The present invention relates to a system of targeted adaptive digital advertising and a method of tracking the effectiveness thereof.
Store signage and display advertising has been a way to advertise brands, promote goods and services, and attract customers for generations. In recent years, increasing number of store signage and window dioramas have been converting to digital screens that replace or enhance physical displays. Digital signage, comprising of one or many digital screens attached to media players, has become a great way to engage with potential customers, extend engagement with existing customers, increase brand awareness, advertise sales, promotions, augment store layouts, and other creative uses. Digital signage has also been used as an on- or off-premises advertising, to broadcast messages, or capture attention of any target audience physically present in or around a target area.
One of many advantages of digital signage is the ability to change messaging or content frequently and quickly as compared to traditional printed or otherwise manufactured signage. Digital advertising systems are relatively more expensive to acquire and maintain then their less sophisticated, but more labor-intensive physical predecessors. The greater expense of the digital display equipment and more sophisticated digital production techniques will, in theory, be offset by reaching and captivating greater number of potential consumers more efficiently.
The downside of physical or digital displays continues to be dearth of adequate measuring means to register and track target audience's engagement, reaction, and conversions. This is especially true where there are multiple messages being displayed on multiple systems across many stores or facilities. For example, a franchise may have digital signage on front doors enticing customers to come in. Subsequently, a different in-store signage may promote other products once clients are inside, but without any way of measuring the effectiveness of either effort, conversion to sales, or whether the efforts may be competing or simply ineffective. The disparate and uncoordinated effort to influence consumer activity makes it difficult to gauge and quantify 1) which specific message or promotion was effective in capturing customer attention and 2) what specific message or message stream prompted a consumer to seek or purchase a product or service or change their behavior in reaction to such message.
Electronic shop window displays or message billboards in front of a store or otherwise, are all forms of digital dynamic advertising. When placed in the immediate proximity with a shop whose wares are being advertised, an electronic billboard or a physical diorama represents the first and possibly the last opportunity to alert a consumer to the goods and services being offered inside the establishment.
A significant downside of digital advertisement is an inability to track its effectiveness. Without proper tracking there cannot be true conversion data to influence future advertising decisions. Meaning that under the current state of the art, the value of an advertisement or a promotional message being displayed on the screen or on an electronically painted display, such as video screen, a flatscreen display, a hologram, billboard, or such is vague and speculative. It also remains a significant challenge to justify costs and determine the rate of return on costly advertising displays, or to justify the expense of an in-house digital advertising production team as it relates to sales. Another downside is, because measuring such efficacy is unavailable, is the inability of such signage to adapt the advertising or message to the specific target audience in real-time. Meaning that a message cannot be tailored to the most fitting target recipient of such message as demonstrated by previous changes in similar recipients in the past.
The disclosed system provides the ability to quantify and track the results of passive advertising in a physical medium. Until now consumers walking through a marketplace or passing by a place of business would be assailed by a plethora of various advertising methods that intended to capture consumer's attention to persuade them to patronize a business, product or service. The effects of this advertising could not be measured directly since it was impossible to determine who saw the advertisement and when they saw it. Therefore, any measurement of effectiveness was at best an approximation. The disclosed system provides the ability to quantify the effects of such passive advertisement with greater precision, enabling the advertiser or product vendor to more quickly and accurately gauge consumer engagement to the particular promotional message.
The disclosed invention is a system that measures the immediate and less immediate, or less direct, effects of visual display advertising on target audience. The system includes a projector of advertising, usually a digital screen, a banner, a diorama, a sign, or a billboard. The system then has a plurality of sensors of varying sophistication and utility which a) are geared to detect a specific or general audience, b) are configured to detect engagement of the audience as either presumed consequence of the projector or confirmed behavioral change, c) translate findings back to a databank that is central to the collection of information to measure and track various attributes regarding detected audience, d) measuring the rate of conversion of the projector by comparing the size of audience to the number of converting events, such a sale, being present, or a consummation of certain intended activity, and finally e) adopting the message, if desired, to the subject looking at the message based on similar subjects having done so in the past. The disclosed sensors work within a defined physical space, such as an area in front of a sign or display, a slice of a path, walkway, hallway, promenade or roadway, or a physical target are that, with respect to a particular sensor(s), has been deemed to be the finite target area.
The system is preferably geared to a detection mode that ranges from very basic to increasingly complex. On the very basic end of the spectrum, the data measured would be the message projected as measured against a presumed target audience, all directly compared to the conversion rate. An increasing level of sophistication tracks the degradation or fading effect of the message over time as the captured target audience is presumed to always be bigger than converted audience.
On the more sophisticated spectrum, the system would capture the assumed target audience, detect confirmed engagement, and adapt the message shown to a viewer. The confirmed engagement then becomes a milestone, among many, in the tracking of conversions or a minor conversion event, which can then be compared to ultimate desired level on confirmed conversions.
The plurality of sensors may include radar, motion detectors, and cameras. These sensors are utilized to detect activity within a targeted physical space, for example an area in front the display case, a segment of a sidewalk or a walkway, a portion of a parking lot or a roadway. These or separate sensors are then employed separately, as enhancement or as receivers of detection data to then determine whether the detected audience is in fact the target audience. The sensors can be integrated to track subject of the target audience throughout space or an area. Alternatively, on a more basic level, sensors that are strategically placed can then detect an audience as it gets progressively closer to the intended point of engagement including detection of head position or eye tracking and then an intended point of conversion. Stated more specifically, the sensors aim to capture audience, track the audience through a facility until the audience reaches a display, a shelf or a vending point for the projected product or service, then tracks whether the audience purchased the projected product or service.
The captured data can then be compared to determine the effectiveness of certain projections on certain targeted audiences. The tracking data can be transmitted in real time to a projection coordinator, which may be a human operator or another computer program. The effectiveness of a message can then be intelligently assessed based on real-time, current, historical, or pre-calculated data, and a message can then be either maintained or changed in favor of another message that has shown to be more effective with such a targeted audience, such as a clothing store displaying a dress or a purse product for a lady to a female audience, versus a suit and a shirt for a male audience.
Other detection sensors may include radar, light detection and ranging radar, 3D scanning, retinal or biometric scanners, including computer vision which will preferably be capable of detecting an active response or engagement to a particular message.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to create a system of measuring effectiveness of passive message display, such as billboards, screens or signs.
It is another object to the present invention to create a system of sensors that measures engagement or conversion of the target audience over time.
It is another object of the present invention to utilize the disclosed system to enable an active response to data collected and processed using the system.
It is still another object of the present invention is to select and display a more fitting, dynamic message based on real-time, historical, computed, or pre-computed, or otherwise known factors that favor a better conversion based on the target audience and events.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Identical elements in the various figures are identified with the same reference numerals.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiment of the present invention. Such embodiments are provided by way of explanation of the present invention, which is not intended to be limited thereto. In fact, those of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate upon reading the present specification and viewing the present drawings that various modifications and variations can be made thereto.
The invention herein uses sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to capture customers engaging with digital signage as it correlates to their physical presence, movement, body language, or any other indication of interaction by the means of sensors such as digital cameras or radar. Additionally, the system would track the customer as they enter and move throughout the store, possibly looking at other signage or simply shopping inside and then having them be present with their purchases as the checkout counter.
The disclosed system identifies a specific message or advertisement. The message is projected via a picture, video or static signage and directed at a target audience. The ultimate objective is to achieve a predetermined goal or conversion. Therefore, at the very least, the system compares the initial target audience against the conversion rate, within a given space of time. The basic concept can then be expanded to track specific target audience, the actions of said audience and potential interference from other projectors within a geographic space. Additionally, dynamic messages can be displayed based on a target audience based on historical successful conversions.
The next step is to identify a finite target area 20. For example, this can be the immediate space in front of a store, an area of a shopping mall or a segment intersecting a section of a highway. As another example, a conventional billboard or a digital billboard on the side of a highway may be equipped with the first sensor, this sensor may be a video camera, a motion sensor, an infrared sensor a radar sensor, an audio sensor or any combination thereof. A mile marker past such billboard may have at least one additional sensor. An exit following the mile marker may have at least one additional sensor, and so forth, until the target location is reached, where the target location contains a plurality of additional sensors. The actions can then be targeted to include a step of exiting vehicle and entering an establishment within a desired proximity of the conversion.
The step of identifying a time segment 30 may include the overall time segment of the efficacy study of the message selected in step 40 or a particular sampling interval within a specific time segment 30, which is geared toward achieving the desired conversion 50. The conversion 50 may also include, but shall not be limited to a consumer transaction, change of behavior, being present at a location, or a service rendered.
There are several variations on how to organize data necessary to instrument the disclosed system. One particular method of data sorting is described in
The target audience is identified as subjects such as people, travelers or vehicles. These subjects are tracked using tags 200, 300 or 400 respectively. The subjects may be varied, such as the overall subject 201a and a more particularly defined subject such as children 201b or men 201c, etc. The subjects may alternatively be sorted into a group of particular interests, with such group then identified by a pattern of behavior. For example, the subject travelers 301a under tag 300 may be anyone carrying a luggage or dressed in a certain manner or displaying certain behavioral patterns, or it may identify whether the traveler 301a is an individual or solo traveler 302b or a family 302c. This specific identification is important in responsive setting, because a family is likely to be interested in family-oriented products and attractions, while an individual would more likely be interested in professional services or particular type of attire.
The given number of intended subjects are then exposed to message assets that carry an informational message. Informational assets may include, but are not limited to, a video message 210a, a picture 210b or a banner/sign 210c, which are displayed to a target audience using at least one projection device, such as a screen, a billboard, a banner or flag. An asset can also simply be a place, such as a shelf with goods or an area of an establishment, such as an entrance or a checkout counter. These are shown to the target audience that may include vehicles 401a, such as automobiles 401b, or trucks 401c. Once the association is made, the system now must record and interpret the pattern of behavior of the subjects that follows the exposure to the message, to determine success or failure of a particular asset, and most importantly to quantify the rate of success of the particular asset.
Each of these attributes 500-550, contributes to the data synopsis that points to the efficacy or lack thereof of the particular asset 210. For example, the engagement attribute 510 may track to immediate positive, negative or indifferent reaction of the subject 201a, 201b or 201c. The positive, negative or indifferent reaction may be registered with the sensor and processed by the software application through the detection of body language or change of behavior, such as reorientation of body parts in response, or apparent response to a displayed message, a slowing of gait or locomotion, a change of locomotion in the direction toward the asset or an object/location represented in the asset. Such captured subject matter would then be tracked by the software application with the help of tags that would associate a subject 201a various with other milestones 530a The engagement attribute 510 may in turn be combined with another attribute for tracking 520 as a combination pertinent to a subject 201a, or simply tracked by itself. The milestone tracking 530a and b may be a way to track how far a subject gets prior to reaching the conversion 550. This helps quantify the duration efficacy 500 of a particular asset 210. For example, subjects 201a may be tempted to enter the facility, which is the first milestone 530a. Make their way toward the desired conversion 530b, with the path marking another at least one milestone. The subject 201a may then either lose interest or become distracted, for example, due to an improvidently or intentionally competing asset 210. The last milestone, which may be the conversion itself is then quantified.
The sampling is further demonstrated in
In
Each of the sensors 720, 720a, 703, or 703a-f may be a device configured to perform subject identification and tracking through artificial intelligence using a hookup to the software application 1110 (
Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of illustration and that numerous changes in the details of construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.
The application claims the benefit of the provisional application No. 63/146,660 filed on Feb. 7, 2021, the entire contents and disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63146660 | Feb 2021 | US |