Emotion Scan

The Challenge

Bank of New Zealand wanted to reach the “retail affluent” — roughly 25–49-year-olds who want to get ahead financially but often feel they already have money under control, so they rarely engage deeply with a bank. Only about 9% of New Zealanders strongly believed they were competent at managing their finances. The strategic insight: people think they are rational about money, yet emotions drive financial decisions.

Emotion Scan was built as part of BNZ’s “Be Good with Money” platform — a roughly four-minute guided webcam experience that helped people confront subconscious feelings about money, surface problem areas, and take a practical next step (ideally a free BNZ MoneyReview).

Client & collaborators

Agency delivery was through Colenso BBDO (Auckland). Swiss technology partner nViso (led by Tim Llewellynn) supplied the emotion-recognition engine. Psychology input came from Professor Stuart Carr (Massey University). BNZ marketing leadership included CMO Craig Herbison and marketing lead Rob Cooke.

How it worked

Participants visited the microsite (originally emotionscan.co.nz / begoodwithmoney.co.nz/emotion-scan) and completed a guided experience via webcam. Narration, sound design, and imagery walked them through realistic financial scenarios across cash flow, budgeting, mortgages, retirement, financial security and control, debt, dependents, donations, and savings.

nViso’s engine used 3D facial imaging and AI to track hundreds of facial points, map them to ~43 facial muscles, detect micro-expressions in realtime, and classify them against universal emotions. At the end, users received a second-by-second emotional report showing where they felt most comfortable or uncomfortable — with a clear CTA to book a MoneyReview.

The campaign also activated physically: an interactive Adshel installation in Britomart, Auckland (webcam + on-site results printout), plus presence at the main Wellington BNZ branch, backed by a supporting film on the technology.

Constraints

• Custom Flash web experience with realtime webcam capture and a parallel physical installation path.
• Third-party Emotional Imaging API from nViso that had to feel seamless inside a consumer-facing brand experience — not a bolted-on research tool.
• ~4-minute narrative arc across multiple financial scenarios with continuous emotion sampling and a legible end report.
• Privacy and trust expectations for a bank brand asking people to turn on a camera and confront money anxiety.
• Dual delivery surfaces: microsite at home and Adshel / branch activations with on-site results.

Contributions

1. App development — owned development of primary application ( installed at physical locations ) for the campaign experience from concept prototypes through the shipped Flash web and installation builds.
2. Built and iterated prototypes — validated the guided scenario flow, webcam pipeline, and report UX before production creative and narrative locked.
3. Integrated nViso’s Emotional Imaging API — partnered with the Switzerland-based team to wire realtime facial emotion recognition into the custom Flash experience for both online and installation contexts.

Outcomes

Emotion Scan launched as one of the more ambitious early consumer-facing applications of facial emotion recognition in banking and marketing — blending self-insight with brand engagement and a clear path to advice.

Early performance (first month or so) included roughly 5,500–6,500+ online completions, 5,000+ interactions at the Britomart Adshel, about 1 in 8 online users sharing results on Facebook, and strong first-day traffic (reports of 6–10k unique visitors). Caples Awards 2014: Bronze (Integrated Campaign) and Silver (Digital Campaign Microsite).

The original microsite is no longer live; contemporary coverage from StopPress, The Financial Brand, American Banker, Biometric Update, and Colenso / BNZ case-study films document the work.

Project dates

2013 · Auckland, New Zealand
Agency: Colenso BBDO · Technology partner: nViso (Switzerland)