At the annual MRS Awards ceremony, BBC Worldwide,  the BBC’s main commercial arm, and global panel provider, Lightspeed GMI, were awarded the MRS Award for Advertising & Media Research for their audience research project, conducted by emotion intelligence platform CrowdEmotion.

Awarded to projects that prove the power that can be found in research, the MRS Awards celebrate innovative projects that inspire change and deliver results. To do this, BBC Worldwide and CrowdEmotion partnered with Lightspeed GMI for a project that used emotion to read how TV audiences respond to video content.  Other finalists included TfL, GFK, IFF Research, and FireFish Pineapple Lounge.

Using CrowdEmotion’s unique facial processing platform, the project showed how broadcasters can use the technology to read audience emotions in order to put reliable consumer research at the heart of their programme distribution and marketing decisions.

The pilot project included an audience survey of over 4,500 people collected over a 1 week period. Trailers for a number of BBC shows were played to respondents who opted in to have webcams record their facial expressions. Using this video, CrowdEmotion’s unique processing system was able to identify facial queues to read how the respondents’ reacted emotionally to the video content.

Online panelists were asked a series of questions about the trailers they’d just watched. These responses were compared to the emotional reactions collected by CrowdEmotion. This gave BBC Worldwide an unprecedented insight into the relationship between the reported audience response and the actual audience response.

“Working with organisations like BBC Worldwide to help them better understand audiences is at the heart of what we do,” said Matt Celuszak, ceo of CrowdEmotion. “Broadcasters are in a constant high-stakes situation where the currency is audience engagement. With our unique platform, we allow them to quantify that engagement to better the understanding for their storytellers.”

David Boyle, EVP Insight, BBC Worldwide added that “one of our key roles is to support the BBC by looking for ways to help it maximise – and monetise – its content. Working with CrowdEmotion and its unique platform in this way has enabled us to provide the BBC with a real understanding into its audiences. Knowing how they feel about its programming enables better decision making and drives what’s at the heart of the BBC – quality, engaging content.”

“Working closely with BBC Worldwide and CrowdEmotion we were able to develop a new innovative solution to get a real  understanding of the impact of emotion. The three companies’ perspective on consumers and the importance of data enabled us to unlock an incredibly unique methodology. This provides greater insight for our clients around the world” said Ralph Risk, marketing director, Lightspeed GMI.

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