Past 3 years have been some of the most stressful for Croatians. The country was struck by earthquakes, it ranked 8th in the world in Covid-19 deaths; furthermore, the recent conflict in Ukraine feels too close for a nation that endured some of the most gruesome wars in recent history. All this resulted in an alarming rise in mental health issues.

In the first year of the pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety increased by 25%, according to WHO.

Research on mental health in Croatia during the pandemic and after the earthquake shows that the population has become more anxious, than before these events, and worse off than other Europeans. 50% of Croatian population had noticeable levels of anxiety, yet the topic is mostly ignored.

That's why Croatia Insurance, emphasized the importance mental health, offering free preventive check-ups and encouraging users to take care of their health by contracting Health Insurance.

The first ever DOOH campaign that focuses on accurately measuring anxiety in users

We developed a system that could identify anxiety and measure it accurately in live video, becoming the first brand in the world to run a real-time programmatic campaign based on anxiety.

Our campaign rolled out in three stages:

First, we ran a network test of the algorithm, selecting locations with high pedestrian traffic, and with the highest levels of detected anxiety among those pedestrians.

Second, our test flight ran across 14 screens in the Croatian capital Zagreb, to prove that the personalized real-time ads would result in an increase in website traffic and preventive check-up bookings in the Croatia Insurance Polyclinic.

Third, while TV, digital and OOH ran nationwide, we expanded the reach of the DOOH campaign to cover the three largest cities in Croatia.

We wanted to correlate the emotional state of Croatians with the level of health risk they were facing and offer them a personalized solution, in real-time.

The idea was to pair powerful cameras in DOOH citylights with AI to accurately assess anxiety levels of passers-by. Google face mesh and automatic facial emotion recognition (FER) technology along with other algorithms analyzed facial muscles using machine learning to identify a combination of 8 emotions defined as anxiousness. With this, the AI Anxiety meter could precisely define the anxiety level of the person in front of the screen. Depending on the result, a dynamic personalized message would have been displayed. Those with the highest levels were directed to a free preventive check-up, while those with lower levels received messaging around the importance of Health Insurance.

We showed that an encounter with an ad could help you live a healthier life.

Instead of people watching commercials, commercials now watched them back, in real-time for a greater good – their mental health.

The idea was to pair powerful cameras in DOOH with AI to accurately assess anxiety levels of passers-by. Google face mesh and automatic facial emotion recognition (FER) technology along with other algorithms analyzed facial muscles using machine learning to identify anxiousness. With this, the AI Anxiety meter could precisely define anxiety level of the person in front of the screen. Depending on the result, a personalized message would have been displayed.

Those with the highest levels were directed to a free preventive check-up, while others received messaging around the importance of Health Insurance.

1/3 of all passers-by interacted with the ad with average dwell time 18.8” (817% above average DOOH), 8% of urban population tested leading to 24% intend to purchase and 21.8% sales increase.

8% OF CROATIAN URBAN POPULATION TESTED THEIR ANXIETY

21.83% MORE HEALTH INSURANCE POLICIES SOLD

People queued to measure their anxiety levels. 1/3 of all passers-by interacted with the ad, meaning 8% of the Croatian urban population measured their anxiety level in two flights of the activation.

The average interaction with the ad was measured at 18.8”, which exceeded the average dwell time around a DOOH ad by 817%.

Most importantly, intent to purchase Croatia Insurance services increased by 24% and the sales of health insurance policies in the activation period increased by 21.83% while 31,22% more physical and mental health preventive check-ups were performed in the Croatia Insurance’s top clinics.

The AI Anxiety Meter will continue to live in the Croatia Insurance mobile app – freely available to everyone who needs it.