Imagine an intelligent sign that can determine your sex, age-range, current mood, location, and possibly more and then serve you up targeted ads. An article published in the LA Times on August 21 offers some clues about the future of advertising.
I already know of one leading-edge manufacturer of printed and electronic advertising signage who is actively planning to add facial recognition into their interactive sign products. Electronic advertising signs will integrate the various forms of scan’able technologies, e.g., Proximity Bluetooth® Marketing, NFC (near-field communications), AR (augmented reality), and QR codes. Such signs will be deployed to malls, downtown areas, stadiums, airports, etc. and allow for the distribution of highly targeted ads, coupons, timed offers. The signs will be supported by advanced campaign platforms that make use of time, location, and gender awareness and can be programmed from anywhere in the world via a web interface. The advantage of these interactive programmable signs is that they can be deployed at any venue in the world and never run out of fresh and relevant content. The video below presents the power of adding facial recognition for advertisers.