Facial-Recognition Lets Marketers Gauge Consumers’ Real Responses to Ads
To avoid privacy concerns, the company does “anonymized aggregate analysis” and typically studies public venues where people are already being filmed, such as by a security camera, according to executives. “We keep the metadata,” said CEO Ken Denman. “We discard the image.”
Emotient recently worked with an undisclosed NBA team to analyze how faces in the crowd reacted to in-arena ads, including videos played on giant scoreboards. Theoretically, the data could be used to determine when during a game certain content gets the most attention and best reaction.
By analyzing faces in the crowd, Emotient also revealed a surprisingly basic fact: More women were attending games than the team had realized. The team “had no idea,” Mr. Denman said. That finding could result in more ads from brands targeting women, he said.
