NEW YORK, NY - Millward Brown, a global leader in brand,
media and communications research and Affectiva, a leading
emotion measurement technology company today announced a
partnership that will enable brand owners to gain deeper
insight into the emotional impact of their TV advertising, by
integrating Affectiva's facial expression analysis
technology (Affdex) with Millward Brown's LinkTM ad
copy-evaluation and optimization solution.
Millward Brown's Link copy testing solutions are the ad
development tools of choice among the world's leading
advertisers for over 20 years. Now brand owners can benefit
from more granular data on which messages interest, amuse or
confuse viewers through the inclusion of Affdex, which
detects facial and head movements through a webcam and
classifies them into emotional states. Because Affdex
measures moment-by-moment, nonverbal communication, it
captures additional diagnostics that surveys may miss, and it
also works across cultures and geographical boundaries.
"Describing feelings in detail is never easy. By adding
facial expression analysis to Link, brand owners can get at
the emotional response that people might not be able to
articulate in surveys," said Graham Page, executive vice
president of Millward Brown's neuroscience practice.
"By building this technology into our surveys, we can
make non-verbal emotional measurement truly scalable and cost
effective for the first time."
Millward Brown and Affectiva have already worked together to
research brand campaigns using this integrated approach on
four continents, which includes using mobile phones in India
to collect viewers' responses.
"We already see world-class companies benefit from
combining Link with Affdex to improve the emotional
connection that consumers have with their brands," said
Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
at Affectiva. "Our science accelerates with every new
facial response we encounter, making it very exciting to work
with Millward Brown to drive the widespread use of
Affdex."
Affectiva is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin off
founded in 2009 by professor Rosalind W. Picard, Sc.D. and
research scientist Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D. to commercialize
emotion technology inventions developed at the MIT Media lab
including facial expression recognition technology originally
invented by Dr. el Kaliouby.
For more information:
Delyth Hughes, Millward Brown Associate Director, Global
Communications & Marketing
(T) +44 (0) 1926 826179 (E) delyth.hughes@millwardbrown.com
Lynda Radosevich, Affectiva, lynda@affectiva.com,
001 917-922-7020
About Affectiva
Founded in 2009 by members of the MIT Media Lab, Affectiva
the leader in emotion measurement technologies used to
understand how people feel in order to improve products and
experiences. Affectiva's customers include Fortune 500
companies, agencies and leading universities. Its products
include the Q™, a wearable biosensor, and Affdex facial
expression recognition technology. Affectiva is privately
held with backing from the National Science Foundation and
funding from WPP, Myrian Capital and the Peder Sager
Wallenberg Charitable Trust, represented by Lingfield AB. For
more information, visit www.affectiva.com
.
About Millward Brown
Millward Brown is one of the world's leading research
agencies and is expert in effective advertising, marketing
communications, media and brand equity research. Through the
use of an integrated suite of validated research solutions -
both qualitative and quantitative - Millward Brown helps
clients build strong brands and services. Millward Brown has
more than 78 offices in 51 countries. Additional practices
include Millward Brown's Global Media Practice (media
effectiveness unit), The Neuroscience Practice (using
neuroscience to enhance traditional research techniques),
Millward Brown Optimor (focused on helping clients maximize
the returns on their brand and marketing investments),
Dynamic Logic (the world leader in digital marketing
effectiveness) and Firefly Millward Brown (a global
qualitative research business). Millward Brown is part of
Kantar, WPP's insight, information and consultancy
group.
About Link
Link is the world's leading advertising evaluation and
optimization solution. Over 80,000 Link for TV studies have
been conducted since its launch in 1989. The full Link family
includes Link 360 (for campaigns), Link for TV and other
methods for print, outdoor, digital, radio, cinema ads and
packaging.