Mediacurves is a tracking service that connects a sample to computers whilst they watch media and then charts up the responses. They did this yesterday with John McCain’s republican convention speech.

More than 1,000 Democrats, Republicans and Independents indicated their level of agreement to McCain’s ramblings second-by-second. As they viewed the speech, they used their mouse to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with the content in second-by-second intervals. Mediacurves is also used to track ad approval ratings whilst they run. It’s a shame they don’t produce nicer looking charts, but hey.

A new ad effectiveness measurement system using facial recognition comes from Fuji TV.

NEC, owners of Fuji, say that the facial recognition technology detects consumer attributes such as age and gender to display ads tailored to the viewer. Naturally, the project also gathers measurement data. The system is in demonstration in Japan from July 19 through Aug. 31 at a themed store opposite Fuji TV’s headquarters (as far as I can make out; hey my Japanese isn’t that great). NEC claims the facial recognition technology ad delivery system is a first for Japan.

A camera is used to enable visitor age and gender identification and a database works out which ad to send to the screen. At the same time, mobile phone users can get electronic coupons sent to their phones, tailored to the attributes identified. This uses the FeliCa e-money system. These are used instore and their redemption rates helps the team determine overall ad success rates. Check out the diagrams drawn by NEC and see if you can work out some more.

The internet has about twice the influence of television and roughly 8 times that of print, according to a Fleishman-Hillard and Harris survey. Their Digital Influence Index tracks the impact of the internet on consumer behaviour in the UK, Germany, and France.

Their work also reveals the unsurprising conclusion that consumers are more likely to seek opinions of others through social media and product-rating sites when making choices that have a great deal of personal impact (e.g., healthcare options or major electronics purchases). On the other hand, they use company controlled sources for decisions on commodities like energy companies or airline tickets.

Dave Senay, CEO of Fleishman-Hillard, tells us:

“There’s a mismatch between the growing impact of the digital channel and the proportion of marketing and advertising resources organizations allocate to it, relative to other media.”

Full details of the survey are available as a pdf from Fleishman-Hillard; the document includes suggestions for marketers and communicators on how to integrate digital channels into campaigns.