G&R, a leading advertising research firm, has pioneered a comprehensive, multi-modal measurement system called CERA (Continuous Emotional Response Analysis).
The CERA method consists of obtaining the facial EMG activity measures during an uninterrupted viewing of pods of commercials embedded in a television program clip. The clip includes 8 test commercials embedded within the program in two pods. The respondent is hooked up to the facial EMG equipment via small dime-sized pads on the face during the viewing of the program clip. Continuous facial EMG activity measures are taken for the all test commercials. Two EMG measures are taken: measurement of the corrugator muscle, which produces frowns and is an indicant of negative emotion, and measurement of the zygomatic muscle, which produces smiles and is an indicant of positive emotion. These muscle measures yield an overall positive and negative emotional activation score that can be used to quantitatively rate and describe a commercial’s emotional activation and engagement. It is also used to compare commercials against each other. Moment to moment activation levels are also recorded and linked to the video of the commercial, which can be used to measure the dynamic emotional response to a commercial’s event and yield important and highly actionable diagnostic insights about the elements of the commercial that drives emotional response.