Ads for you

A few weeks backs now, Rob Thomas a candidate for the Auckland council made the news for his tech savvy billboard on Ponsonby Rd. that sent out a text to anyone within a certain range of the billboard. These texts sent out his political message to people who passed by.

This got me thinking about how much technology has pushed advertising to change over the years. As we know, advertising has changed, not only in terms of new technologies but for the need of these advertising messages to get through the clutter of the mass amounts of advertising around.

Cultural changes sees that people are more apt to try to avoid advertising messages as much as they can now (think about Freeview and it’s capability to skip through ads). The fact is that people don’t really like being advertised to or at least realise they are being advertised to. Technology has helped advertisers get their messages across in a more interactive way to connect with audiences. This novelty tends to capture attention more and cause more interest.

The internet can monitor where people click so advertisements on certain pages reflect what is assumed to be products or services that are catered specifically for the user. This more personalised nature of advertising has transformed the industry to become more focus on personalised advertising.

In the same way as the internet, advertising in real life has also changed in trying to be more personalised to its audience. Some interesting new advertising mediums include ones that Rob Thomas has used. The Bluetooth capable advertising billboard communicates messages to directly the public.

Some stores have GPS enabled devices that when a customer (who agrees to receive texts from the store) comes within a certain range of the store, they will automatically receive a text message with some sort of discount special enticing the receiver to walk in the store and purchase something. Taxis also have this capability. Screens in taxis across the country are tailored to have advertisements played when they are within range of a certain store, promoting their business. This on hand advertising ensures that the viewer has recently viewed the ad therefore meaning that they still have that ad in their top of mind awareness and are more likely to visit that store. This is an effective way of capturing consumers. Others forms include bus stands that allow people to download a free music track when they’re in that range.

One relatively newer form of advertising that I personally find intriguing is the billboard ads that scans who the viewer is in terms of their demographic and personalise the ads that come up on screen. This effective use of selecting who the audience is means that advertising messages on screen can be focused on who is viewing it ensuring that they get a message that is aimed at them. Still in its infancy, one can only imagine how much further this type of technology can develop. Minority Report was not far off in suggesting this type of technology, and perhaps in the future these billboards and any other advertising spaces can find out more about what we like and don’t like therefore further customising advertisements relevant to us.