NEC and Macromill jointly develop advanced marketing solutions using AI
Tokyo, June 8, 2018 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and Macromill, Inc. (Macromill; TSE: 3978), a leading marketing research company, today announced the launch of an advanced data utilization collaboration that maximizes artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies execute highly sophisticated marketing activities.
In April 2018 these two market leaders began jointly developing advanced marketing solutions to help companies gain deeper insights into consumer behavior. This has been carried out by leveraging NEC’s wide range of cutting-edge AI technologies, ‘NEC the WISE,’ (*1) and Macromill’s panel networks of more than 90 million people in 90 countries to aid consumer understanding.
Aiming to launch services in 2019, the two companies so far have developed demonstration experiments that focus on two key points. Firstly, the expansion of consumer data using Customer Profile Estimation Technology (CPET) (*2) that compensates for data gaps using NEC’s AI techniques. Secondly, an analysis of consumer preferences utilizing NEC’s Remote Gaze Detection Technology (RGDT) (*3) , which detects the points that attract a consumer’s eyes, and the duration of their gaze.
Through their partnership, NEC and Macromill will help clients improve their marketing activities. This in turn will provide a better experience for the end consumer. They will do this by enabling companies to:
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Background of Collaboration
As lifestyles diversify these days, marketing research is faced with the challenge of gaining a deeper understanding of consumer needs. In research, the key is to collect and utilize data on consumer consumption trends and values, and while companies are working on this based on awareness data such as survey results and various behavioral data, this is only one aspect of daily life and does not capture the totality of the continuous activities that start with the individual consumer.
Macromill has contributed to solving our clients' marketing issues by collecting and analyzing a wide range of consumer-driven data across industries in both real and cyber domains, and by capturing deeper consumer insights.
Meanwhile, NEC has long been engaged in research and development of AI, and has responded to the needs of society and business with "NEC the WISE," a set of cutting-edge AI technologies, including "face recognition technology" with the world's No. 1 accuracy (Note 4) and "dotData - Predictive Analysis Automation" (Note 5) that automates and simplifies the entire data analysis process. (Note 5), which automates and simplifies the entire data analysis process.
By collaborating with Macromill's diverse data and NEC's technology, we aim to provide companies with data/analytical value useful for marketing activities that more deeply reflect consumption trends and values, thereby realizing a society that pursues and enjoys affluence for each and every consumer.
Overview of marketing solutions to be developed
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Supplement and expand missing items of consumer data through AI
By utilizing NEC's Customer Profile Estimation Technology for the consumer data originally collected by Macromill, NEC will supplement and expand actual data such as detailed consumer profiles and purchase information. By estimating and expanding data sources, NEC aims to contribute to more sophisticated marketing activities of client companies.
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Advanced consumer research to analyze preference trends closer to consumers' true feelings
By using NEC's sensing technologies, such as "remote gaze estimation technology" that can accurately detect the direction of the monitors' (survey targets') gazes, in Macromill's on-site surveys (CLT, Central Location Test, Note 6), we are able to analyze preference trends close to the true feelings of the monitors that cannot be determined from the awareness data obtained from questionnaires alone. This technology enables us to analyze preference trends that are closer to the true feelings of the monitors, which cannot be obtained from the consciousness data obtained from questionnaires alone. Furthermore, by using Macromill's brain wave data analysis technology (Note 7), we aim to gain a deeper understanding of consumer needs by analyzing data based on the actual situation in combination with awareness data based on the subjective opinions of monitors.
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Sophisticated marketing activities based on diverse data and cutting-edge analytical technology
Using NEC's "dotData - Automated Predictive Analytics", we will examine advanced support for corporate marketing activities using the abundant consumer data held by Macromill. We aim to provide highly accurate data analysis not only to companies that have a certain scale of data maintained for marketing purposes, but also to companies that do not have such data, and to provide support that enables more effective activities based on results that could not be imagined using only their own data.
The results of this collaboration and the demonstration experiment will be used to strengthen the existing businesses of both companies, and both companies will develop new consumer data utilization businesses by utilizing Macromill's extensive data set and NEC's technological capabilities.
Ends,
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NEC the WISE: NEC’s cutting-edge portfolio of AI technologies.
- Press release: NEC announces new AI technology brand, “NEC the WISE”
- NEC’s AI Research
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NEC Develops AI-based Customer Profile Estimation Technology
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Remote Gaze Detection：
Technology that detects the direction of the line of sight from a distance in real time and with high accuracy.
URL：https://www.nec.com/en/press/201612/global_20161216_01.html
- Press Release, "NEC Earns Fourth Consecutive First Place Rating in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Face Recognition Technology Benchmark Test" (March 16, 2017)
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dotData - Predictive Analytics Automation:
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Press Release, "Changing Data Science Conventionality with AI NEC Establishes New Company in the U.S. to Automate Data Analysis Processes" (April 26, 2018)
https://www.nec.com/en/press/201804/global_20180426_01.html
In Japan, NEC has acquired the exclusive rights to distribute this software from dotData, Inc.
- dotData
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Press Release, "Changing Data Science Conventionality with AI NEC Establishes New Company in the U.S. to Automate Data Analysis Processes" (April 26, 2018)
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CLT (Central Location Test):
Abbreviation for Central Location Test. A test conducted by inviting survey targets to a venue. Venue survey.
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EEG data analysis technology:
Neuroresearch, a method of investigating and evaluating neural activity reactions such as brain waves. In addition to subjective evaluation through questionnaires and interviews, experiments are conducted to measure biological reactions such as brain waves, heartbeats, and eye movements in real time while consumers are looking at products, and from these changes, deep insights including areas that targets are not aware of themselves are brought to light.
Customer Inquiries
E-mail：info@mnd.jp.nec.com
Media Inquiries
Morita, Communication Design Division, Macromill, Inc.TEL：03-6716-0707 E-mail：m_morita@macromill.com
TEL：03-3798-6511 E-mail：a-takaki@ap.jp.nec.com
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