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IDEAS + CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING + ENGAGEMENT

The Magic of Facial Cues

David PennJai HaissmanTechCrunch50 in San Francisco is fast becoming one of the premier places to launch a technology startup if you’re looking for exposure, customers or funding.

In fact, one of the companies that presented at the inaugural event a couple years ago just announced that they had been bought for a considerable sum.

So we were watching the live stream of this year’s event when the startup Affective Interfaces started to pique our interest.

Based on the work of facial coding expert Paul Ekman (recently popularised in the hit TV series Lie to Me), AI has built a system that monitors facial expressions in real time and on a mass scale (via webcams). They claim the system provides a much more accurate and sensitive indication of, among other things, an ads. likelihood of success.

The presentation didn’t go as well as it could have done – the presenter spent too much time talking and not enough time showing ‘compelling’ videos. But then, in a scene reminiscent of Dragon’s Den, a couple of judges on the expert panel started to recognise the potential. Those enlightened judges were publishing entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly and senior Google exec Bradley Horowitz.

But while these judges know tech, they’re not experts in human behaviour. So we decided to get Jai Haissman, AI’s founder and CEO, to chat with Conquest Research’s David Penn, someone who knows a thing or two about the reliability of interpreting emotions and non-verbal cues. This is a pretty geeky podcast, but we hope you find it stimulating nonetheless.

Affective Interfaces is keen to reach out to potential partners, customers and funders (they’re self-funded). We regard them as an exciting addition to the world of new research and so encourage you to engage with them (as you’ll hear in the podcast they’ve already had a good amount of interest from the event).

VCs and corporate M&A folk: this could become a very special company.

 STARRING 

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The Listening Posts

image courtesy of wordle.org

Research World magazineOur article in the Apr ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.


Memes aren’t merely some abstract academic idea. They are real. And they’re becoming big business.

It’s arguably the next big thing in research. Or, perhaps, the next really big thing.

It’s the emergence of what Suresh Vittal, principal analyst at Forrester, calls the ‘listening platform’, something he defines in his recent report as: “A technology and analytics infrastructure that mines a wide variety of traditional, online, and social sources to extract and deliver insights that shape a firm’s marketing strategy.”

In a market dominated by firms that aren’t from the mainstream research community, Vittal anoints Nielsen BuzzMetrics and TNS Cymfony as the leaders in “a pack of strong performers.”
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Patrick Barwise – Building the ‘Simply Better’ Biz

The fact that companies like Toyota and Tesco and Proctor & Gamble in many of its categories have shown that you can in fact keep improving delivery on the basics, shows that it’s not just a commodity…
(Patrick Barwise)

Simply Better bookProf. Patrick BarwiseThe renowned marketing Professor Patrick Barwise is a relatively rare animal, an academic with commercial instinct and pragmatism. Here he talks to Michael Warren about the ramifications of his two most recent books, ‘Simply Better’ (which won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 prize for the best recent book in marketing), and one that he is currently writing with the working title: ‘Customer Insights – Beyond Market Research’. His ability to cut through marketing myths, hype and meaningless jargon using solid reasoning reinforces his position as one of the industry’s most valued thought-leaders

Listen to other podcasts featuring Patrick

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Catching up with the New Consumer

WIN '07 Panel, photo courtesy of Patrice Bondurand

Many clients don’t even realise there’s a problem
(Fred John)

 WIN ‘07  Recorded during a world leader meeting, our panel discusses ways to shift MR from a profession that uses closed, carefully controlled methods of data collection to one that cedes control and spends more time listening to people as they air views naturally, and so become more attuned to the new world of consumer self-expression and empowerment

 STARRING 

Recorded at the ESOMAR WIN ‘07 event

ESOMAR was kind enough to reimburse travel and accommodation expenses

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Embracing the New Competition

If the industry doesn’t have an image of being dynamic, of being creative, of moving with the times, then it won’t be able to recruit the right people and it will find that it becomes devalued over time
(Mark Whiting)

Mark Whiting, Moët HennessyTony Cowling, TNS WIN ‘07  Recorded during a world leader meeting, Tony Cowling and Mark Whiting talk about the need to focus on the competition outside the traditional MR sector as a way to leverage growth, maintain relevance and inspire users

Listen to other podcasts featuring Mark

 STARRING 

Recorded at the ESOMAR WIN ‘07 event

ESOMAR was kind enough to reimburse travel and accommodation expenses

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Andy Dexter: Rethinking the Research Biz

Once you go down a road strategically, you end up in a what you may call a path dependent position…from which it’s very difficult to turn back
(Andy Dexter)

Steve Wills, Customer Insight SolutionsAndy Dexter, Truth Consulting BIG Conference  In this, the final podcast in the run up to the BIG Conference, Andy Dexter makes the case to Steve Wills for a pure consultancy focused completely on insight. But while he makes a persuasive case, can he convince Steve that he has thought through the many issues surrounding talent? Listen to find out

Listen to other podcasts featuring Steve

 STARRING 

Learn more about BIG Conference 2007

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Mark Earls: The ‘We’ is Mightier than the ‘I’

The assumption is that by-and-large, individuals make decisions on their own. My Herd point-of-view is that people influence each other, often without realising it

Herd bookMark Earls, Herd ConsultingMark Earls’ latest contribution to life, the universe and everything is gaining traction. His new book rethinks how people make decisions and discovers as a result that much of current research practice is fundamentally flawed in its assumptions and interpretation of consumer behaviour. Quite fitting for this self-styled ‘Contrarian’. The book provides psychology underpinning for many recent phenomena such as social networking, engagement, conversations, ethnography, blogging and predictive markets by showing how we act as groups and not individually. Part of our monthly column for ESOMAR’s Research World magazine

 STARRING 

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Prof. Richard Scase, Global Remix

“China will account for 25-30% of world trade in 20 years time”

Global Remix bookProf. Richard ScaseWe all know about the surging economies in India and China and how they stand to become the largest within decades. But in this conversation with the passionate and authoritative Prof. Richard Scase, we hear how this and other global issues such as climate change and energy shortages, will affect everyone in both a personal and professional capacity. It’s not a pretty picture, but then again we need leading forcasters like Richard to get us all to act before it’s too late

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Recorded live at the Euro MR Event 2006 Read the rest of this entry »

 
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The Future of Online

Online gang

 Sponsored by BrainJuicer

This high level panel representing some particularly successful players in the lucrative online research space discuss the next phase of the industry’s development. They talk about innovation, Research 2.0, mobile research, and shifts in industry leadership

 STARRING 

This JuiceCast has been produced by ResearchTalk for BrainJuicer. BrainJuicer’s Chief Juicer, John Kearon, has kindly allowed us to host the podcast as a service to the community, to stimulate debate and innovation

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Weekly Show 11: Focusing on Talent

Derek Leddie, The Leading Edge

 GUEST  Poet, mountain climber and entrepreneur Derek Leddie, Founder and Director of innovative research consultancy The Leading Edge

 TOPICS  Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro; Will the industry really grow at 11-12%? Bridging the chasm between client needs and research delivery; Skills gap; Genesis of TLE and rationale for selling to Photon Group; EXCLUSIVE: UK office coming soon; Turning insights into assets; Managing talent with some cool benefits

 NOTABLE MENTIONS  Carlton Draught, ESOMAR, Fosters, Frank Small & Associates, Kristin Hickey, Mark Sundquist, Outsell, Photon Group, Stephen Phillips, Toby Hill

Music Brother Love from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk
Series:Weekly

 
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