Billboards will call you on your WiFi phone
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Imagine this: You’re waiting for a bus. You’re waiting alone in this very desert bus station. And it’s very late… Just you and the billboard… but you’re still thinking there’s a god somewhere watching you, because the supermodel of the ad is so cute…
Ring.
Someone is calling you on your cellphone. You check. It’s no one, it’s just the supermodel… What?! Yes, it’s the billboard, the picture is calling you. You’re getting a voucher for the store right at the end of the bus line…
This isn’t the first time advertisers are relying on cellphones to tout their message. But with the French advertising company JCDecaux deploying it in the next months over its advertising network, the technique might gain bigger momentum, reports the IHT.
What is it? A promotional service, that if you register to it, will send you vouchers and promotional messages from sponsors whenever you’re within a ‘talkative’ billboard.
It mainly relies on SMS, and bundles some marketing opt-in campaign. As 3G services and cellphones are getting better and cheaper, there’s slightly a chance that it’s getting more popular. But VoIP adds another branch for the technique to evolve.
For example, instead of a small SMS, you listen to a sexy voice, and you can even choice it. Instead of only standard message, you end up with several choices of messages, bringing some more interactivity. The transmitting time would also get much faster, as data just have to go from the access point to the wireless device.
Marketing is not the only possible use for the technique. In the article, there is this project called the Ubibus system, never actually deployed, to help blind people take the bus. There also is this other one, UbiBoards (from the same company Kameleon) that will show information in the language spoken by a majority of the people nearby. Once again, SMS is used as an email, but could be replace by voice.
May 8, 2006 | By Nuno
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