Since 2009, Affectiva’s Emotion AI has helped businesses and researchers create successful brands, customer experiences and creative content by offering insight into human emotion.
But the world around us is ever-changing, and the media and marketing research markets are no exception. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the digital revolution, the way we conduct research must adapt to the ever-changing world outside.
Today, Affectiva’s Emotion AI is more widely used than any other in market – our customers include 70% of the world’s largest advertisers, and 28% of the Fortune Global 500 companies. With our insight into both the challenges and opportunities faced by researchers within the media & marketing industries, we have identified four trends that currently shape the market for media & marketing research:
#1: How the global content boom increases the demand for modern research methods
All around the world, the sheer amount of advertising and entertainment content has exploded across an expanding range of formats and channels. This growth in digital advertising and media, and continued proliferation of marketing channels, will continue to produce upward pressure on the amount of content businesses produce.
Meanwhile, traditional research methods have become too slow and limited, making businesses look for methods that give finer insight and are more aligned with modern understanding of the role of emotion in decision-making.
The growing market for audience response and optimization, combined with an increased demand for scalable, lower-cost research methods, makes technologies like Affectiva’s ad testing AI imperative in media and marketing research in the future.
#2 - Zoom-to-zoom: switching to online research methods
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the whole marketing and research industry, forcing budget cuts and limiting face-to-face research. This has driven researchers to seek out methods optimized for virtual, or online, research.
The market research industry can sometimes be resistant to change. However, over the last few years, the limitations caused by the pandemic have boosted interest in virtual research even in markets that have traditionally been hesitant to step away from their usual face-to-face methods. In doing so, this enables research to become more scalable as well as naturalistic, as participants can take part in research studies from the comfort of their homes.
Even as lockdowns are lifted all over the world, it seems the industry has adapted to a new, more digital world – with virtual research methods as a natural part of the new normal.
#3: Implementing online privacy policies
The more people live their lives online, the more emphasis is put on online privacy. People have been voicing concerns surrounding digital privacy for as long as the internet has existed, and these concerns are likely to grow in the upcoming years. Around the world, we can expect further legislation for protecting personal data – but it will also increase pressure on businesses and researchers to take greater responsibility for the data they collect.
One of Affectiva’s focuses as an organization is to emphasize the need for an application of ethical AI. With all the work that Affectiva does with their research partners, we ensure that there is proper opt-in consent prior to having people participate in our surveys.
To read more about Affectiva’s and Smart Eye's digital data privacy policies, click here:
#4: Research on DIY platformsThe use of DIY research platforms is a growing trend. As new and enhanced technologies emerge in the market research space, research questions now possess the ability to delve deeper into both conscious and nonconscious behaviors.
There is not always a ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to designing studies. Having self-serve platforms that give researchers the ability to choose how they want to build their study enables organizations to focus their research objectives in innovative ways.
For companies that develop advanced behavioral research technologies, like Affectiva’s Emotion AI, it has become crucial to offer effective integration into these DIY research tools. Affectiva’s content-research platform allows businesses and their research agencies to plug our technology seamlessly into their research. As the use of DIY research tools becomes more widespread, this flexibility is essential for companies hoping to take advantage of this development, rather than suffering from it.
