Smartphone tracking could let highway billboards show you personalized ads
Sometimes you get a glimpse of a highway billboard when you’re driving. And sometimes the billboard glimpses back.
According to a “Tech Lab’’ column in Thursday’s Boston Globe, billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. is working on “bringing customized pop-up ads to the interstate.’’
Clear Channel Outdoor’s Radar program, which is running in 11 U.S. cities including Boston, uses data collected from AT&T and checks it against data from a pair of other companies that use phone apps to track user movements.
Using the data, the program can tell if certain groups of people – such as parents or sports fans – are traveling on a highway and then prompt the billboard to display the most appropriate ad.
For example, if a group of mothers are within range the billboard can “skip the motorcycle ad and maybe push the new Disney movie instead.’’
From the Globe:
“AT&T can use its nationwide network to track individual responses to ads. Say you see a billboard ad for a Big Mac, then go to MacDonald’s. Because AT&T provides the Wi-Fi Internet service in McDonald’s restaurants, it can track you going in, and McDonald’s will be informed that its Big Mac ad worked.’’
Other billboards in other parts of the country can tell what kind of car is approaching and then display a new car ad in an effort to coax the driver into buying a new set of wheels.
Read the full Globe story here.
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