AnalogFolk Extends Marmite's Gene Project

Marmite – AnalogFolk Extends Marmite's Gene Project

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Credits

Digital Agency AnalogFolk
Other Miguel Alvarez
Creative Partner Simon Richings

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You may stubbornly hate Marmite, or indulgently love it… but new research reveals that actually, you have very little choice over your preference.

Last week, adam&eveDDB launched The Marmite Gene Project – a campaign that proves that your DNA make-up determines how much you like the British spread (as mentioned in our most recent Weekly Rewind).

An accompanying film, shot by James Rouse (below) was released, together with a white paper – with research conducted by genetic centre, DNAFit. Over 260 adults were tested eating the divisive condiment and their reactions monitored to determine whether they’re born lovers or haters of Marmite.

The campaign also encourages shoppers to get their hands on Gene Testing Kits – available here – to find out for themselves which side they sit on… Although you have been warned: results may be a catalyst for family arguments.

AnalogFolk has today launched the latest activation in the project and unveiled digital platform TasteFace.

By clicking the link, you can find out whether you are genetically inclined to be a lover or hater of Marmite while eating the spread. The page analyses your face using recognition technology and then rates your fondness for it. We caught up with AnalogFolk to chat about the creation of TasteFace.

What was the brief with which Marmite approached you?

Simon Richings: Marmite has always divided the nation between love and hate. It's a cultural phenomenon. Over the years Marmite has produced some award-winning, much loved and memorable creative work bringing this idea to life. But Marmite has continuously questioned, why are reactions so divisive? Is it fate? They asked us to create a digital experience that would drive product trials in a fun and engaging way.

How did you approach the creative on this campaign?

TasteFace forms part of a new integrated campaign, The Gene Project, launched this weekend by Marmite. The accompanying ground-breaking study has scientifically shown that people are genetically more likely to be lovers or haters of Marmite, conclusively showing that there's a genetic foundation to Marmite taste preference. We approached the brief by asking whether we could use the emotion reading capabilities of facial recognition technology to discover in real-time whether you're an intrinsic lover or hater.

What were the technical challenges involved? And how did you guys overcome them?

Miguel Alvarez: TasteFace is an online mobile experience, not a downloadable app. We wanted it to be an inclusive experience and saw the download factor of apps as a barrier. However this ended up being more challenging for the team because we wanted to create an 'in app' experience. We used bleeding-edge frameworks for the feelig of a full-screen and implemented a complex distributed architecture to make sure the experience was as rapid and seamless for the user across devices.

Equally, the experience needed to recognise different face types and not discriminate between them. Our bespoke technology builds on the Microsoft Emotion application programming interface that recognises the facial expressions of people across a set of eight emotions. We built a bespoke algorithm to convert these emotions into a sliding scale of love and hate - but also tested and adapted them to make sure the technology recognised all skin types and face shapes.

Finally, we were very conscious that this is a user generated content campaign - and although the majority of users don't, in the past some, some have abused this kind of social media activation by inserting celebrities or controversial characters. We've incorporated a facial recognition database into the system which recognises and prevents the uploading of static famous faces... unless it's really them of course.