Facial Recognition Technology: 2 Faces of the Same Interactive Media
Facial recognition technology was just highlighted in the media in a very clever interactive media advertising campaign that was launched at a bus stop in London. This advertising campaign was initiated to highlight the plight of women in third world countries and the discrimination that it heaped upon the because of their gender. The bus stop has a large screen and a HD camera that scans the audience with facial recognition technology and based on facial characteristics (male or female) chooses the advertising content to share with that viewer.
Watch this video to see how facial recognition technology can be used with your TV:
For example, men see a highly abbreviated version of the advertising campaign and mostly statistics about women who are discriminated against around the world and their plight. The men are denied access to the whole advertisement. The women in front of the screen see the complete advertisement which includes the story of the lives of 3 women and the discrimination that they experience. Once the viewer opts in they experience positive or negative gender discrimination through the facial recognition technology. Not only the message but the media also conveys the limitations imposed by gender bias and discrimination. The message comes through very powerfully. See the attached link for the full story. www.plan-uk.org/choices-for-girls
This facial recognition technology provides an interactive media experience, but with a bit of an uncomfortable edge to it. There are many companies that place large screens in malls and airports starting to utilize this type of interactive media. Their product measures the length of time an individual looks at the screen, the gender of the viewer and the age of the viewer within ranges and then chooses what advertising to show to that viewer. It can capture a lot of information about every passerby. This type of audience segmentation is involuntary as it scans everyone who walks by.
Even though in both cases it’s an interactive experience, the key difference here is that most out of home mall and airport participation is involuntary. Where the advertising in London had an opt in function before capturing data of its viewers, some other facial recognition firms take pride in their stealth technology, claiming one “does not require audience cooperation for measurement or for gathering demographics, thus providing true and unbiased information.” This may be a marketers dream but perhaps not great for the passerby’s privacy.
With dwindling marketing budgets and more demand for hard data, new technologies are springing up everywhere to compile data, which can be utilized to determine the best use of a company’s resources. Both Facebook and Google have had their challenges steering clear of privacy issues with their users. Perhaps this is the next interactive media platform that will have to bear up to public scrutiny.
Interactive media provides marketers with a wealth of information when set-up with appropriate controls and can track great information. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great example but remember it also provides an opt-in feature, making it a responsible alternative. Marketers must capture data to make the best use of their dollars and increase their ROI while driving down costs and interactive media marketing is one of the best ways to do just that. There are many ways to mine that data but we should also consider the most appropriate and responsible way to collect it while respecting our customers and prospects and using the data to best serve them.














