Millward Brown and Affectiva extend face-coding tech to Asia-Pacific

"Facial expression analysis is very compelling for emerging markets where cultural norms can make it even harder for people to give negative or potentially embarrassing feedback,” said Graham Page, executive vice-president of Millward Brown's neuroscience practice. 

 

For example, when testing an advertisement in India that had a shot showing the husband's hand touching his wife's bare midriff, most female viewers gave a generic response about the husband and wife's interaction. However, analysis of their expressions captured by facial coding as they watched the advertisement indicated that this particular shot was the most emotionally engaging moment of the ad. As a result of this insight, the advertiser kept the scene in the final version.

 

Affectiva and Millward Brown have tested the universal applicability of Affectiva's facial analysis algorithms in merging markets and found that that the system held true for these markets despite cultural differences with the US or Europe, said Dr Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and chief technology officer at Affectiva.

 

The results of the validation study also emphasized that while facial expressions are universal, cultural rules or norms may amplify or dampen facial expressions.