Over the past few weeks, we’ve been showing you some pretty extraordinary billboards. What was once a familiar advertising staple seems to be transforming into a goldmine for innovation and effective communication.
We showed you this billboard, which a friendly looking fellow used to interact with people at a train station. The remarkable thing about it was its personal relevance to the viewer. Like another billboard we showed you before that one which spoke to people based on gender, it took the billboard to new levels of breakthrough.
And now, billboards seem to be heading towards even weirder territory.
At a train station in Birmingham, cameras are taking pictures of people’s faces as they pass by. These pictures are analysed by computers, which determine their age and gender. The computers then choose which billboards to display to people based on this information.
From a Yahoo! Finance article by Pras Subramanian:
“In a reality that could be lifted straight from the film “Minority Report,” advertisers are now able to scan your face, and serve you personalized ads – in real time.”
UK-based billboard company Ocean Outdoor have taken the billboard to its next logical step – Facebook-like targeted ads in the real world.
It’s an interesting development to be sure. There’s been controversy in the past over Facebook’s data collection practices and the issue of privacy in the modern era. The fact that data collection has entered the real world in the form of facial analysis will no doubt raise some ethical debate.
However, it’s important to remember that the precedent for this has been set. Ultimately, or so we hope, companies gather data exclusively to provide a better customer experience. Taking into account just a few generic facts about us that we’ve voluntarily shared like age, hobbies and gender, Facebook and other companies are able to tailor what we see to match what our presumed interests are.
What we learn about consumer behaviour in one medium inevitably bleeds into other mediums. Behaviour and psychology are universal, and the tendencies and habits of human beings are consistent regardless of the method of communication.
Social media showed us that targeted ads are effective, and that there are ample opportunities to ethically collect data in order to offer each user a tailored experience. Now, that concept appears to be bleeding into billboards.
There’s a lot to keep track of in such a rapidly moving world. Good communication combined with innovation can be the difference between a company that fails, or a company that thrives. If you want to make sure that your company is in the latter category, our free media audit is a good place to start.
