Welcome back to part two of the emotional marketing series. I kicked it off last week with an exploration into why emotional marketing is important and the increased use of VR within marketing campaigns, which you can read here.
This week we will be exploring AEI…
Artificial.
Emotional.
Intelligence.
Artificial emotional intelligence or as it’s known among IT scholars, affective computing, will revolutionise the way we live. Why?
With this tech, Disney could be able to change the ending of Beauty and The Beast in real time by simply assessing how each audience member reacts to certain scenes.
Imagine a world where Woody stays with Al (creepy toy collector) in Toy Story 2 and never goes back to Andy.
Goodbye childhood.
According to Josh Walker, more brands are increasingly taking note of this new technology that can scan our faces, read our emotions and predict our behaviour by our moods.
Although out of sarcasm, I talked about Google and Snapchat using social media to recreate George Orwell’s nineteen-eighty-four (coincidentally in the year of Disney remakes), it turns out we are probably already living in a surveillanced society.
With AEI tech being patented within the algorithms of Facebook and used for research within Disney movies; brands such as Audi, BMW and Heineken are also using AEI to their advantage.
Realeyes an emotion-tracking software allows companies to scan our faces as we watch those brand’s advertisements, particularly online, to effectively determine which advertisement generated the most amount of sales.
All well and good for future marketers like us to be able to use emotion-tracking software to create better content.
But how far is too far?
In May 2017, Facebook was granted access for a patent that allows them to scan our typing behaviour so that they can analyse how we feel and then line our news feeds with advertisements that are associated with these emotions.
I personally don’t want Facebook to detect that I am having a quarter-life crisis and bombard me with fitness trials and local ice-cream deals. I will get fat and purchase the trials, and my money will be sucked into the vast vortex of useless, unused gym subscriptions. Whose fault is it? Facebook. It’s Facebook’s fault.
Can AEI be used for good?
I loved the way AEI has been used to capture the emotions of audiences while watching The Revenant, allowing marketers to see which parts the audience enjoyed and therefore they were able to strategically market those points.
My question to you this week is how do you see the future of emotion-tracking software/AEI being applied to our daily lives and whether you would be comfortable with this change?
Let me know in the comments below and thank you for staying tuned for another week of emotional marketing. Stay woke out there!
Conversations with Arny 
I’m so with you when it comes to things like tracking us through our laptop cameras and typing patterns, all in the name of marketing! I think that’s a bit too far and it honestly scares me. But I loved the way it was used in The Revenant and when I read up on that I found it so interesting! I think using this type of technology in a controlled environment with everyone’s permission (such as at a movie premiere) is completely fine and extremely useful. I’d love to see that used more! As for changing the ending of movies, I’m not to sure how I feel about that. I think changing the ending would defeat the purpose of watching movies and take away from the creative process of the screenwriters and authors (although there are some times where that would have come in handy!).
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You should take a look at my interactive television post, where they are doing exactly that: changing the way a series ends. Link: https://heyitsarny.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/interactive-advertisements-tv-and-streaming/
I am glad I am not the only one creeped out about the new development in Facebook’s software *potential* upgrades. And I do agree with you! The way they used it in the screening of The Revenant was clever and not invasive of our privacy at all, as it was just tracking how we feel when watching the movie. Whereas Facebook is analysing our behaviour to try and sell something to us. Perhaps it might not even be that they are tracking our behaviour but it is the fact that they are doing it so they can sell us products… Maybe it is more of a capitalist dilemma rather than a privacy issue?
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It’s pretty interesting to know that these kind of things actually exist. I guess this is a great way for marketers to display more engaging and personalised ads so that we consumers would actually pay attention to it. Emotion tracking through are style of typing is one thing but through our cameras, uh I’m not so sure if I wanna sign up for that. Great post by the way!
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Yeah! That is what my blog is all about too! To try and encourage you guys to “Stay Woke”, as the title of my blog says. And thanks for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated.
It is a great way to engage with consumers! If you want to know more I wrote about how they are using emotional data at UNIQLO, to suggest you clothing that represents your current mood. You can read it here: https://heyitsarny.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/monitoring-your-every-mood/
Would love to know your thoughts about it!
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This is really interesting – the thought of one of my favourite Disney movies changing in real time is hard to imagine! I am comfortable with AEI being used by marketers to assess their content and believe it could help them create better suited and engaging ads but I believe this type of technology should be kept within the walls of market research where consumers are aware they are ‘being watched’. However I guess with all things tech related it is hard to implement and regulate where such powerful technology is used.
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And wouldn’t it be nice if the world was Cadbury?
Unfortunately, that ideal has sadly gone down the toilet as I revealed during my emotional marketing series that Facebook and Apple have access to patents that will allow them to detect your mood and predict your behaviour through keyboard strokes and facial recognition software on our personal devices. You can have a read here: https://heyitsarny.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/monitoring-your-every-mood/
I would be interested to see what your opinion is on this topic! Please comment.
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Crazy how advanced tech like this is! While I would love movies to be able to predict me being on the verge of emotion breakdown (Toy Story, Up, Bambi – the feels) and then bring me back with something warm and fuzzy, I don’t think I’d want to be experiencing a different movie to the people around me.
This kind of tech would be super helpful when the emotional investment is low (like ads) but I think I’d start getting frustrated if things like the news or movies tried to match my mood and got it wrong.
I reckon Spotify should look into this though… Playlists based on mood would be prime.
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But perhaps we could play with different scenes but still, come to the same conclusion? I explore this idea in another blog post of mine (heyitsarny.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/interactive-advertisements-tv-and-streaming/) with the topic of interactive advertisements due to the rise of interactive TV series and movies. So while the emotion-tracking software changes the middle parts of the story, it somehow finds a way back to the same conclusion? 🙂
Yeah! A funny idea if the news tried to match your mood.
That’s so true! I think Spotify, apple music and other streaming services have already started with this idea. They have chill playlists, happy, love-struck playlists and so on. But it would be cool to see the playlist change in real time, as your mood changes!
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I think emotion-tracking technology can improve how marketers perform their job. For example, if Facebook understands that I’m sad, they could suggest more fun and humorous content on my news feed etc. The only danger is that the technology is not developed enough. i.e. it suggests more contents related to break-up/relationship problems when I’m having a rough time with my significant other. The latter, in other words, basically means the technology is back-firing.
I feel emotional intelligence can also be used on students and sports person etc. For students, if it detects stress, marketers can market stress relief products or services. On the other hand, if a sports person like an athlete or a football/basketball player, can benefit by tracking their emotions at different timings for their particular sport. For instance, if 100m runner has a slow start, AEI can understand why – are they nervous? Or shocked and unprepared from the sound of the ‘starting gun’? Or if a football/basketball player…why do they miss frequently when the goal post/basket is so near? Are they too excited? AEI can help students/sportsperson etc. to control their emotions which is key to improve their studying habits/grades or their sports performance.
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Great points Brendon! It definitely has the potential to create better tactics and marketing campaigns that could target consumers more accurately. I talk about this in my other blog post (heyitsarny.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/monitoring-your-every-mood/) where I suggested the exact same thing.
Awesome innovative thinking though! I never would have thought about using emotional intelligence tech to be used on athletes, let alone students. You have also just inspired me to think of a cool idea! What if your laptop assesses your mood and your behaviour, and it starts detecting you’re tired or stressed. It could then, in real time, temporarily shut down all the running programs on your personal device and get you to meditate, do a breathing exercise or prompt you to take a break and get a glass of water. Or maybe shutting down is a bit too extreme and it could be replaced with a light-hearted notification. The possibilities are endless.
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This makes me feel uncomfortable. Catering our news feeds, search result and even entertainment to reflect our specific emotions and behaviour is smart in the perspective of digital marketers. Having this access to such personal information will escalate certain sales and popularity of an advertisement/ film ect almost instantly. The possibilities are endless.
However, there’s this lack of authenticity, and a complete loss of organic content that makes this a little sad. Our entire platform and information that we receive on the internet will be altered towards our emotions/ behaviour and over time will develop a pattern.
The beauty of the internet is finding out new information, learning about opposing opinions and then disagreeing with those opinions. Emotion-tracking software will affect business positively however the slow reduction in a genuine, organic feed may over-time become non existent!
So scary, slightly worried but awesome post.
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Yeah great point!
It does stop us from seeing new things like Calvin Klein Male underwear but I disagree that it will become so cumbersome, possibilities to see new innovations and campaigns will be non-existent.
For example perhaps facebook has indicated you are really angry about something and have expressed your negatively feelings, e.g. about how the Liberal Government is cutting our university HECS help. Perhaps they target you with charities, campaigns and rally events to help yourself express you views and make a positive change? And you haven’t been a part of this kind of experience before.
There is always an avenue of new things to experience and I don’t think that emotional marketing limits any of these, in any way.
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This is crazy! I can believe this tech exists, the use of it for changing the endings of film in real time is pretty cool – the ultimate appeasement for TV watchers to get their dream endings and always leave the cinema feeling good. But the other elements, hmm no way. I totally agree with you. I don’t like the idea of Facebook being able to see me and read my emotions to target ads. That’s horrifying! But I do think that this tech could be used to help people with anxiety or have trigger points to lead them away from distressing posts online and or expose people being triggered to calming and safe content? Lots of possibilities – but if this becomes a reality I’ll definitely be covering my webcam every time I’m online! Great Post!
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Thanks Laura 🙂 !
That is a very good point and a perspective that I didn’t think about. I guess it coud be really useful data for clinicians to have on individuals who have been diagnosed with certain mental health illnesses. It could be used to detect whether they are really distressed and possibly save a life – in the worst, dramatic case ever. But totally great point.
It would be interesting to note however if this goes way too much into our personal lives, do you want your shrink to know everything your doing outside of your counselling sessions? You know? It is a tricky one.
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