KomodoPR PR london agency

Whilst taking in our daily dose of news, we stumbled across something that we just loved, and of course had to share with you all. Now if we were to say digital billboard, what would you think? Probably something similar to those found in the likes of Piccadilly Circus or Times Square. That’s what we thought, until we heard about the digital billboards currently being tested out on consumers in Japan.

The Japanese have created a billboard fitted with cameras that are used to instantly identify certain attributes of consumers, such as age and gender. Taking this information, the billboard displays advertisements that it thinks that person would like to see. For example, if the person standing in front of the billboard is a female aged at about 20, then the billboard might display an advertisement for a fashion brand or current music album.

So what does this mean for the marketing and advertising world? It’s pretty simple, companies and agencies will be able to reduce costs by advertising more efficiently to very specific target audiences, and consumers will no longer need to be inundated by superfluous marketing for products they just aren’t interested in.

The Japanese aren’t the only ones to be making technical advances in the world of billboards. IBM is developing an improved version of these digital billboards, incorporating technology that can read the RFID chips found in credit cards and mobile phones, which will be able to tell a person’s purchasing patterns and display relevant adverts for brands/products that that person has bought in the past.

In the UK, Channel 5’s The Gadget Show reported on interactive billboards at bus stops which encourage passers-by to engage with the displayed animation. This allows a brand to individually communicate with consumers and leave a greater impact about the particular brand or product displayed.

These digital advances generate a whole new meaning around the word ‘targeted marketing’ – consumers will no longer think of billboards as ‘just another advert’ and instead get a sense of importance and understanding from the advertisements displayed.

We may well find ourselves living in a world similar to that portrayed in Tom Cruises’ Minority Report but one thing’s for sure, when these billboards hit the UK shores, we guarantee it will be one of the most talked about events of the year.