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The future of advertising
Posted on July 10th, 2009 3 comments
Privacy campaigners in the UK are celebrating the news that BT has dumped plans to roll out a controversial system, created by a firm called Phorm, which would snoop on users’ web use in order to serve up personalised advertising according to The Register. Last night TalkTalk also confirmed it was dropping plans to use the new technology.This week’s edition of the The New Scientist suggests the Phorm episode is just the latest battle in the long-running war over online privacy. But the next skirmishes over privacy-invading technology will not be fought online, but on the streets.
Eye balling
With electronic billboards, processing power, cameras and other sensors becoming ever cheaper, it’s become possible to manufacture products that allow web-like targeting in the real world.
For example, a system developed by Singapore’s research agency lets advertising screens detect the genders of passers-by: it will soon be able to tell how old they are, too. IBM has worked on systems that can scan a crowd and estimate numbers, demographics, and where people are looking.
Computer vision is sophisticated and cheap enough to make it possible to spot the logos on your drinks cup or shopping bags, and serve up ads in response – whether to reinforce your choice or promote a competitor.
And now that facial recognition has become a consumer technology it wouldn’t be difficult to install a series of ad screens that tracks individuals as they move through a subway system or mall, greeting them at each turn with a particular message or character.
Message metrics
These new tools can also let advertisers monitor the performance of adverts more closely, much as they monitor how many people see, and click on, online adverts.
For example, this camera can tell where multiple people are looking from a few metres away. That allows ad buyers to tell instantly how many people saw a commercial and how long they looked at it for.
Systems based on conventional cameras can gather similar data, as this billboard that changes when someone looks away illustrates.
Opt out or opt in
The developers of these technologies often suggest that they will be beneficial for everyone. Viewers are targeted with relevant offers, rather than bombarded with spam; advertisers, for their part, won’t waste money on people who have no interest in their products. As the industrial magnate William Lever once quipped: “Half my advertising money is wasted. The problem is that I don’t know which half.”
But that hasn’t persuaded many privacy advocates, who think there’s a principle at stake – the right not to be monitored without giving consent – and fear that the result will be more intrusive than helpful. If you agree with that perspective, the omens aren’t good.
The technology that underpins online behavioural advertising has raced ahead of the public debate about whether and how it should be controlled – as evidenced by the machinations that have surrounded Phorm’s proposals. Legislation is still at an embryonic stage: for example, this bill has been proposed in New York.
In the absence of formal controls, most of the biggest online advertisers, including Google and Yahoo, have opted for self-regulation: they allow people to opt out by visiting a certain webpage. That, say critics, is just a ruse, both avoiding discussion about the desirability of these technologies, and establishing opt-in as the default position.
It’s hard to see how opt-out could be efficiently implemented for billboards on the street – at least without a new wave of devices that can communicate their owners’ preferences to nearby advertising systems.
But the necessary infrastructure for such a system is unlikely to be developed without considerable public pressure – unlikely to materialise until long after smart billboards are already in your face.
Business, Consumer, Corporate Communications, Current Affairs, Politics, Public Affairs, Public Relations bt. future of advertising, phorm3 responses to “The future of advertising”
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Brian Gilliland July 10th, 2009 at 09:38
Conall, thanks for raising this very interesting issue.
In fact, people get far too wound up about this issue. They think Big Brother is watching them, when in fact, all that’s happening is advertisers are working out how to spend their budget in ways that are cost effective and deliver the things that customers want. What’s wrong with that?
And it’s always gone on. When you go into a shop, the sales person immediately sizes you up, decides what woud be best to offer you. And you like that, because you don’t want to be offered things you don’t want.
You get annoyed when you receive direct mail and leaflet drops about things that don’t interest you. So do direct marketers, like me, because I’d rather not waste budget contacting people who won’t respond.
Ever since I started working in direct marketing, 20 years ago, I have targeted people on the basis of their interests and actions.
In our company, informatics is a key element in what we offer clients: that means using statistical methods to classify customers and potential customers into groups who can be targeted differently, depending on their expressed interests and their actions. We’re not peering through your bedroom window, we’re not saying “Let’s target Mr J Smith, we know all about him”, and we’re not using any data that isn’t in the public domain. We’re just using the information that’s out there to put people into groups.
Yes, the maths is reasonably sophisticated, yes, it’s very accurate, but Big Brother it ain’t.
The use of the word ’snoop’ is perhorative. For example, if I was selling cars, is there anything wrong with knowing that Conall McDevitt drives an Alfa, and it’s getting to the age where he might change, so let’s tell him about BMW’s but not Kia’s?
Well, using somebody’s web use to target advertising is just the same. Nobody will be knocking on your door saying, “Now Mr Smith, why did you visit this particular website?” They won’t, because the targeting uses aggregate data to put people into groups, not personalised information to look at you individually.
Nothing to fear, in fact, as consumers, we all benefit.
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I’m going to resist getting into the debate about ‘Big Brother’-style information gathering, but just wanted to point to some hi-tech Amnesty outdoor advertising in Germany, challenging attitudes on domestic violence. From the blog:
“This Amnesty bus stop advertisement, recently erected in Hamburg, changes whether or not someone’s looking at it. Using a built-in camera with eye-tracking technology, it can tell exactly when someone is checking it out. When no one is looking, it shows a man hitting his wife. But when you look right at it, it changes to a picture of the couple looking happy and normal.
“The change only occurs after a brief delay, so that observers understand what’s going on, and get the message.”
More, including image, on Belfast and Beyond: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=3460
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Köksal A. July 16th, 2009 at 10:41
Dear Colleagues…
As we all experience, economic crises made it gruesomely visible that every business has to innovate. The advertising market, I believe, is also going through a huge innovation phase.
After being 15 years in this sector and observing carefully the direction of he consumer, I predict that the birth of a new form of advertising agency, combining both digital and traditional skills, is very near.
I think, there won’t be any distinction between traditional and digital in the very near future.
Instead, the main competition in the advertising market will be in becoming the innovated brand new advertising agency. I believe the race goes both ways though. Whether it is digital or traditional, we are all racing for becoming the all-mighty “new generation agency”.
In order to discuss especially the future of advertising and agencies I have formed a group on LinkedIn called New Generation Agency Network:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2090773&trk=hb_side_gSo please come join our group to discuss and share your thoughts about the future of advertising with all the other ad pros.
Regards,
Köksal Abdurrahmanoglu
President & CEO of adinteractive
Founder of istanbul.com & adinteractivehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/koksal
koksala.wordpress.com
http://www.twitter.com/koksal
http://www.vimeo.com/koksalkoksal@adinteractive.com.tr
koksal@istanbul.com (mobile)+90 (212) 274 20 44
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