Dive Brief:
- When Cannes Lions begins in France next week, data visualization firm Buzz Radar will be there with what it claims is the world's first emotionally responsive billboard ad.
- Using IBM's Watson supercomputer to analyze social media posts featuring the #canneslions2016 hashtag, the billboard will present ads based on the sentiment at the event.
- The billboard will appear on Le Grand Screen on top of the Grand Hotel in Cannes.
Dive Insight:
Out-of-home advertising has seen growth in recent times, spurred by digital advances in the medium. Although it still only accounted for about 5% of overall ad spend in July 2015, according to SMI, which reports on ad agency spending, that figure was up 32% over the same period in 2014.
Buzz Radar's new billboard shows the promise that digital technology could bring to the out-of-home sector, which includes billboard and transit ads. Out-of-home advertising and digital channels are increasingly coming together through deals such as a recent partnership between Placed, a location analytics firm, and Clear Channel Media, a supplier of out-of-home ad inventory. The companies use mobile phone tracking data to offer attribution between billboards and in-store traffic for advertisers.
“We have been the chosen data visualisation partner for Clear Channel Outdoor at Cannes Lions for the past four years and wanted to take it one step further this year," Buzz Radar CEO Patrick Charlton said, according to The Drum. “No other industry has the sheer wealth and opportunity offered by data than the advertising world, but data is only powerful if you can communicate it effectively. We’re on a mission to bring this to life for all attendees at the festival, whatever mood they’re in.”
Buzz Radar plans to provide event attendees with a Command Centre where they can interact with real-time data visualizations based on the online conversations happening during the eight-day festival.
