Brown Dawg and Se'et Deh - Behavioural Targeted Marketing ads

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

Who is the fairest of them all?……

Excerpt from the Walt Disney animated feature Snow White

Behavioral Targeted Advertising, as stated in the article “Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works”, published March 24, 2010 9:01 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News – The Social, is not a new concept, but the advertising world is abuzz with the potential that this newly revamped approach to advertising can yield, especially after the success of Social Networks such as:

1. MySpace (for musicians)
2. Facebook (for organized people)
3. Twitter (for disorganized spur-of-the-moment types)
4. Digg (for news hounds)
5. Hi5 (for those cheerleader support types)
6. FourSquare (for people who like to track their friends on smart phones)
7. Tagged (for people looking for casual sex)
8. Google Buzz (for lovers of all things Google!)

This despite the recent privacy debacle which has worked to Google’s advantage as stated in the article " Buzz Backfire: How Google pushed me to Facebook" published March 5, 2010 4:00 AM PST  by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech, effectively a mirror of society with interconnections between people being displayed in a digital format.

What all these Networks have as their “secret sauce” is that they are all built on groupings of people who have something in common in terms of their personalities or who are just simply friends. But of all these Social Networks, who is the fairest of them all?

The information being harvested about the users of the Social Networks in terms of their advertising preferences, their likes and dislikes, what products they support and about what they converse while connected to the Social Network is extremely valuable and is worth billions of dollars to Advertisers and Marketing people.

It is an accepted trade-off of the users of most social networks, especially as it allows users to access the social networks services for free and the behavior of most users is nonchalant with regards to their privacy, as most people who have grown up with the internet and are used to the informal nature of interaction on the internet are a lot less concerned about their privacy, as stated by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the article “Why no one cares about privacy anymore”, published  March 12, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Declan McCullagh CNET News - Politics and Law.

Ostensibly, Social Networks collects this information on each user with the users permission and using Behavioral Targeted Marketing can more efficiently deliver advertisement placements to a users webpage or mobile device based on his likes or dislikes and other pertinent information that the Social Network may have about the member, who is also a potential customer for the products and services chosen to be advertised on their page.

Indeed, a new study from a group called the NAI (Network Advertising Initiative), claims that 6.8 percent of people who click on behaviorally targeted ads turn into buyers, versus 2.8 percent of those who click on non-targeted ads.

Combined with geo-location services that would be built into Brown Dawg Mobile Social Network, which seem to be the next new hot trend this summer in the complex fabric that is Mobile Social Networking despite its seemingly sinister implications, this according to the program “CNET’s Buzz Report” posted March 12^th 2010 presented by Molly Wood CNET News.

The fact that people’s locations can be tracked without the need for users to have GPS enabled mobile phones as suggested by the article “Global Positioning without GPS”, published September 13, 2009, 11:30PM EST by Kevin Tofel, BusinessWeek  GigaOM, the advertising possibilities are endless, especially from a revenue generating point of view.

Advertisers in Jamaica and especially Telecom Provider Digicel should find this very interesting, as it would mean generating advertising revenues if advertising billboards could be tailored to change based on the customer that passed near to them.

It would also be a perfect fit with the company’s direction, as they have plans to launch DigiTV, after having purchased an all island Wireless Subscriber Television license to broadcast in DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial) with the stated intention to go into television as stated in the article “'DigiTV launch for 2009' - Mobile Provider branches into TV”, published Friday November 14^th 2009 by Ross Sheil, Online Co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer

It would also be good use of their DataCenter to store advertisements for their advertising clients.

Despite its Minority Report (2002) sounding concept, it is very much in the realm of reality, thanks mostly in part to 3G and 4G mobile Networks, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct Transceivers, holographic projectors and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays.

This new Marketing and Advertising Initiative, which I shall call Se’et Deh, would require Telecom Provider Digicel to basically go into offering advertising in the following three (3) markets:

1.      Tower Billboard Displays

2.      Large Hanging Posters Displays

3.      Holographic Displays

The Tower Billboard Displays would first have to have the flexible OLED displays installed with backlighting to provide visibility in bright sunlight and a thin coat UV barrier to reflect UV that usually makes OLED displays go pale as in the case of the Google Nexus One, which is an OLED display as stated in the article “Iphone's LED bests Nexus One's OLED?”, published March 1, 2010 7:01 AM PST by Luke Westaway, CNET News – Crave.

The display would then be connected to the power supply from the solar panels on these Tower Billboard Displays, once the following changes are made to the solar based power supply:

1.      Change the lead acid batteries to maintenance free rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries similar to those already in use in Telecom Provider Digicel’s Ericsson BTS. The batteries have stopped working as most of Telecom Provider Digicel’s advertisement signs as lead acid batteries leak easily

2.      Their may be a need to upgrade the power system with additional solar cells as the OLED display may require more power

3.      In the charging circuit, add a voltage detector to detect the voltage level of the batteries while charging during the day. Once they have reached their maximum, this charger should disconnect the power from the solar cells so as to prevent overcharging and the site would power itself directly from inverters and solar panels.

4.      You also need to install a WiMaX 4G mobile (IEEE 802.16d) modem and a computer package to both receive downloaded advertisements from Telecom Provider Digicel as well as to provide remote monitoring (cameras, sensors, etc) for the NOC at Telecom Provider Digicel to guard against intruders.

5.      An enclosure needs to be placed over the batteries with extractor fans powered by the solar cells to keep them cool. This prevent the batteries from drying out, as charging batteries is an exothermic process i.e. it releases heat

6.      The OLED display, computer package and maintenance free rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries need to be either placed in air conditioned container units or have multiple blower fans installed to keep them at room temperature in the hot sun, as heat decreases the life of electronics.

7.      GPS tracking beacons to allow the computer package to be tracked anonymously in case it is stolen.

Then the precise GPS location (latitude and longitude) is recorded for each billboard and it is added to the database of advertising boards that are available to the Brown Dawg Mobile Social Network to upload advertising.

Each computer package at each of these Tower Billboard Displays would have video advertisements uploaded to them that would be set in queue to play randomly, with each played advertisement being recorded in a file as well as remotely for AMA (Automated Messaging and Accounting) for the purposes of Billing and Auditing in order to charge the companies who have signed up to advertise with Telecom Provider Digicel e.g. Grace Kennedy, Red Stripe.

Whenever a customer who is a member of the Brown Dawg Mobile Social Network or a user of the Hive product who has opted into the geo-location status update passes within a 100 meters of one of these billboards, whether walking or driving, the billboard will display advertisement that corresponds to that particular customer’s tastes, based on a selection algorithm that will choose the advertisement, even mentioning the person name(s) in the advertisement in much the same way that it is done in the movie Minority Report (2002).

This even is recorded in the AMA backup for the purposes of Billing as a “hit”, a concept similar to website click ads and would attract a premium charge, as it can be assumed that the intended target saw the advertisement and thus the advertisement can have said to have been “delivered” to its target, the essence of Behavioral Targeted Marketing.

Large Hanging Posters Displays and Holographic Displays are basically the same as the Tower Billboard Displays. Large Hanging Posters Displays which are also OLED displays would be best used in fast food restaurants, shopping malls and on university campuses, anywhere where young people congregate and are constantly in transit.

In addition to having the above requirements similar to the Tower Billboard Display and operate in the exact same way except much more compact with the WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) modem, computer package and maintenance free rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries and mini solar panels being placed behind and inconspicuously integrated in to the display aesthetics of the surrounding and the Large Hanging Posters Displays or Holographic Displays itself.  

The Large Hanging Posters Displays would also come with a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct capable transceiver that would push video and audio content to persons walking past the Large Hanging Posters Displays, as most persons in Jamaica walk with the Bluetooth on their mobile phones open.

In addition, the Large Hanging Posters Displays can also have a Wi-Fi rebroadcast, which would receive WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) service and rebroadcast it as Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), with the Wi-Fi being password protected with access being granted ONLY to Telecom Provider Digicel  customers who are members of Digicel InTunes, Brown Dawg Social Network or Hive using Wi-Fi be it on their mobile phone, netbook or laptop, their usage being billed to their Digicel InTunes, Brown Dawg Social Network or Hive accounts. Holographic Displays would also be similarly placed as the Large Hanging Posters Displays.

This would be best used indoors ONLY e.g. malls, coffee shops, etc. as they are easily damaged by the elements and vandals. It is the Large Hanging Posters Displays and Holographic Displays that hold the most promise, as they would have a lower pricing point and as such would be able to attract more clients from university students wishing to organize

Thus, with these adjustments Se’et Deh Marketing and Advertising Initiative (eventually the Se’et Deh Advertisement Department) can become a great means of making additional revenue for Telecom Provider Digicel, thus monetizing the once dormant Marketing Department so that it would thus be a contributor to the overall success of Telecom Provider Digicel .

Again, as always, the name need a bit of work………………….