Musings Of A Marketer

Just came across this post about a location-based advertising tech, seems to have great potential.

New York city buses are equipped with the LCD screens on their sides, to more effectively communicate messages to people out there in the streets. Not only the ads are no longer static, but they are also being adapted to the geographic positioning of the vehicles. The ads translated to the audience now change depending on the area in which the bus is moving at each moment of time. Not only that: it is, of course, also possible to target the ads according to the time, so you can promote your outlet in low hours.

Great sample of location-based marketing, great move from Titan Worldwide, who have acquired this space for their clients, and are planning to expand the system in 2009, after the first tests have been finished.

IBM have revealed the list of 5 technologies that may change our lives in the next 5 years. Here the list goes:

1. Energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paing and windows. If only this becomes affordable to all people around, this is going to be more than just great news. Should wait for it to happen, but I’m afraid, 5 years won’t be enough.
2. You will have a crystal ball for your health. Doctors will be able to provide their patients with a genetic map, where you could see the diseases that you genetically tend to have, and thus, you will be able to change your lifestyle so that you could avoid those problems as much as you can. Pharmacetical companies will be able to produce medicines that will better target individual patients.
3. You will talk to the Web, and the Web will talk back. It’s no news that Computers and Internet are among the fastest changing areas in our world. This opportunity of changing the way the information flows from one end to another is comfort to some peope, and money to others. In many cultures voice communication is incomparably more important than a written word. Let alone the countries with a low level of literacy.
4. You will have your own digital shopping assistants. No need to wait for a sales person who is busy with another client. The digital assistant will help you choose the necessary size, or complement the chosen item with a matching product. You will also be able to email or sms a picture to get an approval from a friend whose taste you always rely upon. There’s an opportunity for BTL activities: try, for example, offering people electronic coupons that they will be able to use right in the shopping process.
5. Forgetting will become a distant memory. In the next five years, it will become much easier to remember what to buy at the grocery store, which errands need to be run, who you spoke with at a conference, where and when you agreed to meet a friend, or what product you saw advertised at the airport. That’s because such details of everyday life will be recorded, stored, analyzed, and provided at the appropriate time and place by both portable and stationary smart appliances. To help make this possible, microphones and video cameras will record conversations and activities. The information collected will be automatically stored and analyzed on a personal computer. People can then be prompted to “remember” what discussions they had, for example, with their daughter or doctor by telephone. Based on such conversations, smart phones equipped with global-positioning technology might also remind them to pick up groceries or prescriptions if they pass a particular store at a particular time.