MANILA – December 10, 2013 – The traditional methods of pre-testing ads are still relevant, even as technology has changed the face of communication. With these changes come new tools that can be used to better understand consumers, such as Millward Brown’s Link with Facial Coding technology.
The technology, which Millward Brown created with Affectiva, integrates automatic interpretation of moment-by-moment facial responses to ads with viewer’s cognitive responses. According to Millward Brown, this provides advertisers with powerful recommendations to optimise effectiveness.
"It does what is somewhat seemingly unthinkable. It measures emotions," said Goutam Mitra, managing director of Millward Brown Philippines, during a media briefing on December 10.
Mitra said that emotions are critical to communication, and are at the heart of how advertising is evaluated. The integration of Affectiva’s Affdex Facial Coding software with Millward Brown’s Link copy testing solution has tapped into a clear need amongst the region’s advertisers to accurately measure emotions.
Mitra emphasised that the biggest point of difference of Link is it is unobtrusive. "It’s simple, cost-effective, and scalable, as opposed to other neuroscience techniques that are very intrusive," he said.
"What we have is very simple. You stare into a camera, watch the commercial, and emotions are measured. Facial coding collects expressions moment by moment throughout the ad," he explained. After viewing the ad, one can see their emotions inane interactive dashboard. The technology tracks smiles, surprise, dislike/confusion, disgust, and overall positivity.
Mitra shared two case studies where the technology proved useful, one in Malaysia, and one in the Philippines, where close to 100 ads have been measured since early in 2013. Since pioneering the technology in early 2012, the company now has a database of over 1,200 ads across Asia, and over 3,000 ads globally.
Based on Link database and learnings among top-performing ads in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, Millward Brown said Filipinos relate well to emotional ads. With facial coding, they are able to interpret clearly various emotional reactions that Filipino consumers may not easily articulate through traditional survey.
The technique can be used for the following:
- aid understanding of the real emotional power of ads, particularly when an ad is "edgy" and uses challenging creative devices
- clarify and highlight emotional reactions, not easily explained by survey responses
- discover transition points that either enhance the story or break the flow – and could lead to issues of comprehension
- identify branding moments and cues that did or did not work well
- chart the overall flow through the advert to optimise storytelling
"Analyzing the facial responses of viewers uncovered some post-rationalisation occurring on the survey, and that there was a positive response to the advertising idea underlying respondents’ answers. That insight is helping us further develop the creative using learning uncovered by both the survey and facial metrics. We clearly generated more insightful and usable findings by combining both methods," said Salil Sadanandan, managing director of Kitchen & Bath, India for Kohler, of the solution.
