to identify patterns corresponding to the experience of awe, as reported by Canada NewsWire on November 8, 2018. This combination of neuroscience instrumentation and machine learning represented a meaningful integration of technology into the live performance context, and its findings — 23 identifiable awe moments within a single show — gave the campaign a concrete, reportable result around which media and editorial coverage could coalesce.
Beau Lotto, Director of Lab of Misfits and the lead neuroscientist on the project, articulated the significance of the methodology in a statement published by Canada NewsWire: "For the first time, we are able to begin to see what awe 'looks like' inside the brain giving us the ability to create an artificial intelligence system that can predict when awe is being experienced." In a separate interview published by Vox on January 10, 2019, Lotto described awe's initiating mechanism as surprise, stating: "It begins with surprise: 'You've surprised us!'" These statements provided the campaign with two distinct media moments — a scientific announcement and a follow-on explanatory interview — extending its earned media footprint. Production credits beyond Lotto's scientific contribution are not publicly documented for the Science of Awe campaign.
No verified performance data for the Science of Awe campaign — including reach figures, earned media volume, conversion metrics, or audience sentiment scores — is publicly available from Burson Cohn & Wolfe, Cirque du Soleil, or independent measurement sources. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 63 out of 100, reflecting a structurally intelligent campaign that demonstrates strong strategic clarity and a differentiated creative mechanism, while stopping short of the executional completeness and measurable business impact that define top-quartile integrated work.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness case rests on several observable factors. First, the research design — 280 participants, ten performances, 23 identified awe moments — generated findings specific enough to attract credible journalism, with coverage appearing in outlets including CBC and Vox, both of which named the study's methodology and principal researcher. Second, the campaign's connection to SXSW placed its findings within a high-authority cultural and technology context in the United States, broadening the audience beyond Cirque's existing fanbase. Third, the involvement of Jeremy Baka as a 2019 Clio juror connected to the campaign, as noted by Clapboard, indicates the work achieved sufficient industry recognition to enter award consideration, though the absence of verified award wins limits definitive claims.
It is also worth noting that the Science of Awe research findings were not peer-reviewed at the time of reporting in 2018, as acknowledged by CBC, a caveat that slightly tempers the scientific authority the campaign claimed. In the United States leisure and recreation market, where consumer trust in branded research is conditional, that distinction matters to analytical audiences even if it did not diminish mainstream coverage.
Science of Awe is a 2018 integrated campaign created by Burson Cohn & Wolfe for Cirque du Soleil in the United States. It used EEG brain-monitoring technology and AI software to measure the emotion of awe in approximately 280 audience members across ten live performances of O in Las Vegas, identifying 23 awe moments per show, according to Canada NewsWire.
Beau Lotto led the neuroscience research for Science of Awe. Lotto serves as Director of Lab of Misfits, the research organisation that partnered with Cirque du Soleil on the study. He stated, per Canada NewsWire, that the project allowed researchers to see for the first time what awe looks like inside the brain, enabling an AI system to predict when awe is being experienced.
Burson Cohn & Wolfe created Science of Awe for Cirque du Soleil. The campaign was published in the United States in August 2018 and falls within the recreation and leisure category. It is classified as an integrated campaign, according to Clapboard, combining live-performance research, neuroscience, AI technology, and media distribution into a single brand narrative.
Jeremy Baka served as a 2019 Clio juror connected to the Science of Awe campaign, according to Clapboard, indicating the work entered the Clio Awards recognition process. No verified record of a specific Clio Award win for Science of Awe is publicly available in the sources consulted, so definitive claims about award outcomes cannot be confirmed at this time.
The research took place across ten performances of Cirque du Soleil's O at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, in the United States. Approximately 280 audience members participated in the study, according to a Cirque du Soleil news release published by Canada NewsWire on November 8, 2018. Researchers used EEG headsets and AI software to monitor and analyse brain responses during live performances.
SXSW served as a key distribution platform for the Science of Awe campaign's findings. By presenting the neuroscience research at SXSW in the United States, Burson Cohn & Wolfe and Cirque du Soleil positioned the campaign's conclusions directly in front of the technology, media, and culture communities most likely to amplify and validate science-backed brand storytelling within the competitive leisure sector.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
