Your TV is watching you better: LG TVs’ integrated ads get more personal with tech that analyzes viewer emotions

LG TVs will soon leverage an AI model built for showing advertisements that more closely align with viewers’ personal beliefs and emotions. The company plans to incorporate a partner company’s AI tech into its TV software in order to interpret psychological factors impacting a viewer, such as personal interests, personality traits, and lifestyle choices. The aim is to show LG webOS users ads that will emotionally impact them.

The upcoming advertising approach comes via a multi-year licensing deal with Zenapse, a company describing itself as a software-as-a-service marketing platform that can drive advertiser sales “with AI-powered emotional intelligence.” LG will use Zenapse’s technology to divide webOS users into hyper-specific market segments that are supposed to be more informative to advertisers. LG Ad Solutions, LG’s advertising business, announced the partnership on Tuesday.

The technology will be used to inform ads shown on LG smart TVs’ homescreens, free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, and elsewhere throughout webOS, per StreamTV Insider. LG will also use Zenapse’s tech to “expand new software development and go-to-market products,” it said. LG didn’t specify the duration of its licensing deal with Zenapse.

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With all this information, ZenVision will group LG TV viewers into highly specified market segments, such as “goal-driven achievers,” “social connectors,” or “emotionally engaged planners,” an LG spokesperson told StreamTV Insider. Zenapse’s website for ZenVision points to other potential market segments, including “digital adopters,” “wellness seekers,” “positive impact & environment,” and “money matters.”

Companies paying to advertise on LG TVs can then target viewers based on the ZenVision-specified market segments and deliver an “emotionally intelligent ad,” as Zenapse’s website puts it.

This type of targeted advertising aims to bring advertisers more in-depth information about TV viewers than demographic data or even contextual advertising (which shows ads based on what the viewer is watching) via psychographic data. Demographic data gives advertisers viewer information, like location, age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, and income. Psychographic data is supposed to go deeper and allow advertisers to target people based on so-called psychological factors, like personal beliefs, values, and attitudes. As Salesforce explains, “psychographic segmentation delves deeper into their psyche” than relying on demographic data.

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With their ability to track TV viewers’ behavior, including what they watch and search for on their TVs, smart TVs are a growing obsession for advertisers. As LG’s announcement pointed out, CTVs represent “one of the fastest-growing ad segments in the US, expected to reach over $40 billion by 2027, up from $24.6 billion in 2023.”

However, as advertisers’ interest in appealing to streamers grows, so do their efforts to track and understand viewers for more targeted advertising. Both efforts could end up pushing the limits of user comfort and privacy.

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Source: LG TVs’ integrated ads get more personal with tech that analyzes viewer emotions – Ars Technica

An LG TV is not exactly a cheap thing. I am paying for the whole product, not for a service. I bought a TV, not a marketing department.

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