Two FMCG giants, Coca-Cola and Unilever, have signed up to research agency Millward Brown’s ‘facial coding software’ to measure the impact of their advertising.
The two brands are using Millward Brown’s Link and Facial Coding technology for their advertising testing in 2013, representing the largest scale adoption of this technology in the industry.
The technology records a participant’s face while they watch ads within a normal survey environment; automatically interpreting viewers’ emotional and cognitive states, moment by moment.
Unilever will apply facial coding to all its quantitative advertising pre-testing projects, worldwide, in 2013, whilst The Coca Cola Company have decided to use facial coding in their Link research for animatic advertising.
The approach, created jointly by Millward Brown and Affectiva, was recently rewarded with the MRS/ASC technology innovation and effectiveness award for 2012.
Graham Page, head of the Neuroscience Practice said: “We’re really excited that two of our most forward-thinking clients have chosen to use this leading edge technology at scale. The combination of direct observation of physical responses and viewers’ interpretation of their reactions provides a really powerful view of the way people respond to advertising. It adds real depth to our understanding and builds on our validated metrics to deliver new insights in an easily applied and cost-effective way.”
The integration of Affectiva’s AffdexT Facial Coding software with Millward Brown’s Link copy-testing solution provides clients with recommendations to optimise advertising effectiveness.
Results are cross-analysed with viewers’ survey responses and delivered within an online dashboard.
For instance, the data can be used to understand the emotional triggers in a campaign, which creative devices work well in a given market or which claims are most powerful. This allows clients to ensure repeatable success in their marketing communications.
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