The Future is Already Here

The underlying premise of Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report is that by 2054 our way of life has been transformed by highly sophisticated technology that recognises us by name; it knows our likes, dislikes and interests. It can read our minds, know our innermost secrets, and anticipate how we will behave. The technology utilises super intelligent computer screens, monitors and holograms which are an integral part of the environments in which we live:

John Underkoffler, who designed most of Anderton’s interface after Spielberg told him to make it “like he was conducting an orchestra”, said “it would be hard to identify anything [in the movie] that had no grounding in reality”.

Although this may seem a little far-fetched, technology is being developed to bring this kind of world closer to reality. And we may be even closer than we think

Technologies from the film that were subsequently introduced or are being developed include: Multi-touch interfaces, similar to Anderton’s, developed and distributed by Microsoft (2007), MIT (2009), and Intel (2009), and Microsoft again, this time for their Xbox 360 (2010). A company representative, at the 2007 premiere of the Microsoft Surface, promised “it will feel like Minority Report.” When Microsoft released the Kinect motion sensing camera add-on for their Xbox 360 gaming console in 2010, the Kinect’s technology allowed several programmers to create Minority Report inspired user interfaces.

“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”

William Gibson American/Canadian writer and futurist who coined the term “cyberspace”

Retina scanners were developed and launched by Global Rainmakers Incorporated (GRI) in 2010. Minority Report is one possible outcome.

The company is installing hundreds of the scanners in Bank of America locations in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has a contract to install them on several United States Air Force bases.

“In the future, whether it’s entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or shopping in a supermarket, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris.

So, not only are the eyes the windows to the soul, they’re also the key to your garage-door opener.”

Jeff Carter Hoyos Corporation

The technology is evolving rapidly. The latest scanners are able to capture the iris from a distance of ten feet. Future devices might read irises from more than 30 feet. The newest machines are also able to process hundreds of iris scans per minute, meaning they can be used effectively in crowded public places

RFID readers: In 2010, IBM UK was working on a technology that would turn ordinary digital billboards into RFID readers. They are capitalising on the fact that most of our credit cards and mobile phones now have built-in RFID chips that house all of our personal information. A reader inside the board will identify you, potentially even by name, and deliver you a personalised advertisement. Apple is looking to implement RFID into its iphone 5, creating a whole new world of opportunity for DOOH:

Crime prediction software is being developed at the University of Pennsylvania (2010). The software collates a range of variables then uses an algorithm to work out who is at the highest chance of offending. As in the film, the programme will have a trial run in Washington D.C., which, if successful, will lead to a nationwide rollout.

Facial recognition advertising: The Japanese company NEC is developing facial recognition advertising billboards. These billboards will theoretically be able to recognise passers-by via facial recognition, call them by name, and deliver customer specific advertisements. So far the billboards can recognise age and gender, and deliver demographically appropriate adverts, but cannot identify individuals. The billboards will “behave like those in Minority Report...in which Cruise’s character is confronted with digital signs that call out his name as he walks through a futuristic shopping mall.” IBM is developing similar billboards which plan to deliver customised adverts to individuals who carry identity tags.

Electronic paper, was a development announced by Xerox in 2002; by MIT in 2005, by media conglomerate Hearst Corporation in 2008, and by LG; a South Korean electronics manufacturer in 2010. In 2005, when the Washington Post asked the chief executive of MIT’s spin-off handling their research when “the “Minority Report” newspaper” would be released, he predicted “around 2015.” In 2006 PC World announced in an article entitled: “German researchers say ‘Minority Report’ Transparent Screens Possible”. German researchers thought they would be available in two years. Tech watch’s 2008 article, ‘Minority Report’ e-newspaper on the way, noted that Hearst was “pushing large amounts of cash into the technology.”

Minority Report technology is driving a metamorphosis in Out-Of-Home communication (OOH). For years OOH has been a static, one way message medium. Today digital technology is enabling the delivery of targeted, personalised messages with which consumers can interact. Over the coming years, the industry will become an integral part of the digital communications network impacting on the daily lives of people on the move.

This insight briefing looks at the current and developing state of the art, and presents insights into the future of the industry.

Key Points

• Science fiction is becoming science fact. Digital technology is transforming OOH to DOOH enabling the delivery of targeted, personalised, interactive messages to audiences on the move. The technology can communicate and interact with consumers and provide detailed marketing metrics which was once the holy grail of advertisers.
• In turn, Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) communications are transforming the environments in which they are located. In transit venues, shopping centres, retail outlets, supermarkets, theatres, restaurants, petrol stations, medical centres; even entire cityscapes are being illuminated in digital video cladding.
• DOOH is appearing in different formats, sizes, and locations with specifically designed technological capabilities to suit the location. From small screen ‘point of sale’ functionality to large multi screen displays, DOOH arrests attention, engages the consumer, delivers information, entertains, builds brands, and facilitates audience response.
• The industry is expanding, becoming increasingly ‘intelligent’, converging with other media and incorporating technologies that are delivering a ‘Minority Report’ experience. The industry has reached a tipping point
• The industry is growing across the world and in some advanced market areas forecasts are for annual compound growth in double digits.
• DOOH technologies are enabling the collection of accurate, real time marketing metrics that are demonstrating the increasing effectiveness of the medium in stimulating consumer interest and desire to purchase
• The industry is converging, consolidating and entering a ‘breakout’ period with strong service providers better placed to deliver scale and effective marketing strategies.
• The world is becoming increasingly mobile. Urbanisation, ‘without location working’ and mobile communities mean more people are on the move and increasingly contactable through digital technology.
• Technological innovations are leading to the integration of communications channels on one screen. Distinctions between DOOH and other media will become irrelevant.
• The capital and operating costs of establishing and running networks have declined in recent years, substantially shortening the timeline to profitability.
• Major holding companies are making equity investments. It takes about 10 years for any industry to mature, and that’s really about the length of time that DOOH networks have been established in any significant number.

Mega Drivers

Growth of the urbanites

Between 2009 and 2050, the world population is expected to increase by 2.3 billion, passing from 6.8 billion to 9.1 billion. At the same time, the population living in urban areas is projected to gain 2.9 billion, increasing from 3.4 billion in 2009 to 6.3 billion 2050.

Thus, the urban areas of the world are expected to absorb all the population growth expected over the next four decades while at the same time drawing in some of the rural population. As a result, the world rural population is projected to start decreasing in about a decade and there will likely be 0.5 billion fewer rural inhabitants in 2050 than today

Most of the population growth expected in urban areas will be concentrated in the cities and towns of the less developed regions. Asia, in particular, is projected to see its urban population increase by 1.7 billion, Africa by 0.8 billion, and Latin America and the Caribbean by 0.2 billion. Population growth is therefore becoming largely an urban phenomenon concentrated in the developing world.

Urbanisation is expected to continue rising in both the more developed and the less developed regions so that, by 2050, urban dwellers will likely account for 86 per cent of the population in the more developed regions and for 66 per cent of that in the less developed regions. Overall, the world population is expected to be 69 per cent urban in 2050. By 2050 two in three people on the planet will be city-dwellers. More than half of the population of India, three-quarters of that of China, and four-fifths of that of Indonesia will be living in cities. Africa and Asia will account for almost seven in every 10 urban inhabitants globally

Urbanisation is having and will continue to have an enormous impact on lifestyles and digital communications. Internet access and other data and video applications will be available everywhere and anywhere.

Citysumers will be spending a large proportion of their lives Out-Of-Home. In the UK for example the current figure is 42% of the time, and while it is difficult to quantify exactly how much this has grown, estimates suggest that between 1990 and 2010 there was a 33% increase in Out-Of-Home transit.

Minority Report – Realities Today

The DOOH industry is experimenting with powerful technologies to enhance audience measurement, interactivity and targeted advertising. The industry’s “2.0” stage will likely see a mix of such technologies used in various contexts. Among these are mobile marketing, facial recognition, RFID, GPS, Microsoft’s Project Natal and social networking. Each of these technologies already has the ability to identify individual consumers, track them as they move from place to place, and store detailed information about their preferences and habits.

Facial recognition

There’s a scene in ‘Minority Report’ where Tom Cruise (Anderton) walks through a shopping mall as cameras lining the ceilings and walls scan his retinas and advertisements custom-made for him pop up. He enjoys beer, so up pops a Guinness ad. This future has arrived in Tokyo. NEC has developed an ‘advertisement’ that follows a similar idea to that imagined in ‘Minority Report,’ with a camera installed inside an electronic billboard that reads your face. Using facial recognition technology, an internal computer determines your gender and your age. The billboard then pulls up an ad based on your demographic, targeting your best possible interest

“Ten percent of digital signage will be like this in two to three years. That’s a global prediction, from the United States to the EU to China.”

Kosuke Yamauchi NEC spokesman

Over time, identification and interactivity technologies will grow cheaper, more powerful and easier to deploy. Using these technologies, the DOOH industry will be able to deliver highly personalised advertising content to individual consumers. Applied widely enough in digital displays, such a system may be as profitable to the DOOH industry as behavioral advertising has proven profitable on the Internet.

Facial recognition technology is a rising trend in the digital signage industry. Advertising agencies and content producers - in search of quantitative return on investment and return on objective numbers are embracing it. Audience measurement provides data on age, gender, the amount of time the person looked at the display (i.e. dwell and attention time), and the total number of viewers.

Facial recognition technology is a rising trend in the digital signage industry. Advertising agencies and content producers - in search of quantitative return on investment and return on objective numbers are embracing it. Audience measurement provides data on age, gender, the amount of time the person looked at the display (i.e. dwell and attention time), and the total number of viewers.

“Face recognition is just the tip of the new tech iceberg when it comes to outdoor innovation – live video, augmented reality, live tweeting, interactive gaming and 3D posters are all rolling out across the high street and the shopping malls. Advertising is increasingly about the personal. What you’re seeing with these new technologies …is DOOH becoming as tailored as almost any other medium.”

Ivan Clark Independent outdoor specialist and blogger

Gladvertising/Sadvertising

The software will soon be capable of capturing not just the gender and age range of consumers but also the mood they’re in.

“It will be feasible (for cameras) to read if someone’s happy or angry, according to their facial expressions.

We are going towards a world in which advertisers want better analysis of who their customers are, what mood they’re in, and what they can offer them in that mood, at that moment, in that place.”

Dr Vicki Rabenou Chief Measurement Officer Tru-Media

When we smile, frown or grimace, thousands of tiny facial muscles are at work. Emotion-recognition software, or ERS, creates a 3D face map, pinpointing 12 key trigger areas like eye and mouth corners. Then a face-tracking algorithm matches the movements to six basic expression patterns, corresponding to anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust and happiness, or a mixture of them.

Automatic emotion recognition software:

Emotion is fundamental to human experience, influencing cognition, perception, and everyday tasks such as communication and shopping decision-making. Could advertisers read your every emotion, and thus cater their advertising to your mood? It’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

The BlackBerry Empathy is designed to not only read your mood, but also react to it.

Daniel Yoon and Kiki Tang are the designers behind the Empathy, and their main focus was a device that not only “feels you” and your emotions, but that can react to them. While you use the device, or interact with it in any way, a biometric ring will tell the device how you’re feeling at any given moment. As it does, the ring will feed the data to the device, and will be able to change features, as well as details, in real-time, based entirely on your mood. And, if you know someone else who has the Empathy, you can see on your own device how they are feeling. You can also see the emotion they were feeling before their current state of mind. This will help you gauge what’s going on in that person’s day, and help you determine whether or not you want to talk to them.

The challenge facing the creatives will be the need to be far more sensitive to feelings and emotions and how best to respond to them. Gone are the 60’s Mad Men to be replaced by creative psychologists.

Augmented reality

Digital displays are the place where the digital and the real world meet giving rise to a fascinating new user experience of mixed realities. Real-world video images can be augmented with digital animation to form a totally a totally unique experience. Catalogues showing three-dimensional computer simulations of the products they contain and the stories spring to life. Brochures become like magic books when users interacted with computer models of the products on offer.

Gesture-Based Interfaces

Gesture and touch are the user interfaces of the future

Immersive, interactive advertising and digital signage technology tracks people’s movements and puts their real-time video image onscreen into an interactive digital environment or advertisement. People interact with the onscreen content and make changes to the graphics and special effects by moving their hands and body.

Microsoft’s Kinect Will Bring New Interactivity to DOOH. The Kinect technology uses stereoscopic sensors that monitor a person’s body and responds to its commands. While the video gaming world has seen many applications, the Digital Out-Of-Home is looking even closer.

Interactivity is key to customer engagement. What is also key is Anonymous Video Analytics, measuring who is in front of digital signage to give them a targeted message. The technology behind Kinect can be leveraged to do both: provide an interactivity with a message or digital content that does not require touch, and recognise people to deliver targeted content.

Imagine Kinect-like technology on the pavement in front of a shop and tell people: ‘if you dance and get above 80% in this game, you will get £25 off your next purchase. Imagine people lining up to dance in front of a store, which will only attract more people to see what the commotion is about

While this is just a hypothetical situation, the technology is here, and the possibilities of creating interactivity with a screen that does not require immediate proximity will be almost endless.

Personal and friendly

Retailers will ask customers to “Connect using Facebook Connect” to their mobile device as they step in the shop. By doing so, they will receive customised recommendations on their phone and on digital displays. Their friends, who have visited the shop, will digitally indicate which clothes are ‘right for you’. Digital displays will also recommend what’s ‘right for you’ based on what your friends ‘like’.

Through social media like Facebook, personal information about customers can be used to custom design sales communications based on their likes, dislikes and personal preferences.

“Technology, specifically enabling technologies, is transforming the DOOH world into something that has only been written about in books and played out in movies. Personalisation is really the key to effective communication, which is the key to creating and sustaining relationships between brands and their audiences.”

Mike Cearley 11th Screen

Key developments

A number of key developments are shaping the market:

Convergence: We are now seeing strategy for major rollouts that are for ‘digital media networks’ not just ‘digital signage networks’, these combine Digital Signage, Screensavers, Interactive (touch, sensor, RFID) and Mobile apps. No longer is managing a network of ‘screens on a wall’ in isolation to the many other channels of media a winning business proposition.

Social Media: Integration with viewers through social media and sharing is key to brands and this is being extended through to DOOH. Whether it be mobile image uploads that appear on screen or twitterfalls we will see more customers integrating social media into their screen strategy.

Call to action: In particular in retail and DOOH there is an increasing demand for QR codes on content to enable viewers to continue and extend the brand interaction beyond the screen and onto their mobile devices.

The Cloud: Using the Cloud (SaaS) for managing digital media networks over ‘on-premise solutions’ is gaining ground. Customers can leverage cloud-based digital signage services by simply having fixed or mobile internet access at each remote location where playback of media is required and also from any point where they wish to administer their network.

Open Standards: Media RSS and SMIL have opened up the market for hardware, software and syndicated content companies to collaborate and provide scalable interoperable digital media solutions. This openness offers true multi-vendor choice for customers eliminating the requirement to purchase a ‘cradle to grave’ proprietary solution from one vendor.

Reseller uptake: Digital signage is now being embraced by AV and IT resellers that would never have consider it as core to their strategy a year or two ago.

Mobile: One of the most significant recent convergence trends in the DOOH market involves mobile digital signage. The term encompasses a range of executions which exploit the mobile phone’s ubiquity, interactive capability, and immediacy when used in combination with DOOH media. Mobile digital signage allows users to engage with games, ads and other content on screens via their cell phones. Mobile is widely seen as the key to increasing interactivity to the Digital Out-Of-Home market, serving as a gateway to many different technologies.

“What starts as a campaign on a DOOH network can have calls-to-action on the screen that encourage viewers to use their smartphones to engage with and influence what’s playing, or to download more detailed information. What gets pulled to that handheld device can drive them online to a brand website, Facebook page, or YouTube channel, and into a programme that starts to build some interest and loyalty. Email, text messaging, and tweets can follow from that data capture, and the media can steadily interact.”

Rob Gorrie President and Founder, ADCENTRICITY

Key trends

Contextual Out-Of-Home: More advertising messages are based on external data – ranging from the age of the viewer, to the current weather, to the store’s stock levels. One of OOH’s biggest strengths, matched only by online, is the ability to change messaging according to context. And, in an ever more data-driven world, it’s no surprise that networks and advertisers are working to make Out-Of-Home screens more responsive to their changing environment. The result will be spots that better match the needs of both advertiser and consumer, right here, right now

Metrics standards are gaining ground: Both the media owners within the DOOH sector, and the buyers looking at the bigger advertising picture, have long identified accurate and standardised audience metrics as the key to credibility. Significant progress is being made in this regard and adoption by increasing numbers of networks will allow coherent planning across DOOH and other media.

Aggregators deliver audiences – not locations: The separation of the network from the venue owner is a critical part of DOOH’s progression into the mainstream. Aggregators, who package up multiple networks to offer a media buy based on demographics or region rather than a particular set of venues, are growing in significance in the North American market, and it is expected that the same to happen in other territories, including Britain and mainland Europe.

Media sales are increasingly done by media sales people, not by the organisation who installed the screen: The same forces driving the move toward metrics and the rise of the aggregators is also leading to the creation of bigger, better-informed and better-resourced DOOH sales teams, both within media owners and in dedicated sales houses.

International DOOH packages becoming available to media buyers: It’s true that most campaigns are territory-based; so in DOOH, as in other media, there’s limited demand for cross-border buying. But there are special cases, event-linked promotions for example, where cross border buying is needed. Whether owned by a single company or aggregated, DOOH media platforms will offer highly targeted and highly visible international opportunities at a fraction of the cost of buying conventional media in multiple territories.

“I can imagine a time when space stations orbiting the earth will have digital display communications. That isn’t ‘Out-Of-Home’; it’s out of this world.”

Dr Frank Shaw Centre for Future Studies

Reachable audiences gaining critical mass: The sheer number of Out-Of-Home screens and people watching them now makes DOOH comparable to established media for many advertisers’ purposes. This, in turn, leads not only to more use of the medium, but also to the development of a thriving eco-system of sales, creative and production specialists and the further expansion of networks.

Retail Digital World: Retailers are changing their models to be more inclusive of different paths to purchase. The path to purchase is now so complicated, and the technology is so incongruent, that retailers are looking for complete solutions that will help them embrace the digital world.

Digital signage in retail is about helping the customer to buy something. So digital screens will be focused on that alone in retail and not on ad networks in retail. Retailers will be implementing inclusive, integrated digital signage solutions that include social, desktop, in-store and interactive that will help the customer ‘buy something today’.

Integrated Digital Signage Networks: Interactivity with digital signage networks allows shoppers to gather information of their choosing. Measuring real-time results track shoppers’ engagement with the screens and collate those results with electronic Point-Of-Sale data. This empowers retailers to know what digital signage content works best to stimulate sales

Interactive Suggestive Selling on Networked Kiosks: As retailers integrate databases for their various in-store digital media technologies, interactive suggestive selling will occur via digital signage networks, via personal interactive devices, via smart phones, etc., depending on the preferences expressed to the retailer by individual shoppers.

Personal Interactive Devices: Personal interactive device technology can be integrated with digital signage networks to facilitate personal content on the digital signage screens. This interface with digital signage technology will happen as the digital signage and other in-store devices are equipped with wireless intelligence that recognises the personal interactive device and, thus, the shopper.

Virtual Sales Associates: This technology allows a retailer to develop sales experts off-site who can serve many stores. It promises to improve customer service, enabling retailers to provide shoppers with the same depth of information on products and services that they have come to expect online. Data from a shopper’s interactions with the virtual sales associates can become part of the digital media database.

Interactivity via Mobile Phones: Payment, Search, and Control of other In-Store Media: In their book on in-store digital media, Lighting Up the Aisle, consultants Laura Davis-Taylor and Adrian Weidmann write, “Not only can mobile…be used to quickly follow through on promotional calls-to-action, but…(also) for virtual rain checks, instant coupons (and) social networking…One of the more exciting applications is…‘local search,’ where shoppers can text in a (mobile phone text message) to download promotional offers…Even better, users can dig into the product promos (using mobile phones) to check price and store availability.”

Near Field Communication: (NFC) is shaping up to be one of the hottest tech trends now that payment systems and new handsets are making their way into the US and Europe

Personal Preferences Profiles: Cloud based computing (The Cloud) will change consumer behaviour. Instead of individuals carrying laptops with their data and applications stored on them, they will carry netbooks and rich communications devices. These devices will contain only the communications technology needed to connect to these networks and access any service the individual might want. In the same way that IP has opened up the enterprise, cloud based computing will open up communication for the individual.

Facebook has more than 500 million active users.

The average user has 130 friends.

Twitter is now attracting 190 million visitors per month and generating 65 million tweets a day.

LinkedIn tops 70 million users.

These sites contain the personal preference profiles of subscribers as well as demographic and occupational data. All held in the cloud. This information will be used to personalise product/service offerings. There will be markets of one.

“In a recent study by PQ Media, marketers and advertisers chose “Viewer Engagement” and “Time Spent with the Network,” as the two qualities they most value in a DOOH Network. No other network qualities were even close, not “Reach”, not “CPM”, not “Targeting.”

Michael Quinn Digital Media and Marketing

“What’s changing is (a) the technology, which is enabling billboards with rich media and high resolution graphics and (b) the rise of other new digital formats which offer a host of creative possibilities. Digital media are now appearing everywhere, opening up new communication channels and challenging creatives to go back to the drawing board with their campaigns.”

Richard Cobbold Chairman of the Screen

“The convergence of digital platforms, the dramatic global growth of smartphones and increasing synergies between physical digital posters and their virtual equivalents in computer games have opened up new opportunities for integration of DOOH into wider campaigns.”

Stephen Randall LocaModa

Interactive displays

Interactive digital displays represent a quantum shift from a ‘one-to many’ communications methods to ‘one-toone’. Traditional signage takes a single message and disseminates it to as many people as possible; interactive displays take a dynamic message and tailor it to one specific audience member.

On a practical level, this shift necessitates the creation of an entirely new body of message content. Interactive communications allow the retailer to target their messages to a specific time, place and customer. It’s not just a static one-message-fits-all anymore. Interactivity gives the customer a voice and a means to communicate right back to the retailer

For an interaction to take place between a customer and a digital sign, some sort of tool must act as an intermediary. Three predominant methods have emerged so far:

Integrated touch screens: Touch is the simplest and most effortless of interactions, and the one that requires the least explanation. A well-designed touch screen interface can be completely self-explanatory, easily navigated by even the least tech-savvy consumers and is ideal for a number of interactive applications

Handheld devices: Marketing initiatives have been launched built around SMS interaction. Consumers are urged to send a text message to a certain address. That message might prompt any number of replies: a custom message displayed on a digital sign, the purchase of a digital product or the instant delivery of an “m-coupon. This allows retailers to communicate targeted messages with customers while they’re in the store.

Using a mobile phone to interact with a digital screen creates a unique experience that draws in multiple users and builds significant brand awareness.

Events and augmented reality

At trade shows that include exhibitor booths, augmented reality via a smartphone can deliver an image of the physical booth with information overlays including:

• Related content from an exhibitor: documents, white papers, on-demand videos.
• Bios/profiles of event staffers who are in the booth
• An option to view the demo

An option to join a text chat with a virtual booth staffer

Research has found that on stand augmented reality experiences at events and exhibitions increase dwell time to an average of 15 minutes. As well as providing an initial WOW factor, augmented reality increases dwell time and gives sales and marketing experts time to build a relationship and make a sale. The technology also allows brands to physically put a product in the hands of customers and demonstrate how it works. Research also shows that simply by touching and interacting with a product for a few seconds can create an emotional attachment that leads to sales. This is because people become personally attached to the product within the first 30 seconds of contact.

The fusing of media

The gap between technology, marketing and sales is closing. This gap, from inspiration to purchase is closing at such a rapid rate with so many different methods of engagement and so many points of purchase that no longer can one media tell the story. It is not just TV, Internet, Mobile, Cinema and DOOH; it’s all screens all of the time.

As the transmedia experience is connected to each and every screen, DOOH is becoming an activation ‘point of entry’ for the story and engagement. It is a contact point in the digital landscape that is relevant, immediate and drives the experience further down the transmedia highway.

The media campaign for Intel’s smart TV in New York’s Penn Station exemplifies the transmedia experience. It seamlessly integrates robust Internet content, broadcast programming, personal content and downloadable applications all viewable on one screen.

The technology showcases the ability to recognise a consumer via an opt-in feature, welcome them by name and customise a smart TV experience based on the consumer’s preferences. The campaign started with outdoor media throughout the New York market, encouraging consumers to download a smart TV mobile app by texting ‘Hello’ to a mobile number. Participants then receive a link to download an app onto their mobile phones, which asks a few questions about the individual’s TV viewing habits and preferences. They are then invited to Intel’s smart TV experience event in the Penn Station Rotunda. As they enter, interactive touch screen TV’s not only recognise them by name but create a custom smart TV experience based on the answers to the questions the individual provided when they downloaded the app

As technology evolves in today’s competitive market, advertisers now have increasingly diverse options when it comes to putting their message in front of and engaging consumers. In many cases that means using some form of Digital Out-Of-Home advertising. DOOH is becoming a key partner in branded and sponsored content.

Engaging consumers

Cisco recently surveyed 2,000 shoppers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The research found the majority of consumers (84%) enjoy the ‘mashup’ experience which combines Web-like capabilities with the shopping experience.

More than half of the study’s respondents said they would be interested in seeing product-price comparisons, and reading personalised recommendations and peer reviews via touch screen at the shelf while they shop.

According to the study, shoppers use technology for a variety of reasons, but the most popular uses were to find the best price, save time and find the highest-quality products. Providing consumers with technologies, such as interactive digital displays, video assistants, social networking technologies and Wi-Fi networks was found to increase loyalty and sales.

In a 2010 survey of U.S. consumers conducted by Buzzback Market Research, the findings showed that 88% of shoppers are more likely to choose a company that gives them the ability to interact via online, mobile, or selfservice device. With the modern day consumer more willing and eager to use technology outside the confines of the home, retailers are finding it beneficial to integrate customer-facing technology solutions into their stores.

Technology is the enabler that facilitates an improved shopping experience. Through advanced analytics and marketing solutions, retailers can deliver the information that shoppers want and need. Technology enablers come in many forms including customer relationship management, e-marketing programmes, self-service kiosks, self-checkout, social media and mobile applications.

Interactive retail signage solutions are no longer simple vending machines; they are information hubs and omniscient virtual sales associates.

The emergence of “experience” as a building material

Digital display technology is changing the face of architecture. Media has become a vital material. We are witnessing the emergence of “experience” as a material. Today, the image surface has become part of our daily context at every level. In the architectural world, the primary driver behind image surface has been marketing and sales. Urban media structures, by their sheer scale and proximity, provide a powerful means to communicate and sell. In many cases the designs have been little more than 3D billboards, but as the public grows more discriminating this has begun to change. The tools we have today in show production and immersive communications are simply phenomenal.

There are two powerful trends:

Social Networking: In the worlds of Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter, things are just different. People expect to generate and control their environments and their interactions. Surpassing Google’s painting of a neighborhood with digital artwork, broad populations may soon be able to dictate their own physical worlds. Get ready for householders and all their friends to decorate the building architects create today.

Rapidly Evolving Interfaces: Imagery is becoming more organic and accessible. Right now, media is independent from architecture, but we’re beginning to see the integration of media and architecture. There was Blade Runner, and soon our cities reflected that vision. There was Minority Report, and soon the iPhone was born. Can the Iron Man house be far way?

Jenny Holzer’s digital installation at the World Trade Center may offer clues to what’s ahead. Holzer’s memorial in LEDs, http://bit.ly/g97R8lis comprised solely of words. Both are beautiful, moving, and elegantly executed. Both projects represent the future: a future that will not be a contest between digital media and traditional materials, nor a struggle between corporate marketing and individual expression, nor a battle between new ideas and traditional thinking. This inclusive future will be much more about “and” than “or.”

Performance and measurement

Methods for measuring the impact of OOH advertising through audience metrics historically fell short of providing accurate and reliable viewership data. As a result, advertisers found it difficult to measure the return on their investment. Today, emerging new technologies in DOOH audience metrics are challenging the status quo. Technology now allows advertisers to measure audience metrics in ways similar to that of traditional media (TV, radio and print). These include the accurate measurement of audience ‘Presence’, ‘Notice’ and ‘Dwell Time’; the minimum set of metrics currently used in traditional media as an indication of advertising reach and impact.

These new technologies measure audience metrics on a 24x7 coverage and so provide a more complete picture of the market that is viewing the advertising content. Instead of relying on sampled responses from viewers, these new technologies provide data on the entire population of people who have had the opportunity to see and actually view the ad content. This increases the reliability of the data beyond what is achievable in methods currently used with traditional media.

At the leading edge of these advances is a move to link the messaging on retail digital screens directly to the sales data from the tills in the store. This will allow near real-time automated assessment and optimisation of the impact of digital advertising in store. This is akin to bringing the level of measurement and accountability normally associated with on-line advertising to the high street.

“The individualisation of working arrangements, the multi-location of activity and the ability to network all these activities usher a new urban space, the space of endless mobility, a space made of flows of information and communication managed with the internet”.

Manuel Castells

Co-working is the future of work

Currently, people are telecommuting. They’re working from home. They are making a shift away from rigid corporate structures towards a more flexible, more online way to work. And, increasingly, work isn’t home or office based. It is where there is a connection. Coffee bars, restaurants, motorway services, trains and planes…

It is a megatrend that will keep growing

In just one week, online workers accomplish more than 8 years’ worth of 40-hour work weeks through transparency. The Internet enables the free flow of information and communication between workers and employers, beyond the limitations of the physical environment. Employers, have the ability to collaborate with workers anywhere in the world and find the best worker for each and every job. Workers have the ability to work from anywhere in the world, on any job that suits their skills, no matter where it’s located.

When work was tied to the physical world, location was key. Workers lived near where they worked or commuted. But that’s the old model; work as a place. In the future, work will no longer be a place! Work is anywhere the worker is. This is the new model, enabled by the Internet. It’s about communication. It’s about connection. It’s about community. For workers, this means they have access to opportunities far beyond nine to five and where they live.

Mobile society

We are living in the Mobile Society where mobile devices have become the remote control for our daily lives. Any technology that enables better communication, shared knowledge and information and accomplishes tasks is being widely adopted. The Mobile Society is completely different to the industrial society. It requires a new logic and signifies a reordering of business models and new flows of communication.

Connectivity and interactivity provide fertile ground for the growth and development of digital communities and move media from a push paradigm to a pull one. Social networking sites like Foursquare and Facebook are changing the mobile society. The mobile social community numbers around 50 million users globally and in 2011 the number will reach 174 million.

The rapid rise of online social communities has created a new paradigm for personal networking. In a logical progression, many social communities are now based on portable wireless devices. Such mobile social communities will continue to extend the reach of electronic social interaction. The smart phone will be the portal to all communication needs; business and social networks. All displays from phones to large format displays are becoming increasingly more interactive, progressing beyond the mouse and keyboard to using voice, touch and gesture. Gesture will win over touch in the end.

This megatrend will have major consequences for future marketing communications strategies and the DOOH industry.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke “Profiles of the Future.”

Digital advertising with your cornflakes

With the cost of producing digital displays dramatically falling, the world will see an explosion in digital out of home advertising. We will see screens mounted on municipal bikes, restaurant menus and even cereal boxes. Crucially for advertisers, these digital displays will enable them totarget consumers in the context in which they are found. Plus with the world’s digital out of home displays connected to the cloud, feeding these billions of screens with a range of content will happen instantly. Plus, with these interconnected displays, marketers will be able to go intergalactic, with digital adverts featured on space stations orbiting the earth.

Adverts that create themselves

Thanks to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence, digital out of home adverts will create themselves in the future. Renowned futurologist, Raymond Kurzweil believes we are approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but moreintelligent than humans. They will have the creative capabilities to analyse the worst client briefs and turn them into award winning advertising campaigns. Furthermore, original music will be scored by the computer to accompany its original photorealistic 3D video.

Multi-sensory adverts

Outdoor advertisers are looking to trump online and television advertising by influencing consumers with holographic video, sound, mood lighting and smells. Together, these elements could multiply adverts’ impact, extending the amount of time consumers recollect it.

Phones that talk to adverts

The proliferation of mid field communication (MFC) in phones, such as the iPhone 9, will enable devices to communicate with digital out of home displays. With Personal Preference Profiles (PPPs) 50 times more in-depth than your Facebook profile, linked to these phones, consumers will see themselves featured in adverts wearing the clothes advertised.

HD vending machines

Traditional vending machines have come a long way. Sapient Interactive’s Coke vending machine, called uVend, replaces the standard front of a vending machine with a 46” LCD touch screen rich with HD video, bluetooth and flash motion graphics. Consumers can order a Coke, download music, ringtones and wallpaper for their phones.

Wearable computers

“Wearable computers”, a technology being developed by MIT will be built into clothes linked to glasses with video cameras. Through miniaturisation of components, systems will be designed that are wearable and nearly invisible. Individuals can move about and interact freely and network, sharing experiences with others. Users access the Remembrance Agent (RA) of a large communally based data source.

A Remembrance Agent is a programme which augments human memory by displaying a list of documents which might be relevant to the user’s current context. It is an information retrieval system running wirelessly over the internet, continuously without user intervention and unobtrusively allowing a user to pursue or ignore the RA’s suggestions as desired. The result is a wearable computer that projects its display onto a nearby surface, or projects the image directly into the brain using the latest bionic eye technology.

Cyberthink

Scientists are developing neural interfaces designed to not only increase the dynamic range of senses, but also to enhance memory and enable “cyberthink”: an invisible communication with others. This technology will create a two-way continuous transmission programme. It will be intrinsically linked to everyday human behaviour and our interaction with objects and each other – all being continually broadcast, monitored and modified. Eventually, technology will enable us to manipulate not only external reality, the physical world, but also, ‘ourselves’. Once networked the result will be a collective consciousness.