This article was originally published in NZ Marketing Magazine.

Marketers are constantly under pressure to chase better and achieve greater. With so much to stay on top of, it's easy to forget that what ultimately defines marketing success is, at its core, people. Humans. As marketers, the more we understand people, the more we understand how to do our jobs better.  

And one of the things that makes us human? Our feelings. We feel before we do anything. Before we think or act. We've long known the importance of feelings and, more importantly, their role – we know emotion sells. Which is why we've been measuring emotion for so long. The methods we've been relying on, however, are limited. Let's look at why.  

We used to think facial expressions were universal, that six basic emotions could be recognised across cultures – fear, anger, sadness, happiness, disgust and surprise. It's thinking based on Ekman's Faces, a theory that some brand, advertising and marketing researchers still rely on today.  

Subsequent research, however, has shown that this theory is flawed. Expressions are, instead, influenced by culture. Smile in the street in Australia, for example, and you'll be seen as friendly, but in Russia? It could be seen as odd, or even offensive, behaviour. Plus there are multiple versions of smiles each with their own meaning – Thai people have 13 different smiles for example.

From the moment a baby is born, it's immersed in cultural signals that shape how it learns to respond to the world. Which is the reason our emotions are so culturally nuanced. Understanding these nuances is critical as brands market across borders or to multi-cultural audiences.  

On the face of it

So, if we can't rely on facial expressions, how can we measure audience emotions? Not using language alone. Despite our rich vocabulary (the English language alone has over 3000 words for describing emotions), we only use about 20-30 words, on average, to describe our feelings, yet we feel multiple things simultaneously and with different intensities. Observing physiological responses has limitations too – we can go red in the face with anger or with embarrassment. We can tremble with fear or excitement. How do we know which it is?

In an age where marketing humans are adapting to the integration of AI tools, knowing people more deeply will give you a competitive edge. Let's explore an example of this.  

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Skinny smiles in AI

In advertising, slight nuances of emotional expression differences can make a significant difference. This means marketers need to think more carefully about the context of emotionally led work when relying on AI.  

AI-created ad executions have limitations and challenges. Ramanathan Vythilingam, Senior CMI manager at Unilever, articulated this well when talking at a recent conference. Ramanathan showed the audience a range of ‘smiling’ faces and said “Let’s take happiness as an example of what brands want to stand for. All of these AI images represent expressions of happiness, but they are also different. As humans, we can discern the difference in each of them, and this level of detail is required as input, so the AI-generated content is on brand.”  

New Zealand has seen an example of this in action through the launch of Skinny's new AI-created ambassador campaign. AI Liz, a clone of a real-life New Zealander, and Skinny customer, from Kerikeri. Liz’s natural smile is in full view and contributes to the warmth and friendliness of the campaign – aligning with the Skinny brand personality. Because she is a clone, AI Liz has a personal smile, not a robotic one. (Skinny used Liz’s biometric data). It's one of the reasons why the ad lands more authentically and will have a better chance of making a human connection with customers.

Measure what matters

Clearly, emotion is more than just a smile. To get it right, marketers need to measure what matters. The good news is that new theories have emerged that better capture our complex responses to the world. As researchers, we know that if people are given a way to express themselves, we can better capture the nuances of emotions. To enable that we need to move beyond facial recognition and outdated models of human emotions.

At a time when we are questioning the role of humans, the question might not be so much whether AI will replace human creativity but how human creativity can bring humanness to life. When we are better equipped with knowledge of people and enabled by technology such as AI, we can deliver better. Gain competitive edge and, ultimately, drive success.

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