Millward Brown Debuts 'Link with Facial Coding' in Asia

WPP subsidiary Millward Brown has rolled out its Link with Facial Coding technology across Asia, to enable advertisers to measure emotions in ads across different cultures.

The technology was introduced last year through a combination of Millward Brown's dedicated Neuroscience Practice and the Affdex Facial Coding software developed by MIT Media Lab spin-off Affectiva. Affdex is integrated with Millward Brown's Link copy-testing solution, recording respondents' faces while they watch ads within a normal survey environment and automatically interpreting their emotional and cognitive states at each moment.

Pankaj Jha (pictured), the firm's Director of Global Innovations for Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, explains: 'Listening to the overwhelming feedback from our clients and looking at results from more than 800 studies we've conducted across Asia, we know that implicit measurement through facial coding, combined with established survey-based research, is giving a level of insight that simply could not be achieved by either approach in isolation.'

Web sites: www.millwardbrown.com and www.affectiva.com .