researchingemotions
Measuring emotionally
‘fuelled’ marketing
Jakob de Lemos, iMotions, explains why measuring emotions is difficult, and
outlines a new approach to the problem
MOTIONS AND FEELINGS are
E gaining extensive interest at
the moment in connection to
consumer behaviour and knowledge. The
discussion about emotions is exciting, but
it immediately raises two important
questions:
X How do we gain access to the emotion-
al aspect in our campaigns?
X Based on this access, how do we then
measure if our marketing is emotionally
‘fuelled’?
The purpose of this article is to intro-
duce a method and tool that make it
possible to measure the immediate uncon-
scious and uncontrollable emotional
responses before they are cognitively
perceived, interpreted, and biased by our
mind. The tool works as an addition to
existing methods on the market, which
will help us to gain more insight into the
complex world of emotions. This article
will reveal how it is possible to gain more
insight with our new revolutionary meas-
uring tool, Emotion ToolTM. However,
before explaining the tool we need to get
the basics of emotions into place. We need
to look at why it is important to measure
emotions, what an emotion is, how emo-
tions are expressed, and how emotion is
measured today.
Why is it important to measure
emotions?
Research within neurophysiology, neuro-
science and cognitive science in recent
decades has shown that there are at least
two different systems that we use for
analysing the environment and that also
enable us to make decisions.
X There is an implicit, unconscious sys-
tem that relies on the oldest part of the
brain – the limbic system – and is highly
correlated with the autonomous nervous
system and physical reactions.
X And, there is an explicit, conscious sys-
tem that relies on the cortex and
especially on the frontal areas of the brain.
The latter makes use of conscious, formal
cost–benefit analysis.
Evidence suggests that the implicit,
unconscious system and the use of somat-
ic memory, physical reactions and
emotions, is priming, or actually guiding,
40 Admap • April 2007
the explicit system in decision-making
tasks. It is now generally accepted that
emotions dominate cognition, the
mental process of the ability to think,
reason and remember. Therefore, there is
a rapidly increasing interest in methods
that can tap into these mostly subcon-
scious emotional processes, in order to
gain knowledge and understanding of
consumer behaviour.
How are emotion and cognition
related?
In order to tap into the brain and gain
insight into the emotional aspect of
decision-making, we have to look at how
emotion and cognition are related, and how
these unconscious and conscious systems
interact to help us make a decision.
Emotions and cognition affect each
other, and both emotions and cognition
contribute to rational thought and behav-
iour. There is an integrated system that
incorporates these aspects in accordance
to appraisals of the environment. Our
emotions are closely connected to the
body’s physical reactions, which are capa-
ble of storing, processing and calculating
large amounts of information.
Emotional responses can roughly be
divided into two types: the low-level,
subconscious, autonomic emotions; and
the high-level, consciousness-related
emotions constituted by cognitive pro-
cessing. For example, looking at erotic
content will automatically initiate a low-
level emotional response, whereas a
feeling of happiness initiated by a
thought occurring after seeing an ad gen-
erates a high-level emotional response,
because it is established by cognitive
processes.
How do we express emotions to
our surroundings?
Most theories of emotion today posit
three aspects of expressing emotions.
1. The behavioural aspect; this is what
others can observe, such as facial expres-
sions, and body postures and gestures.
2. The physiological aspect; the somatic
changes, where most of these physiologi-
cal reactions are involuntary and
subconscious, constitute changes in the
autonomous nervous system, and
regulate such things as eye blink, eye
movements, pupil dilation, heart rate,
temperature, respiration, subtle facial
expressions and so on.
3. Finally, there is the subjective aspect;
the personal, phenomenological experi-
ence of emotions. Some call the subjective
experience of emotions ‘feelings’.
How do we measure emotions
today?
A common way to investigate emotions is
to ask the subjects to describe their experi-
enced emotions. Unfortunately, these
self-report results only tell us something
about the higher-level emotions and they
are vulnerable to much ‘experimental
noise’ and variability. Variability comes
from human processes such as rationalisa-
tion, intellectualisation and contextual
influences that will naturally affect these
high-level emotions initiated by the cogni-
tive processes. Self-reports are, because of
their nature, not very reliable and demand a
high number of respondents. Therefore,
there have been substantial efforts to find
other qualitative and quantitative measure-
ments of emotions, which could get behind
‘Emotions and
cognition affect each
other, and both
emotions and
cognition contribute
to rational thought
and behaviour.
There is an
integrated system
that incorporates
these aspects in
accordance to
appraisals of the
environment’
© World Advertising Research Center 2007
 Jakob de Lemos is chief technology
officer and co-founder of iMotions –
Emotion Technology A/S. He is the
inventor of the eye-property-based
emotion measuring method and
co-creator of Emotion Tool
jakob.de.lemos@imotionsglobal.com

the cognitive curtains and tell us a little us something about the lower-level, sub- In short, much of earlier emotion
more about the less cognitively constituted conscious part of the emotions. As research and methods have failed due to
emotions. mentioned earlier, the subconscious emo- the difficulty of addressing different
tions are manifested and expressed aspects of emotions, measuring the right
What techniques should we through different physical reactions. phenomena or trying to use psychophysi-
choose to improve our Much effort has been undertaken to try to ological equipment that is not precise
measurements? develop pictorial, non-verbal, self-report enough to measure these processes. New
Differences between emotion measure- measures with the intention of eliminat- technology lets us look beyond these bar-
ment methods, cited in advertising ing cognitive bias. However, as the riers. Technology sensitive enough to read
literature, seem to be due to the fact that higher-order cognitive processes are still the processes on the subconscious level is
investigations are directed at different part of these studies, they are therefore now available. The iMotions – Emotion
levels of emotion. potentially affected by the low-level Technology can measure pleasantness
Emotions are a complex phenomenon emotions. Furthermore, the self-report and emotional reactions from humans
and it is therefore vital to know what level measures only the perception of an emo- looking at images, using a method that is
one is working on and to be precise about tional response, not the core of the non-intrusive, reliable and valid.
what processes are being analysed. emotion, which is what influences the Using advanced image processing and
Researchers must be careful in generalis- decision. Essentially this means that we eye-tracking, we have discovered a
ing, and must be precise in defining and need to find a way of measuring and quan- method and encapsulated it in a software
describing the ‘workspace’ and the limita- tifying the physiological, subconscious program which now enables ad
tions of these approaches. reactions. researchers to quantify the basic emotions,
Because of the cognitive element, the Physiological measurements such as in an easy-to-use and time-efficient way.
higher-level emotions can be partly facial EMG (electro-myography), SC (skin Emotion ToolTM builds on automation
analysed using traditional self-report conductance, sometimes referred to as of the methods used by the CIA, witness
measures. The self-report registers only galvanic skin response), EEG (brain experts and others, who have been trained
the respondent’s subjective feeling, which waves) and heart rate are some of the to spot the subtle changes in facial
can be defined as the consciously felt methods used. The problem with these expressions, to detect emotional
experience expressed by the individual. measurement methods is that they are signals from subjects. More specifically,
These self-report measurements lack the not very precise and several different the emotional signals are substantially
ability to analyse the autonomic, uncon- emotional reactions can have the same based around the eye region of the face.
scious, low-level emotions, which are physiological responses. Moreover, these The amount of blinking of the eye, the
believed to initiate the higher-level measurement methods are difficult to timing of gaze, and how the pupils are
emotions. conduct and time-consuming, and the dilating, are some of the most important
To get behind this cognitive curtain, results are often of limited and difficult in indicators experts are using to read the
we need to look at measures that can tell practical use. emotional response of the subject.
As an expert gains experience, his
method becomes more accurate. One of
these indicators mentioned above is not
sufficient on its own to spot an emotion in
the subject. However, several of these
clues put together enable the experts to
spot emotions correctly 80% of the time.
In other words, the human brain is
able to put these subtle forms of infor-
mation together in a way that can reveal
the subject’s emotions. A similar tech-
nique to the one used by the experts has
been formalised and is used within our
emotion-recognition system. The intu-
ition that the experts have developed
over a long time has been formalised
mathematically in an algorithm and a
software program that we have devel-
Emotion ToolTM measures and analyses emotional impact along two dimensions: emotional oped to provide a new measurement
strength (arousal) and pleasantness (valance) method. X

© World Advertising Research Center 2007 April 2007 • Admap 41

researchingemotions
Emotion ToolTM
We use advanced and highly sophist-
icated eye-tracking equipment. The meas-
urement is 100% non-intrusive and very
precise. The subjects are all seated approx-
imately 60 cm from the screen. The
software can adjust for variations in the
viewing distance and angle. All subjects
are tested under the same light conditions,
although the system can automatically
adjust for light variations. The software
calibrates the system automatically for
every subject. All images are masked after
presentation to prevent overlap. The sub-
jects undergo well-known relaxation
techniques before the test, so as to relax
and reach an ‘emotional baseline’.
All subjects are naive to the purpose of
the experiment and are given the same
instructions. The initial measurements
are pupil dilation, blink and gaze.
Emotion ToolTM measures the emotion-
al response along two dimensions:
emotional strength and valence.
Emotional strength is the level of excite-
ment a stimulus creates, as measured for a
minimum of ten respondents in each test.
Emotional strength is measured along a
ten-point scale. The second dimension,
valence, evaluates the feelings that the
respondent has regarding the stimulus.
Valence is evaluated as pleasant, unpleas-
ant, or neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
To assess valence accurately, each individ-
ual test sample must contain a minimum
of 30 respondents whose emotional
strength evaluations scored at 4.6 or
above. Along the emotional scale, a score
of 4.6 and higher is defined as ‘Affective’.
Scores of below 4.6 are representative of
respondents not emotionally moved by
the stimulus and as such are defined as
‘Unaffective’ and are not aggregated into
the valence output.
Usage case
As an example of this measurement
impact, we take the case of a particular
magazine and the issues associated with
the monthly cover’s layout and design.
Magazine editors are presented with the
same challenges of providing a completely
new and fresh publication every month.
The pictures, text, colour and lighting
are a few of the many variables that can
make a magazine’s cover more stimulat-
ing or eye-catching. The effect of all these
variables poses the question of which spe-
cific layout design is more effective than
another.
In December 2006, editors of the
magazine were plagued by a typical dis-
agreement about which cover to choose.
There were two different versions of the
upcoming month’s cover from which one
had to be chosen within the next few
days. Opinions were very mixed, along
with growing tensions and frustrations.
Some individuals felt that the graphics
and text of the magazine were not well
balanced, but distracting and therefore
ineffective, while other individuals felt
the cover was boring. The issue of select-
ing the cover and layout design could not
be resolved definitively, and the deadline
was approaching fast.
The staff members of this magazine
contacted us to run a test with Emotion
ToolTM on each of the potential covers.
The system was used to run tests on
both covers, among a segmented group of
females between the ages of 18 and 45.
The results clearly indicated that one
cover generated a much stronger arousal
and was more effective on the targeted
customer group.
The results aided in the choice between
the two covers and gave clear insight to
the creative process of the layout for this
magazine. ■
More on researching emotions at
WARC.com

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42 Admap • April 2007 © World Advertising Research Center 2007

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