Let's Face It: You Can Uncover Deeper Insights with Facial Coding

It's often said that the face can reveal what words cannot. Whether we are aware of it or not, our faces can express and communicate a range of emotions. Sometimes these expressions are obvious. Other times, they are manifested without us being conscious of them, with subtle cues expressed in the form of micro expressions. For marketers, these expressions can play a role in understanding the holistic emotional power of an advertisement. And that's where Ipsos' Facial Coding comes in. We've been using this method to break down people's facial reactions into six emotional response categories:

Happiness | Confusion | Disgust | Sadness | Fear | Surprise

While facial coding does not assess all elements of ad performance by itself, it can provide diagnostics to answer important questions. But to truly understand all dimensions of an advertisement, it is best when used in conjunction with qualitative or survey-based research.

To see how facial coding works, let's take a look at Radio Shack's Super Bowl 2014 ad, `The Phone Call'.

Based on internal R&D conducted for Super Bowl 2014 ads, Radio Shack's `The Phone Call' achieved above average branded breakthrough and was successful in changing brand opinions.

Here's a quick summary of the ad if you haven't seen it. It starts with a sales representative answering a call. As he hangs up the phone, he tells his colleague that the 80's just called and they want their store back. A group of famous characters from the 80's then bursts into the store as music from the 80's plays in the background. These characters then begin to take the store apart, leaving the sales representatives standing in an empty store. The next scene shows a more modern look to the store as a male voiceover says that it is time for a new version of their store. The ad ends with the store name and tagline shown on the screen. Check out the ad for yourself here.

What We Did

Ipsos wanted to know why this ad was a success, and to determine this we conducted some 120 interviews using our facial coding offering. Looking at the emotions elicited overall, the results indicate that `The Phone Call' ad generated average levels of engagement, as well as average levels of each of the individual emotions.

Engagement Trace

We were curious as to why --despite these average levels of emotions --branded breakthrough and impact on opinions are above average on this ad. This is where facial coding becomes valuable in providing additional context. First, it showed that engagement rose when the characters of the 80's appeared, along with the line "the 80's called, they want their store back." Engagement then dipped when the characters were shown taking over the store. It showed that engagement rose again and was at its highest at the moment where the voiceover announces that "It's time for a new Radio Shack."

Emotion Trace

In addition to measuring levels of engagement, facial coding can identify peaks in happiness and other emotions. In this ad, we see that when `Mary Lou Retton' takes some VHS equipment, there is a spike in happiness, but also disgust, potentially limiting the overall positive emotions at this moment.

Gender Comparison

We also look at how the response varies by gender. It's interesting to note that in this case, the engagement spike at the "It's time for a new Radio Shack" moment is driven by surprise among men and confusion among women. However, confusion for the women quickly fades when the new store format is shown.

The Bottom Line

Marketers have long suspected that we can't always get the `real answers' with traditional research methods because consumers themselves can't articulate, or are not aware of their underlying motivations, or unfiltered feelings. This case study demonstrates how facial coding can add a unique dimension to the market research toolkit, and ultimately, provide the insights you need to make your advertising resonate with your audience.