How Eye-Tracking Technologies Will Change the Advertising Game Posted: 06/19/2013 11:18 Am
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Summary: Technology How Eye-tracking Technologies Will Change the Advertising Game Posted: 06/19/2013 11:18 am Ah yes, Google Glass, introduced as the future of personal computing as the first wearable piece of technology to integrate the online world and the physical world. As geeky as this piece of eyewear looks (oh Scoble!), its introduction into the marketplace lends itself to a much broader discussion about what capabilities these technologies hold, and how human existence and computer intelligence will walk hand-in-hand in the near and distant future. After the novelty of such a device begins to wear off, we can then examine how Google Glass may fit into the larger strategy down the road by Silicon Valley powerhouse Google. The company, after all, is an advertising company, and one aspect that has received little attention up until now is just how eye-tracking technologies may influence and propel the advertising industry into the next century. When you cut through the "coolness factor" and media hype, advances in eye-tracking technologies are accelerating at a rapid pace, and will soon make it possible for ads to look right back at you, seeing where you look on a webpage and how long your gaze lingers on a banner or rich media advertisement for, say, Adidas or Starbucks. As the next generation of computers looks into your eyes, our processors will be able to monitor what holds our interest, all to the benefit of advertisers around the globe. Sound scary? Yes. But we may be a ways off from having this become a reality although recent advancements are headed in this direction. Eye-tracking technologies, first introduced as a way to assist the blind and disabled, are quickly moving from the lab and into mainstream devices and applications. One company called THiNK Eye Tracking specializes in this area of research to allow a brand to see what their customers are looking at as they read magazines, experience outdoor media or watch television or videos. "In truth, I think many of the models and methods which underpin the advertising industry are so naive, tired and outmoded, I would welcome a system of analysis based on Tarot readings as at least bringing a little variety into our lives," said THiNK customer Rory Sutherland, Chairman at Ogilvy. "But to see the scientific approach developed by THiNK is especially welcome, and in the agency of David Ogilvy, doubly so." Samsung recently released its Galaxy S4 complete with "Smart Scroll" and "Smart Pause" features that enable people to move the screen up and down, as well as pause videos, with simple eye movements. While reviews have been mixed, tech companies see this as a trend with longevity, and have amped up investments in eye-tracking R&D to stay ahead of the curve. Another company called Tobii is set to release a product called REX that connects via USB port to a computer, allow users to control their mouse cursors through eye movements and where they focus their gaze. Eye-tracking technologies are not only applicable online, they may be introduced at your local mall or big box retailer in the near future. According to a recent New Scientist article, researchers are testing a new product called SideWays that can track what products catch your attention on the shelves in physical retail stores. As soon as you walk up to an item, the device automatically starts tracking what you peer at -- which could allow shop owners to retarget you online or show you advertisements on a video screen for products you seem interested in. "SideWays uses a conventional video camera and a computer vision program the team developed, which finds your pupils by recognizing the corners of your eyes and where they sit relative to your face," according to the article. "The process only causes a short delay, after which it begins tracking your gaze." The introduction of new eye-focused input points is not something to be so concerned about. But it's these technologies, coupled with the vast array of big data sets, that may soon capture information not only about your online shopping habits and behaviors, but what data it can infer about your interests and intent to purchase. For now, Google Glass hasn't yet found a firm foothold, but it certainly opens the door for the introduction of more gaze-focused tracking technologies. Be warned: When you put a pair of these glasses on your gaze may be revealing more about you than you may realize -- and advertisers will soon pay a hefty premium to gain access your eyes A New Shazam Tool Tells Advertisers When Ads Are Most Effective By: Christina Chaey The Shazam Engagement Rate analyzes viewers’ engagement with ads in Shazam to reflect which campaigns perform the best, on which channels, and at what time of day. Shazam introduced a new audience engagement tool today designed to help TV advertisers measure how well their ad campaigns perform based on factors such as the type of show, channel, and day of the week. Beginning today, advertisers who are customers of both Shazam for TV and Nielsen TV Ratings can access the new Shazam Engagement Rate, which compares how many viewers engaged with ads in Shazam versus Nielsen’s gross rating point data for how many people are viewing that same ad. Shazam’s core measure of engagement is via its tagging system, which documents every song, TV show, and advertisement you Shazam, and has collected more than 6 billion data points. In May, Shazam introduced an (opt- in) automatic tagging system, which made it easier and faster for users to tag content such as, say, a 30-second ad spot. A strong tag presence on Shazam can already indicate a general audience-wide affinity for a particular song, TV show, or advertisement, but the Shazam Engagement Rate gives Shazam for TV advertisers a better context for how their ads perform the way they do. Nielsen Now Tracks (Almost) Everything You Buy Credit, Debit and Bank Data Now Combined With TV, Online Viewing By: Jack Neff Published: March 20, 2013 131share this page Nielsen is going beyond trying to track everything you watch to tracking everything you buy -- adding data from what an executive said is "virtually all" credit and debit-card purchases plus bank statements, including online bill payments and paper checks, to what it already gets from food and drugstore purchases. Nielsen is anonymously matching all that data through an undisclosed third party to members of its TV ratings panel, an executive of the company told Advertising Age, and plans to expand such matching to online and other measurement services. Linking TV audiences to their purchases has been available to packaged-goods marketers for a few years through Nielsen Catalina Solutions and elsewhere based on data from retailer loyalty programs. But Nielsen's broader data set opens the capability to telecom, restaurant, travel, entertainment, financial services and virtually all retail advertisers. That represents 37 billion transactions, $4 trillion in sales and $10 billion in ad spending annually, said Nada Bradbury, senior VP-global product leader of Nielsen Buyer Insights, in a presentation Tuesday at the Advertising Research Foundation Re:think 2013 Conference in New York. "Basically, anything you buy, we now see," Ms. Bradbury said from the dais. In an interview later, Ms. Bradbury said Nielsen only sees what people buy on an aggregated level and, at least for now, only when they opt in as members of Nielsen's National People Meter TV ratings panel. Nielsen never actually sees any individual's purchases, she said. A Nielsen spokeswoman said the company is similarly matching the transaction data with its online measurement panel and is looking at ways to expand use to other measurement services "in compliance with consumer-privacy guidelines." "Nielsen has an exclusive alliance that provides near-census-level coverage of credit based insights," she said in an e-mail. "No other product or offering in the market currently offers these insights with such accuracy and depth." The credit, debit and bank-statement data doesn't include item-level data -- for example what specific items people buy at Victoria's Secret or the particular movie they buy tickets for -- just the seller's name, dollar amounts and times of the transactions. But that still opens a world of targeting possibilities. CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack used the Nielsen Buyer Insights data to expand his long-running argument that age and sex demographics are increasingly useless and that the purchase habits of audiences should carry more weight. The CBS series "Elementary" has a 2.9 Nielsen rating in the age 18-49 demo but a 7.3 rating among heavy movie spenders, he said in his presentation to the ARF conference. A different, unnamed show with a 3.6 rating for the demo has only a 2.8 rating with heavy movie spenders, he said. "Blue Bloods" on CBS has a 1.9 rating for the 18-49 demo but a 6.8 rating for casual-dining buyers, he continued. He didn't just tout CBS, adding that ABC's "Modern Family" has a 5.2 rating in the 18-49 demo but a higher 7.4 rating among casual-dining buyers. While there's no guarantee that advertisers will change decades-old practice and shift to purchase-based program ratings, Mr. Poltrack said he already sees traditional targets losing relevance. The prized 18-49 group will fall to 54% of the U.S. TV audience for this upcoming TV season, he said, down from 56% last year and continuing a long-term decline.