The Minority Report

The future of Public Space Advertising as seen from the Minority Report. Arriving sooner than you think?



I remember when this scene from Minority Report generated some visceral reactions from the marketing community. Some of us thought what a clever idea, why haven't we been able to do that yet? And then some of us recoiled in horror at the invasion of privacy and realization that maybe consumers might not want brands to be on a first-name basis. However one might feel, the science fiction of the film is fast coming true, right now, with the arrival of principles behind Augmented Reality.

The first real foray into this was in the early 2000's. It was the localised wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place, commonly through bluetooth-enabled phones. First it was BIG in Japan but bluetooth marketing gained steady traction before stalling. Lots of factors stalled proximity marketing, mobile device penetration rates, low Bluetooth adoption and brands really weren't ready to move budget from national mass marketing to highly-local mobile marketing. Bluetooth marketing is finally doing better in markets where mobile phone penetration is higher than computer penetration, in third-world countries.

Today, however, digital, direct marketing, social media, and mobile marketing are speeding toward convergence. Ushered in by the iPhone, Android and to a lesser extent Garmin and the automakers, brands now have the ability to know where we are (or at least the early adopters) in order to target us. They know because we tell them whenever we do an online search from our mobile, or ask for directions through our car, or update our location via Tripit, or use an AR app to find the subway. At least they have the option to know.

The interactions we have online identify and in some cases predict what we'll like and buy based on real-time, real-place data and perhaps most importantly, who we associate with. Think of it as a multi-dimensional view of you based on the information you provide through your social graph and online activity.

Specifically, the dimensions are:

- Who you are (your social profile)
- What you do (your perceivable actions on a networked device)
- When you do stuff (your schedule, real-time or virtual)
- Where you do stuff (your location, physical or virtual)
- Who you do stuff with (your social graph)
- What you intend to do (your plans, intentional or not)

Not quite an avatar but maybe a doppleganger or a digital ghost, it is this multi-dimensional view of you that brands will soon be observing, monitoring, analyzing and designing for, to better be able to influence you.

And while the below links aren't examples of it in action, remember, we don't have it just yet. Combined, they very much look like the beginning of it to me. It's just a matter of refining and combining. Sometimes I feel technology is moving quicker than I can write about it.

Pattie Maes from TED. Ideas worth spreading.




GE. Plug In To The Smart Grid.




AntiVJ. Light Projection.



BMW Servicing.