Left to right: Anna Bateson, Tracey Follows and Jim Stevenson
If marketers thought big data couldn’t get any bigger, they had better think again: it’s time to add another element to the already complex mix.
Futurist Tracey Follows, whose job it is to think years beyond the rest of us, says that the single most important piece of data brands will soon need is based on one simple thing: human emotion.
“In the future, emotional data is going to be much more important than behavioural data,” Follows said, speaking at Mediatel’s Connected Consumer Conference on Wednesday.
With increased use of facial recognition technology and powerful computing, Follows forecast a not-too-distant future where marketing decisions are based on the mood of consumers, rather than just age, gender or location.
“Brands and consumers are getting much more interested in how to shop by mood and how to choose products by mood,” she said, “and people are more likely to buy something if they’re feeling good about themselves.”
Make-up brand Charlotte Tilbury has already begun experimenting with emotional targeting – and with positive results – as the ability to virtually apply make-up via facial recognition makes waves in the beauty industry.
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“[This is] really interesting because it not only vastly increases people’s likelihood to buy – so it’s a huge driver of conversion because they can overcome the barrier of ‘will this suit me?’ – but you can then read from people’s reactions in the face that it makes them feel good,” said the brand’s director of digital, Anna Bateson.
“So you can give them something that says ‘you’re feeling better’ and ‘you’re feeling more confident’ because they’ve put that lipstick on, which is fascinating. It’s bought because of your mood at the time and your anticipation of how it will make you feel.”
In future, Follows said emotional data will eventually become the backbone of how marketers use big data. In fact, she thinks big data is pretty much redundant without it.
“I don’t think you can have big data if it doesn’t include mood data because if we think choices are made emotionally and not rationally, we’re measuring all the wrong things,” she said.
