The tech program "Click" on BBC recently ran a feature on how advertising is taking on a whole new level of personalization, with ads moving from print to video (billboards, ad displays) and also adding interactivity.

"If you believe some agencies anything that is currently paper and paste is going to become video. This not only gives the benefit of looking snazzier, but you can change the ad to anything you want, anytime you want. All of a sudden ad campaigns do not last a week, they last 10 seconds."

While converting print ads to video is a expensive undertaking, if done properly, guarantees better targeting and utilization of ad real estate, plus a better chance to reach out to the right audience, at the right time.
Other elements of personalization include "interactive" ads that get you involved...and "take-away" ads, which let you, for example, download music, ads and applications to your mobile phone by bluetooth. Another cool element is targeting ads to human traffic by recognizing if the viewer is male/female..

Some ad agencies are trying to be even more specific in who they target. Using a camera and facial recognition software, there are prototypes that can not only detect a face looking straight at it, but also guess whether it is male or female, and change the ad accordingly.

Of course, most of these trends will require a lot of fine-tuning and investment to make them go mainstream, not to mention addressal of security and privacy issues...still, the trends & technology are finally here to make "Minority Report" type advertising possible...the question is...are WE ready for it?

Read the Click feature here: BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Technology lets ads get personal

tags: Click, advertising, marketing, interactive-ads, personalized-ads, bluetooth, holograms, minority-report, ads-of-the-future