What if you passed by an advertisement and looked at it and then it adjusted to your likings? Yes that would probably be a little frightening to most people. Immersive Labs has created software that they attach to billboards that essentially “looks back at you”. This software can analyze:
• Age
• Gender
• Estimated attention span
• How many people your with
• How long you view the ad
Although it doesn’t know exactly who you are, the intelligent software basically says “what’s the probability that this person is a male or female?” It takes into account what the weather is like as well. Say for example that it was a very cold day outside and when you pass the billboard puts something up like “Hot Coffee just around the corner.” So the software gathers all of this data to put an advertisement together in this short period of time to attract you. CEO of Immersive Labs states that “It takes away the noise, you're not going to get irrelevant ads any more. You're going to get ads you actually want to see." Marketing has gone to a whole new level of reaching their target market.
So what makes this not so “freaky”? Well, the Immersive Labs CEO Jason Sosa says that the software only gathers anonymous information and only gathers external data. Who knows what the next years hold, or maybe even next year? Imagine with the fast pace technology what the possibilities could be.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/technology/immersive_labs_targeted_ads/index.htm
Allyson Williams from appsonbanking said:
ReplyDeleteThese blog authors bring to light a rapidly growing sub-specialty in the marketing industry: intelligence software development, deployment, and management. Marketing is a cornerstone of every business in terms of its revenue stream, especially manufacturing, retail, and service. The marketing function is broad and deep. It includes forecasting, market and product development, and this “intelligence software” is a cornerstone of the model that is essential to be competitive in today’s market. The idea that a marketing plan can be customized and tailored to demographics is the back-end result of a “larger picture capability” of this methodology. Kudos to these bloggers for bringing this technology to this sight.
This new technology really seems to be the wave of the future. The idea that if I walk by a certain ad on a cold day that it will switch to a hot chocolate ad or if I am with my significant other an ad will display a date-themed movie ad is pretty exciting. The creators of this technology claim that it will not be used to identify individuals. I cannot help but think that somehow somebody will figure out a way to use these ads to for this specific purpose. While these digital billboards will surely become the new standard for advertising I hope that whoever operates these cameras or collects the data does so ethically and for the purpose they intended to.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting and definitely takes marketing ads to a new level. Not sure exactly how it works as far as being able to read people and know how many people are around for it to market to. It is however neat to find out that the technology is out there right now for something like this to go into the works. The fact that the billboard changes is impressive enough because right now the same billboards are probably up from when my Grandparents were alive. Can not wait to find out if this will end up being a successful venture or not.
ReplyDeleteULMCIS 3050 Group.
This sounds like a cool technology and hopefully we will see its use in the near future. Though I don't know how it's used, I do understand the concept behind it. In today's world, niche marketing and customization is the key. Everyone wants to feel that they are the center of the universe, and that's what this new technology are trying to do. They make the ads appeal more to you by making you feel like your the center of the ad.
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