Brands are constantly looking for more sophisticated methods to measure their exposure and value. Through Block Six Analytics, Pepsi can use the company’s media analysis platform to determine the performance of its new LED tunnel cover at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Pepsi already knew Cowboys games generated large broadcast audiences through television and digital media. But ratings could not tell the whole story. Pepsi wanted to evaluate the quality of television exposure for their Pepsi, Tostitos, and Lipton logos on the tunnel cover during these games. What if time and location of these logos on screen could be measured? Or the likeliness of consumers tuning in during certain periods of exposure? And instead of waiting weeks or even months to obtain this data, you could see the results in days? Enter Block Six Analytics.
Block Six Analytics has created an automated media analysis platform that uses a combination of deep convolutional neural networks and computer vision to collect data and perform analysis. Recent advances in machine learning significantly reduce the time it takes to complete this process. According to CEO and founder Adam Grossman, his platform’s neural networks can function like the human mind, creating deep connections as it continues to learn a task.
“With our neural network, we taught our system to learn the Pepsi, Lipton and Tostitos logos by providing thousands of images of each brand,” Grossman wrote in SportsBusiness Journal. “The neural network learns the important features of each logo, such as shape, size and color, to identify the logos in different contexts.”
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Basically, the more images this network sees, the better it becomes at classifying them. The computer will know to look for these logos during broadcasts of Cowboys games before automatically determining the brand’s prevalence, centricity, and time on screen. Block Six Analytics then applies its corporate asset valuation model to determine Pepsi’s value from a return on investment (expected revenue generated) and return on objectives (brand and marketing goals) perspective.
“We then layered these ROI and ROO metrics across three categories: Initiatives (what is a partner trying to accomplish), demographics (who is a partner trying to target) and channels (where is the best place to reach a partner’s customers),” Grossman wrote.
After determining a valuation, results can be given to Pepsi within 48 hours of the game being played. The time it takes to receive this information is essential to the brand’s marketing strategy.
“You’re never doing a static sign that you can put up once a season and maybe think about changing it,” PepsiCo Sports Marketing Senior Director Justin Toman said. “So, this nature of real-time information really becomes more and more important with the more digital and real-time nature of all the signage pieces that sponsors like Pepsi and others are putting in.”
Block Six Analytics gives Pepsi the confidence to execute its creative strategy on a game-to-game basis. The efficiency of this system helps Toman make quicker, smarter decisions for his brands. He also knows how valuable this type of information will be to businesses moving forward.
“This technology is going to become more and more important to allow sponsors like (Pepsi) and others to make more real-time decisions to optimize value within a season and potentially even within a game at some point,” Toman said.