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Advertising Screen Tailors Ads to Audience
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist are running an article about a system which tailors the ads displayed on a screen according to what BlueTooth gadgets people are carrying. A bit like the billboards in Minority Report ." Awkward situations created by devices like this will be scenes in the sit-coms of tomorrow.
How many times do you need to hear/see an advert for it to sink in?
This system is geared for that once only viewing:
As each passing device has a unique Bluetooth signal, this enables the screen to identify different individuals passing by. It builds a record of the adverts those people have been previously been shown to make sure messages are not repeated.
Surely advertisers want you to be paying enough attention to get the product information but to not drill it in 500 times a day.
Seems like a good idea, but the privacy advocates will go bananas (and demand it dismantled when all thats needed is to take out your bluteeth)
liqbase
... bluetooth-enabled pocket-puss ftw. Kinda reminds me of that commercial where the guy and girl are in a waiting room and a cell-phone rings. The girl digs in her purse and promptly answers her vibrator.... which she turns on... and then is too embarassed to turn off as she quickly hides it...
I can just picture girlfriends asking their b/fs: "Why is it that all of these websites are advertising sex-toys?"
/sigh
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
The problem with advertisements now is that the vast majority of them don't appeal to me. I am a white male age 18-35. That doesn't mean that I fall into any particular demographic, it just means that I may be vaguely interested in some things that others are perhaps also interested. Bzzt. I am an individual!
So what this purports to do is give me information that I am interested in. Not information that "my generation" needs. Information underload is done away with and I now have interesting data customized for me. This is great because I no longer have to endure GLH infomercials and can get back to enjoying Lean Mean Fat-grilling Machine infomercials.
Imagine a video camera on the advertisement that spots you're bald and loads an ad for Rogaine or one that determines you're fat and loads an ad for NutriSystem, or that you have no fashion sense and loads clothing ads!
Lol no doubt, I can see it now:
Some hot chick appears on the billboard and says in a sultry voice: "Hello John Smith, did you need a refill on your last order of Teeny-Weeny condoms?"
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It says it works on objects on a persons possesion. Who would be dumb enough to say "OK! Let me carry this bluetooth device with built in advertisement streaming."
I know I wouldn't. Or maybe it's the next generation of spyware? That sucks.
Still, I wanna know what they'll do with my Logitec MX 518 bluetooth mouse... Morse code with the light?
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
All the technological interference in Minority Report didn't look so good to tell you the truth. On one hand I do appreciate the ability that this would have on companies being able to further tailor their advertisements to individuals. Being that it is still not specifically tailored to each person a breach of privacy seems less of an issue. Realistically, it would be nice to get away from Monistat or herpes ads. If I have to see ads placed around I would just as soon they were tailored to something that would have a higher chance of being interesting to me. I guess we'll have to see where this goes, I really doubt it will show its face anytime too soon. I am assuming that this would be a totally passive system so that it wouldn't be trying to drain my Bluetooth battery. If I got tired of the ads I could always put the bluetooth on standby.
Justin - Don't be afraid of my blog, it won't bite.
So I guess that the next generation of mobilephones will not have a *optional* BlueTooth feature, but a required one?
Hmm..
... on the nuances of bluetooth. First off, it's likely that it will only work on discoverable devices. These are getting increasingly small in number, as cellphone companies and others learn to disable that by default.
:)
Secondly, I'd be interested to see what information they plan on using. For instance, I have a Motorola V551.. so I have a cell phone. Now, my cellphone happens to have a name of Diwani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwani), so will I get Arab language stuff? I know another person who's cell phone is named Turd Ferguson...
It may be good for a laugh
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
All you need to do is take out your blueteeth, eh? What if that means getting rid of everything?
Sorry to "go bananas" on you but it's a possibility that's highly probable and I don't like. What, are you now going to tell me I'm a schizo for complaining about the NSA wiretapping? Does that make me a 'privacy advocate'? Because in my eyes, I'm just an American citizen who's sick of technology raping my goddamn privacy.
FTFA: "It can uniquely identify devices but keeps the person anonymous."
Sorry, but with all the identity theft, credit card skimming, government intrusion into privacy, etc. I find it hard to believe that such a system will provide "assured" anonymity for very long.
So what kind of advertisements would one see if adult toys started coming with blue-tooth chips?
How long until terrorists start using such devices as detonators for bombs? Wait until a large number of bluetooth devices are in range, or have passed within range in a short period of time, then *BOOM*!
Actually, if I understand it right, all this would do is make sure you get to see more ads (by reducing the probability to see the same one again), not actually target them to you. The system won't even know you're a guy, in fact, but just whether it detected your bluetooth device before, and during which ads.
So it won't necessarily mean you get " Lean Mean Fat-grilling Machine" infomercials. It might as well mean that instead of seeing a Tampax ad 10 times, you'll see ads for Tampax, OB, SlimFast, WonderBra and some epilation machine, 2 times each.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Did I read that part right to mean that they can link the advert screen to nearby sensors (like in lecture halls for different subjects) so they can link that subject to YOU? (Even if its to your DEVICE, that's still possible to link that device to YOU, isn't it?)
I don't want anybody monitoring me and my movements, travels, or anything I don't specifically give them. To think that they could do this just from monitoring my Bluetooth devices is almost enough to get me to swear off of radio-linked devices forever...
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash." Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Robert A. Heinlein
That's nothing. Just wait until I finish perfecting my device that will target advertising based on what RFID tags you are foolishly carrying around on you. Bwaahahahah!
Perhaps now those people wearing those often-times unseen Bluetooth headsets will have a picture appear next to them, so they don't look like they're just talking to themselves? Or maybe we could make the ads say "Look, everyone around you thinks you're schitzo. Turn your head a little more so they can see the device jammed into your ear!"
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
*massive blue face appears on the silver screen*
Attention theater attendants: The occupant in seat 4a, row 5 has a bluetooth enabled video camera.
SEIZE HIM!
Now please turn off all electronic devices, or else, and enjoy our feature presentation!
Demented But Determined.
will be my preferred Bluetooth device.
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
Oh, right, that's how the advertising bubble (driving the dot-com bubble) worked. Let's subject the user to hundreds of thousands of different, but still untargetted, ads, and surely he'll end up buying everything. Right? Heck, instead of having just 1 ad on the main page, let's have a dozen different ads on each page. It's good if the user gets a lot of product information, right?
Needless to say, it didn't work that way. Being bombarded by a lot of untargetted stuff just got people to mentally filter those out. Whereas in the days of 1 (and always the same) banner on the main page, people actually clicked on them, nowadays most of us don't even notice them any more.
Plus, you know what kind of a downward slope that started, as each generation of untargetted ads had to be more obtrussive and in-your-face to be noticed at all. Pop-ups, full-page ads, layers on top of the actual page, became actually necessary because that bombardment actually desensitized people to the point where a normal banner isn't even noticed any more.
So, I dunno, it may be that the privacy advocates _are_ right there. Whether you're worried about the privacy or not, the problem still is that it's for naught. It's a rehash of an idiotic idea we've already seen before, and which _didn't_ actually provide any actual benefit. Not for the ad providers, not for the web masters, not for the users. I can even understand risking your privacy and a slippery slope in return for some actual benefit, but it seems stupid to me to just give it up when there are no benefits whatsoever.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
And the claim that 'privacy issues' are not at stake is of course totally wrong, as, again, Minority Report showed so well: Everyone around you can see exactly what types of advertisements are presented to you, even if no names are mentioned -- nice to walk past this grossly embarassing ad while everyone looks at you, right? Eh?
I really need to stop carrying that thing around...
If I was the advertiser I would use RFID tags which often aren't removed from merchandise and are becoming increasingly more prevalent thanks to Wal-Mart et al. When compared to the number of blue-tooth devices that are carried it would seem like you would get more hits with RFID and a better idea of what they are buying.
But I love my blue teeth!
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
...will involve targeting ads to individuals across mediums. For example, if you watched Lost last night, you might see an offer online to purchase last seasons episodes on DVD, or better yet, purchase a subscription via your online DVR account (someday standard Internet connections in the US will be fast enough to enable this). For consumers who opt-in, their cable and internet bill will be cheaper, as the advertisers will be paying more for a more qualified demographic. The concept of cookies will work cross platform from an anonymous identification standpoint.
From an advertising standpoint, the bluetooth billboard is an interesting gimmick but as many have pointed out here, there is next to zero benefit for an advertiser in this execution.
I assume these will come from the following potentially embarrassing BlueTooth devices
"The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
Major Major
An older NewScientist story describes another system that beams ads directly to phones, also via Bluetooth.
Considering the range of bluetooth is about 10 meters (11 yards for those of us who use FPS units), I'm not feeling particularly worried about this.
However, the range is 10 meters/11 yards NOW. Improvements in the technology could make receive-only devices more sensitive, extending their range further than the casual user realizes.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
When you take a picture with some cell phones, they make a loud noise that you can't disable, right? (Hm, my current one doesn't.*) As I understand it, this "feature" was added after people -- not the phones' buyers -- complained of being secretly photographed. Also consider that the e911 system is a mandatory feature usable to find you within 300m. With those and the growth of for-someone-else's-convenience technologies like DRM, it seems likely that your next phone will also have features that make targeted advertising and automatic monitoring easier.
* (Sounds made mandatory in South Korea and Japan.)
Revive the Constitution.
So, if I'm carrying a bluetooth thumbdrive full of porn, it will start showing wildly inappropriate ads on the big screen? Cool!
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Maybe I am paranoid, maybe I think outside the box. Or maybe having what time of day you walk by a particular Bluetooth advert board every day is valuable information to someone. Even if the boards don't share one large database and they each have their own, one could gather the databases and extrapolate your daily path (or more importantly for the paranoid, if your daily path happened to change). Imagine the fun of spoofing bluetooth information. "Sir, a crime was commited here today, and it seems your phone was in the area...care to explain why you said you were at home?"
It may seem harmless that the technology is watching you, but someone is watching the technology too. The feds have already been demanding search databases from the search engines...why wouldn't they demand access to all of this information as well? Letting the marketing companies pay to track all of the 'suspected terrorists' would be a huge win for them.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
...wouldn't it be amusing if someone passed by such a bilboard with a bluetooth-based vibrator?
The ~10 yard range reduces the effectiveness of this in allot of walking-by type things, but in places like Elevators or Escalators with those Captivate screens it could be a home run. That gives it time to scan everyone's devices, and still have you in viewing range for long enough to show the tailored ads. But my question is, without hat exactly are they going to identify about you just by what type of bluetooth devices you carry? Not allot that i can think of, except maybe identifying total geeks (tons of devices), or i guess maybe what Cell carrier you use. Doesnt seem terribly useful to me. However, TFA says that its anonymous, but trackable by device... This means that if they partnered with makers of POS systems, they could "anonymously" track what/where you were buying, too, and then recognize you as you walked near their ad screens. Imagine, buy a starbucks coffee, go back up to your office, and then the same time the next day when you take the elevator down, the screens are showing nothing but dunkin donuts ads...
A) Companies will need to spend 3 or 4 times the amount they currently spend on advertising production.
B) If people keep their blueteeth shut, the billboard will be a waste of money.
C) More radiation going through my head.
D) What if you want your bluetooth to be active + shown but you don't want this..err..service?
Sorry folks, but if we won't be pessimistic about such designs, who on earth will?
exactly, thanks for pointing that out. However, from the specs:
The Toy is not discoverable in a bluetooth search
So no worries after all.
I don't own any Bluetooth devices, and have no plans to get any. No adverts for me!
You must think in Russian.
... You know the people who wander around mumbling/talking to themselves. It used to be easy to spot them and keep a safe distance. Now you assume that people talking to themselves are on a wireless phone in hands-free mode.
Let a real crazy dude to within a few feet of me. Sounded like he was having a nice phone conversation, until I noticed he didn't have a phone at all!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Create a little circuit that you place hidden in stores that data logs bluetooth devices. Once a day, walk into the store with your palm pilot and download the database and sell it to the advertisers.
Sound hard? Nope. Go to sparkfun and buy the bluetooth smd module for $50 that has 100 meter range (enough to cover a 28,000 square foot store). Spend $50 on a SD card data logging module with real time clock and then $25 - $30 for a micro controller and power supply. Once a min, sweep the store for bluetooth and create a log. Then you'll know not only the ids of the devices but also how long they were in the store. Assuming that your bluetooth module is 80% idle, 15% recv and 5% transmit, the whole thing would only use about 25mAh. A lipo battery could run it for 2 - 3 days if external power wasn't available.
Get really crafty and you could probably triangulate which area of the store they're in.
You just compared giving up Bluetooth-enabled gizmos to giving up baths.
Cripes, man, are you guys so hooked on electronic gadgets that this is a meaningful comparison for you? And (to the GGP), do you really think it'll be impossible to get to work without Bluetooth in the near future? Holy daydreaming Batman. Ever hear of walking? Bicycles, scooters, public transit? Not everybody is an IT worker living in the suburbs and putting 40 miles on their car each day to get to work.
If you choose to carry around a Bluetooth-enabled PDA to convince yourself you're important while walking around past billboards, don't be surprised if people advertise to you. You can't blame them - you're an excellent target market. How you can compare this need to the need to wash yourself is beyond me.
The luddite speaks:
Perhaps a system like this is better suited for collecting metrics on the demographic that passes the billboard?
No, I will not work for your startup