Pervasive Advertising

This book looks at the future of advertising from the perspective of pervasive computing. Pervasive computing encompasses the integration of computers into everyday devices, like the covering of surfaces with interactive displays and networked mobile phones. Advertising is the communication of sponsored messages to inform, convince, and persuade to buy. We believe that our future cities will be digital, giving us instant access to any information we need everywhere, like at bus stops, on the sidewalk, inside the subway and in shopping malls. We will be able to play with and change the appearance of our cities effortlessly, like making flowers grow along a building wall or changing the colour of the street we are in. Like the internet as we know it, this digitalization will be paid for by adverts, which unobtrusively provide us suggestions for nearby restaurants or cafés. If any content annoys us, we will be able to effortlessly say so and change it with simple gestures, and content providers and advertisers will know what we like and be able to act accordingly. This book presents the technological foundations to make this vision a reality.

Following decades of exciting developments in laboratories around the world, pervasive computing technologies are starting to reshape our world in real ways. Computers, visible and invisible, are everywhere: traditional signs and billboards are being replaced by digital signage, projections, and interactive surfaces. Communication is digital and ubiquitous―the majority of the world’s population uses mobile phones. Physical computing and robotics make physical environments digital and interactive. It is apparent that analogous for developments on the Internet, advertising will be the business model driving pervasive computing. These new computing technologies are powerful tools for advertising and they will supersede traditional advertising in the near future. Pervasive computing is the disruptive technology for advertising. This book presents the core principles of Pervasive Advertising and makes accessible to practitioners and researchers alike research findings in pervasive computing, modern advertising, and human-computer interaction. The major opportunities addressed include: symmetric communication, the long tail, powerful experiences, personalization, context adaptivity, audience measurement, and automated persuasion. The major challenges addressed include: calm and engaging advertising, privacy, and ethical persuasion. This book presents and discusses innovative applications based on digital signage and mobile advertising, venturing into new territories like music and scents. This book is intended as a guide for:

• Advertisers who want to understand how new technologies revolutionize their field.

• Pervasive computing engineers and researchers who want to understand what business models will drive their technologies in the real world.

• Anyone who is interested in how pervasive advertising will shape the future of urban life.