Billboards that get to know you: coming soon
Date: 2003-01-04
Experimental electronic billboards in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento are being equipped to monitor what passing motorists are listening to on their car radio and then respond with billboard advertising that is targeted to the demographic of the passing motorists, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
The billboards, which are being tried in Palo Alto, Daly City and Fremont, will pick up which radio stations are being played, instantly access a databank of information about the people who typically listen to those stations, and then change the ads displayed to suit those listeners. The devices are just another of the many ways businesses are finding to target their advertising more accurately.
It's all about accountability, Tom Langeland, president of the Sacramento firm Alaris Media Network, which owns the 10 video screen billboards being tested in California, told the Chronicle. "People are struggling, the world is becoming a more competitive place, and advertising dollars have been a huge, misplaced factor. Advertisers don't know where their money is going."
Langeland says the technology should be in place within a few weeks on billboards off Interstate 280 at Serramonte Shopping Center and off Interstate 880 at Southland Mall near Fremont, and on Highway 101 in Palo Alto.
The technology used by the billboards has been developed by Mobiltrak of Chandler, Arizona. It picks up radio waves "leaked" from the antennas of up to 90 percent of all cars passing by and pinpoints the stations being played. Read the Chronicle article
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