5 emerging tech trends for the global marketer

With the speed and power of computers accelerating, most technology is looking inwards and reality is becoming more virtual, augmented and personalised. Most digital marketers will be anticipating such changes in computing. However, at Lightvert, we’re particularly interested in the macro: what emerging tech trends are going to influence our lives – both at home and in our cities – and what does this mean for marketers across the world? I’ve explored five technology trends that will dramatically affect consumers every day, and have predicted the ways in which they will change the face of out-of-home marketing and advertising forever.

1. Self-aware advertising

Workers around the world are becoming increasingly conscious of the prospect of being made redundant by a clever machine. Automated technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence have seen labourers – from factory workers to farm hands – losing their livelihoods. The lesser-known fact is that such technological advancements also mean that even white-collar workers (yes, even ad executives!) are far from immune to the technological revolution.

Artificial Intelligence is allowing computers to become smarter and even ‘think’ like humans rather than follow a formulaic approach. Meanwhile, machine-learning ad algorithms can work in real time, and in the case of outdoor advertising, such intelligence built into content management systems can enable advertising messages to be dynamically adapted and updated to reflect the context of the immediate environment.

For example, depending on how your favourite sports team performs on match day, Adidas ads could display messages of congratulations or commiserations on the result on billboards on your route home. Perhaps they will even go a step further and pick up on the fact that, while your team lost, they’re still in the running.

This kind of intelligent, human-like thinking is already here, with companies such as Linkett building platforms for advertisers that allow campaigns to adapt in real time.

2. The Internet of Things goes Out-of-Home

The internet is constantly gathering our data to make marketing more targeted and relevant. Consumers are aware of this paradigm shift and indeed embrace new data-driven services when it doesn’t encroach on their civil liberties. This collection of data from a growing number of digital devices connecting to the Internet of Things (IoT), allows digital marketing to become more connected and intelligent.

The more consumers permit marketers to mine their data, the more relevant offers and rewards customers will receive. Advertisers, on the other hand, will find that their job has been streamlined, allowing them to offer products and services with increasingly more accurate pinpoint precision.

Also thanks to the IoT, digital signage is already becoming more interactive and cross-platform, allowing, for example, smartphone users to scan a QR code to unlock hidden content on their phone. Very soon, we’ll see targeted digital adverts in-store, on point-of-sale payment devices and on NFC-enabled billboards using applications that recognise the user’s data and profile.

Firms like BlueBroadcaster are already providing platforms for brands and business owners to engage with their customers in this way, using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies to provide opt-in proximity marketing.

3. Personalised AR

Augmented reality devices like the HoloLense (see the video below) provide advertisers with an opportunity for personalised real-world advertising. Imagine digital signage that changes depending on who’s viewing it!

For example, by combining geo-targeting with data algorithms, a billboard could switch between ads for Denny’s or Tim Horton’s for American and Canadian viewers, or between Irn-Bru for a Scottish viewer and Coke for, well, pretty much everyone else.

By the time we’re all wearing AR glasses or implants, traditional billboards may eventually be replaced entirely by blank canvasses – almost like green screens, onto which these large-format AR ads will be displayed.

4. Device-less Augmented Reality

Most people think of Augmented Reality (AR) as adding a virtual element to the real world through the prism of screen. At Lightvert, we’ve developed a technology that allows the human eye to view AR adverts without the need for another device, via a new technology that works with our natural chemistry.

Our eyes experience a persistence of vision effect when exposed to light, and Lightvert is exploiting this phenomenon to display hyper-scale advertising images overlaid onto city landscape. By using our high-powered laser scanner and a narrow reflective strip just 20cms wide running up the side of a skyscraper, we can project hyper-scale images that appear in your eyes as if by like magic. Digital cameras also experience the persistence of vision effect, so the image can also be captured by a smartphone.

These installations are also entirely different to anything seen before – they easily capture the attention of passers-by and encourage them to photograph and share the images.

5. Li-Fi – emerging tech trends that light the future

Forget Wi-Fi. Li-Fi will provide connectivity with unimaginable speeds and stability by sending coded information via light, rather than radio waves. Digital-out-of-Home marketing, for instance, will appear in previously unreachable locations and display content at a much higher bandwidth.

While not in our immediate pipeline, I envision Li-Fi being used to code messages into our hyper-scale adverts, allowing viewers to interact with them by using handheld devices to retrieve special offers, or unlock hidden content.

The future of advertising will be undoubtedly personal, but there will always be a requirement for brands – with the aid of technology – to show their presence in the real-world. As such, eye-catching technologies will have to become increasingly innovative if they are to truly engage consumers.

Global marketers such as myself have plenty of challenges ahead, but even more reasons to be excited. So, here’s to an innovative future!

Read also:

Digital advertising and facing the realities of immersive marketing

‘Artificial intelligence first’: how invisible intelligence creates magical customer experiences