What Does Facial Recognition Tech Mean for Marketing?

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Panos Moutafis, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and President of Zenus Inc., which specializes in facial recognition systems for multiple applications. A computer scientist by trade, he is well-known for his work ethic, diligence, and persistence. I caught up with him over breakfast in Houston recently, keen to discover if facial recognition technology could become mainstream, or sit on the fringes like many other great ideas such as RFID and iBeacons.

Facial Recognition:  Fact or Fad?

Peter:   Panos, first, is facial recognition technology in its heyday?

Panos: This is more than a cool technology that people will start using ‘sometime in the future’. Facial recognition adds clear value such as improved security and better user experience along with unmatched analytics and insights. It is already used to tag photos on social media, unlock and pay with cell phones, and go through border security. Since people are getting accustomed to the technology, facial recognition is becoming an expected service rather than a nice to have feature. 2018 is the year innovative events are embracing facial recognition!

Peter:   And this goes beyond what most people imagine?

Panos: Couple it with adjacent technologies such as emotion recognition or human posture recognition and the possibilities are limitless. You gain full control. Every powerful technology comes with great responsibility though. Respecting people’s privacy and handling metadata in a transparent and prudent manner is vital. Every party who has access to this type of information must be thoroughly vetted, 100% trustworthy and held accountable to the highest standards.

Event Marketing: Let's Get Personal

Peter:   Let’s talk about events.  How does this technology work here?

Panos: The use of physical tokens and privileged information have become integral parts of an event lifetime. They are used to check in people, restrict access, personalize the experience, measure attendance, extract analytics, and perform lead retrieval.

Facial recognition belongs in the third form of authentication along with other biometric approaches. It is a software, which can identify a person from a database of faces without requiring a physical token or the user to provide any privileged information. Technological advancements have increased accuracy and drastically reduced.  Therefore, we are seeing increased adoption in other industries (e.g., airports, social media, and cell phones).

Peter:   Well, take us from the start of the process; I always chuckle to myself when I check into to a high tech event for a mega-company and I wait in line for someone to tick off a spreadsheet or hand write my badge!

Panos: The attendees are not always good at following instructions displayed on the terminal. They often cannot find their ticket; it takes them a while to retrieve the QR code on their phone, or they simply need time to type in their email address.



Peter:   And I guess ID checking is enhanced?



Peter:   Could this be used for Session Tracking as well?



Peter:   We’ve experimented with heatmaps for different clients using RFID technology in the past - could this be done more cost-effectively now?


Peter:   How about other applications out on the show floor?

Panos: One can use screens (equipped with a camera) around the venue that identifies attendees and display personalized information ranging from where food is being served to what next session they should attend. Likewise, the information desk personnel could be equipped with similar capabilities. Being able to identify a person while they are walking towards the desk allows them to personally greet them and anticipate their needs.


Calling All Marketing Qualified Leads

Peter:   And my favorite subject of course: Lead Retrieval!  How does face recognition factor here?




Peter:   I know that some people will think that Facial Recognition is creepy and they feel uncomfortable about it?

Panos: That is true, but real-world deployments by Zenus and our partners show that the majority of attendees are willing to use facial recognition. That is, the first time an event planner introduces the option they can expect 50-60% of the people to upload their photo. We see attendees talking to their friends and colleagues about how fast and easy the check-in process was, so we expect the opt-in rate to grow for repeat events.



Peter:   What about collecting the images - is that hard?

Panos: There are plenty of online registration companies that already allow attendees to upload their headshot or take a selfie. Most devices such as laptops, tablets, and cell phones have a front-facing camera. If necessary, one could opt to use their social media profile picture. It really isn’t as hard as people might think.

Peter:   OK, let’s talk money - it still sounds expensive?


Link to previous article: https://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/what-does-facial-recognition-tech-mean-for-marketing/