“With a lot of digital campaigns, you’re optimizing and placing media based on digital metrics [such as click-through and impressions], and you’re implying what the person actually felt based on that digital engagement,” said Laurel Boyd, chief creative media officer, Mediahub. Boyd said partnering with GlassView “was a way to really get at the root with empirical data to know how people were feeling.”
To accomplish this, GlassView utilizes high-tech headbands created by Cogwear, a brain technology company. The halo-shaped devices measure the wearer’s brain activity while interacting with a brand, product or piece of content. Typically, brands have primarily partnered with GlassView to use its neurological technology for finding new insights into marketing responses, or determining which ad inventory is most conducive to consumer behaviors such as sign-ups or clicks.
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The company’s partnership with Mediahub and Topgolf was the first in which it measured a specific emotion to serve and optimize media in real time against that emotional state, said Tristan Gambuti, VP of media partnerships, GlassView.
The initial test, conducted at a Topgolf location in New Jersey, found that players experienced a 180% increase in joy while playing Topgolf, and also identified additional key emotional states including relaxation and collaboration. They wanted to find media that elicited the same type of joy in those watching.
Based on GlassView’s data analysis and panel of participants who also wear Cogwear’s headpieces while consuming media, Mediahub was able to identify media inventory within its network to place Topgolf’s ads. The most successful spots, per Boyd, were served on connected TV during prime time hours when viewers are more often watching together with friends or family. Specific content in the sports, food and music genres aligned with the joy and relaxation emotions felt while playing Topgolf. The ads were also served on digital billboards in multiplayer video games.
“Our collaboration with GlassView has led us to rethink the way we position certain advertisements given the insights we’ve garnered around co-viewing and entertainment environments and how people consume information in those settings," Kara Berry, VP, brand and marketing communications, Topgolf, said in an email.
To this end, Topgolf has since used findings from the partnership to inform ad placements during Fox’s coverage of the 2024 COPA and Euro tournaments and on Peacock during the 2024 Summer Olympics.