Short news article I did for Research News (AMSRS), which gives some 'real life' recent examples of outputs/applications of facial imaging. The fact that the technology is now getting used for long-format programmes and concept testing shows it can be applied to a much wider range of purposes than merely 'ad-testing'.

1. FEATURE
Facial imaging:
A window into consumer emotions
Alastair Gordon explains how facial imaging technology can provide much
richer insights into how the human mind really reacts to marketing stimuli.
Facial imaging technology (or facial coding) has
become a hot topic in market research recently,
with IPSOS, Millward Brown and GfK all adopting different
variants into their ad-testing protocols. However, the
possibilities of this technology are far wider than many
realise. The advent of scalable, cloud-based versions
means online facial imaging is now accessible to any
research agency – regardless of size.
Facial imaging captures movements on a respondent’s
face via webcams while watching stimuli (e.g. a storyboard
concept or video) and then automatically ‘translates’ these
into measures of emotional reponse.
If you haven’t seen this in action it can sound a bit magical,
but the technology is based on decades of scientific research.
Now the wider possibilities of this know-how are being
integrated into advanced applications by many major tech
companies.
What excites us about this approach is how it can be
integrated with traditional research surveys to provide much
richer insights into the ways the human mind really reacts to
marketing stimuli.
To give a better sense of the flavour, I’ve chosen three
examples from work Gordon & McCallum has undertaken
utilising the system from nViso (a Swiss company which
pioneered the application of facial imaging in market research).
First stop is Asia, where we helped carry out a major study
to find out what styles of advertising work best. One key finding
was that many ads have what we call ‘linchpin moments’ where
the emotional tone of the commercial is determined.
As an example, a Coca-Cola ad featured a simple, humorous
and very effective ‘boy meets girl at a bus stop’ narrative
culminating in a moment when the girl smiles and changes
her attitude towards the guy as he offers her a Coke (figure
1). At that precise point in the ad, positive happiness among
females shoots up and is sustained well into the branding
part of the ad.
Telling a different story, a Sprite ad was let let down by the
10 Research News October 2014
visuals getting in the way. In particular, one shot of an NBA
star caused a dramatic decline in emotional response among
young people – from which the ad did not recover (figure 2).
This also illustrates another general finding of this
research – based on our facial imaging results we concluded
that creativity around story-lines in conveying the message
is more emotionally important overall than production
values, celebrities or visual effects. Good stories engage us
emotionally – substance wins over form.
Linchpin moment in Chinese
advertising
Fig ure 1: Coke tells a story and makes women happy
Fig ure 2: Sprite ’s sweaty shot turns yo ung people off

2. FEATURE
Research News October 2014 11
In our second example we move to Germany where nViso
has been collaborating with a local agency in evaluating sports
TV programming and in particular the differences between
people watching sports live, and viewing a recording of the
same event.
The below charts show the trend across 25 minutes of
people watching a ski-jumping event.
In the live version emotions are far more mixed, essentially
following the story: so we see sadness/disappointment as a
German skier performs a little less well than expected, some
surprise/anticipation as a rival jumps, then a ‘happy ending’
as the German favourite ends up winning. The pre-recorded
sample however (where most viewers already knew the
results) shows a huge difference. They are much happier, and
other emotions disappear. On one level it’s as if the fans can
just relax and enjoy the triumph! Yet more detailed analysis
shows other aspects. For instance, ‘recorded’ viewers seemed
to revel in more of the details – the ‘vox pop’ interviews and
action taking place away from the main event. For example,
commentary on a shot of the skier’s father holding a funny
toy mascot was missed in the live action, but caused delight
in the recorded version.
German viewers watching
skiing at winter Olympics
Live Viewers : Emotion Trend
Same Programme : Recorded Viewers
Fig ure 3: Live viewers don ’t react to shot of a
competitor ’s father with a toy mascot , but it makes
recorded viewers (green line ) very happy !
The final example shows a concept test (financial services)
from North America. It shows how positive reaction to a new
product concept differs among people who described the
concept as personally relevant, versus those who didn’t.
The latter’s emotive reaction rapidly diminished as soon
as they worked out what the concept was about. Those who
found it personally relevant were much more engaged.
The importance of careful targeting for the product is made
dramatically apparent.
But the graph also illustrates that even among those who
found the overall concept relevant, not all benefits were equal
and we were able to show that one specific part of the offer
was causing concern.
Service concept : personal relevance
Facial imaging is being increasingly used, in evermore
contexts. And while these examples merely scratch the surface,
what we can see in each case is that peoples’ emotional
engagement with marketing material is subtle. How we ‘read
a story’ while watching it, and our views on the category all
impact reaction.
Surprisingly, just recording people’s faces can help us
interpret and understand these reactions in some depth.
Given that the technology can be added into all sorts
of surveys, this is an easy-to-access tool that Australian
researchers might find worth exploring further.
Alastair Gordon
ma naging part ner ,
Gor don & McCallum
* Percentages in
the charts in this
article refer to the
increase in emotional
response (averaged
across the sample)
relative to repondents
baseline state (prior
to exposure to the
stimulus).