Testing emotional impact: Is facial coding reshaping strategy?

Tech to measure consumers’ feelings, as well as what they say, is fast becoming integral to digital strategies thanks to “facial coding” innovations sweeping through the UK.

New technology from companies such as Affectiva in the US, whose application has been used by a range of high-budget marketers such as Kellogg Co. and Unilever, is reshaping the way brands decide which ads work.

Affectiva’s flagship product, Affdex, which has analysed nearly 3m faces across 75 countries, uses algorithms to measure moment-to-moment facial expressions to plot different perceptions.

Participants opt in to be viewed watching a video on smartphone of laptop, allowing the system to read expressions and deliver data to curious marketers.

“Asking someone ‘How does it make you feel?’ is just not as good as being able to observe in reality how they are feeling,” said Affectiva CEO Nicholas Langeveld.

“People have a really hard time articulating their feelings. And sometimes there is a subtle fleeting little emotion that people aren’t even aware is happening.”

Affdex allows marketers to extrapolate data and trends across different demographics, geographies and cultures – highlighting subtle societal variables – and adapt strategies accordingly.

Facial coding is not used “in isolation,” said Graham Page, executive VP-head of global research solutions, Millward Brown, which has been using the technology since 2011.

However, UK ad budgets are increasingly being funnelled into facial tracking, with big players such as Kellogg’s making the tech central to its ad strategy – will all strategies soon incorporate such high-definition consumer response?