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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.
Umm..if my radio isn't on will I get a message.."Switch on your radio stupid moron! I am not getting any signal. I gotta play some ad for you"
I was thinking before I posted, "What happens when there's bumper-to-bumper traffic; how do you target every car when they move that slowly?"
But then I got to thinking: could you drop a radio next to the billboard and amp the faint tuning signal, so, say, all the people listening to top 40 see ads targeted toward NPR listeners?
I guess this is theoretically possible. Funny how every new advertising technology begs the question, "How can I subvert this?"
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
It would seem that a particular radio station or advertizer could hack the system and bias the billboard by leaving a box of cheap battery powered FM radios by the side of the road (or a weak FM transmitter). With all those radios tuned to the same station it would fool the billboard into thinking that the cars where tuned to that station. Thus the billboard would leave the same ad up and log high ratings for the station.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I lived right by the one they had in Roseville, CA. It was extremely bright, annoying, and dangerous seeming. While you are driving down the freeway (especially at night) it was so bright that you couldn't not look at it. Which I'm sure is the point. But when you have thousands of people flying by at 70mph, it just doesn't seem safe.
Most billboard business is based on renting the space. If you have to rely on a radio station's demographic to get your ad up there, how would you pro-rate that rental fee? Does the radio station get anything out of it, if you try it that way? And so on. Seems like a substantially different business model could build around this idea -- something "hits"-like.
(And more importantly, what does this mean for public service announcements? If I'm driving down the road and all the billboards are tailoring themselves to messages about the D.A.R.E. program, am I listening to Rush Limbaugh, or what? How about if all the pictures turn to messages about abortion?)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
this way I could get the bill board to restrict its selection to topics. If my Ad was in that rotation then I probably just improved its visibility five or ten fold. I could sell that to people who place ads.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Advertising everywhere, all the time, reminded me of my experience at a Mexican beach last week. While a sitting on the beach admiring the natural and human scenery, hundreds of [ licensed ] vendors walk by every few seconds pushing everything from blankets, artwork, tatoos, food, sexual partners, etc. 99.9% of the interactions are "not interested", but they keep on coming all day. Its much like the MS TV commercial why the Blubberfly boots the salesmen.
So, what will the billboard think when it not only gets the news that I'm listening to a radio station that doesn't really exist (91.9MHz), but also gets blasted by the 91.9MHz FM signal my car's emitting? Will they use Tuneprint to figure out what song is playing? Will they simply categorize me as "geek" and display ads for computer stuff?
Nah, they'll probably be too stupid for that. They'll probably think "Wow, this guy's listening to bumfuck cornfield radio!" or whatever the 91.9MHz station is that sometimes leaks through and interferes with my music. I'll probably get ads for Bibles or manure.
Exception: I listen to a college radio station show on Thursday afternoons: Guerrilla Radio, on WRUW 91.1 FM, 1630-1730 Thursdays. Unless I forget.