Advertisers are preparing to start using facial recognition technology to gauge people's reaction to ads in a development somewhat reminiscent of the future envisioned in Minority Report, the Tom Cruise movie in which crimes are predicted before they happen.
Called Link, the technology allows advertisers to test reactions to ads based on people's facial expressions and is being pioneered in Australia by research company Millward Brown.
Panelists recruited to test ads will not even have to leave the house. Technology utilising webcams on home computers will measure facial movements.
Darren Poole, global brand director for Link, said it was powerful enough to see through people's spoken responses to questions and divine their real reaction based on facial expression.
He said such "facial coding" had only recently become possible as previously individual interviews had to be coded separately, making it unsuitable for large-scale use.
"Human collating of results takes a long time but we have now get computer responses very quickly," Mr Poole said. "It is there to tell advertisers how their ads are doing and how they can be optimised."
The program tracks 22 to 24 points on a person's face and then uses algorithms to correlate their reactions.
"We have always known emotions play an important part in how people react to advertising and the end game is sales," Mr Poole said. "We are getting some things consumers don't know they are experiencing."
He cited one example where an ad for a skincare brand showed a man touching his wife's stomach. While none of the people in the survey panel mentioned the gesture, their faces showed a powerful emotional response which made the brand appeal to them. The ad was tweaked to make more of the gesture, resulting in greater recall.
"People can sometimes be saying no to something but what they are actually feeling can be quite the opposite," Mr Poole said. "They can be too embarrassed to say something."
Mr Poole said the system could be used by advertisers to see how close to the edge they could take their marketing.
"If a campaign is pushing the boundaries in terms of humour or controversy this is a controlled means to test how consumers really respond," he said.
While the technology is limited to people who sign up for Millward Brown's consumer panels, Mr Poole said it could be developed to be used as a live measurement tool on any device where a camera could film the user's face.
"We are only reading people's facial expression at the moment, but the technology could be expanded," he said. "Minority Report is not that far off."
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