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Smart Billboards
djdanlib writes "The New York Times ran this story Sunday about the Mobiltrak smart billboard system. It works by detecting what radio station you're listening to as you pass by a billboard, then displaying advertisements targeted at that station's demographic. It's kind of like a real-time Nielsen Ratings system for radio. And it's entirely passive, requiring no special hardware in your car - it receives the faint tuning signal generated by your radio." We've mentioned these before.
Talk about blipverts...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
While I'm sure this was a good idea 10 years ago ... it's almost 2004. Auto mp3 players are under $150, who actually listens to the radio anymore? I've not listened to anything FM for 4 or 5 years ... sounds like they're a little behind the times.
Smart Billboards, Dumb Advertising.
Just a general Q and O...
How well would these wok in high traffic areas? I could see something like this in Kansas or some other place where you have time to hit the reciver, change the ad and such, but in a high traffic area?...would it try to pick up if you driving a Ford POS or a Beemer and then chose the ad based on that?
What if I am listening to Art Bell? Would it show me an ad for the latest book on Shadow Gov? Jim Rome? How to have a take a not suck? Kim Kommando? Your a loser and need to return your computer right now? Top 40? All you $$$ belong to us - The RIAA? (off topic rant I know)
Seriously, seeing an ever changing sign in a high speed/high traffic zone is an pile-up just begging to happen. I would hope they keep these kind of things in areas where concentration can be peoperly applied to them without the detriment to overall driving situation.
(This post too sucky to spehl cheq...)
"Is the Howard Stern show still on the radio these days? That could get dangerous."
How about the flip side? I listen to NPR a lot, and if enough people are listening to non-corporate radio, it'll be really interesting to see what kinds of ads are displayed.
Of course in Phoenix, almost all of the corporate stations are running extremely frequent ads for adult stores like "The Castle Boutique" and "Fascinations", or ads for participating in medical studies, so the content could get rather lewd or strange if these advertisers take to the billboards...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I primarily listen to my iPod using an iRock FM transmitter. Its signal strength is low enough that I fear Billboards may overpower it.
If I *ever* catch a commercial interrupting the sanctum of my iPod to my car stereo, I will clip the antenna lead and install a loop around the sticky pad where my iPod sits. If that doesn't work, I'll cut radio completely out. I'll get a preamp and amp with a direct connection.
Who needs radio? I won't go back to radio until there is some kind of cellular packet radio with multicast distribution. Then I could listen to my favorite stations cross country. Even with a 5GB iPod, smart playlists allow you to randomly rotate 2.5 days of continuous uninterrupted no-repeat music from your own collection. Even a 64MB flash based MP3 player will give you 45 minutes to an hour. 256MB is easily one leg of a car trip or a two-way commute.
In my family, smart billboards would be called "a day late and a dollar short." All it's really worth is a line in the sand drawn by the Ad companies. Flip them the bird!
--- Nothing clever here: move along now...
Dude, give the engineers a bit more credit. They're not morons. The prospect of a schizophrenic, strobing billboard I'm sure has been considered.
Just as elevators in tall buildings don't get all flabbergasted and shoot out of the roof, these bill boards should be pretty well behaved too.
Moderation: +1 pwnage
Are you claiming there's no advertising on NPR? I guess plugs for sponsors don't count for some. They do for me, however.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Wow, I must be further left-of-center than I thought. NPR isn't corporate radio?
To answer your original ponder about what kind of ads, how about ADM, Saab, Keane, etc. They're still ads, they're still for-profit corporations paying money for their ads to be placed on advertiser-supported broadcast radio.
Pledge drives support the operations budget of the local re-broadcaster, not NPR.
--
Yum - federally funded radio! I can see the ads now:
"Vote for this politician, who is just like the other one, except for his stance on the death penalty!"
"Support our drive to change this wholly irrelevant government policy! Ignore the $=power equation, and the fact that you=$0!"
"Vote! Cloak the government in the mantle of legitimacy!"
"Vote twice! Cloak the government in the Mantle of Legitimacy +2!"
Corporate sponsorship is fundamentally no different from federal sponsorship. Both sponsors want you to be a good sheep. Both hold up the threat of mutton to encourage you to permit your fleecing.
Pledge drives support NPR as well because local stations have to pay to get NPR programming, thus they support NPR with funds obtained (in most cases anyway) primarily from pledge drives.
It's indirect, but it's still support.
No it's not. It's operating a regular radio, probably even one that's FCC approved. All radios 'leak' out this form of RF when in use.
It might be classified as littering if you go dumping radios all around, but nothing the FCC could get you for.
A Good Intro to NetBS
Only superheterodyne tuners do this. Regenerative tuners will do this only if they're improperly adjusted. TRF tuners will never do this. I guess that means it's time to break out the old Atwater Kent...
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
as long as its legal, no one should have to explain their tastes or choices. If someone can afford it...more power to them.
So, I take it you don't mind if I buy a couple senators?
-- Jack Valenti
Other examples of this mode of thinking in action:
There's more to morality than the law. There's more to life than fulfilling your own small selfish desires. But it's your right to think otherwise.
That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this article.
Personally, I found the advertising techniques in that movie to be a hell of a lot scarier than the whole Future Crime stuff. Probably because the advertising could happen. As I watched the movie I was picturing advertising execs having wet dreams, and board meetings saying, "We need this!"
And now, here is the beginnings of it.
WWJD?
JWRTFM!