Monday, November 12, 2012

Localized Radio Ads

We all have seen and experienced localized TV ads. Depending on your location (which your TV cable/satellite provider knows based on your set-top box), they stream area specific ads to you. The ads on TV can be very very precise, as they know too much about you. They know your exact home location, they TV channels you watch, the exact TV shows you watch and more specifically which TV shows you do not watch. They can (and are already) target the ad that will interested you more. Its gonna get crazier with time.

Similar with online ads. The website are smart enough to target ads based on which website you are looking at, your IP address, and in turn your location. Everyone knows about infamous Google 'reading' your Gmail and targeting specific ads based on what you are emailing about.

Surprisingly nothing much has been done with targeting Radio ads to the listener. Most of the Ads are region specific, as the radio station is usually only broadcasted for a small area (relatively speaking). But that is too generic to the area. There is no consumer or location target ads.

Here is what needs to happen. Almost all new cars these days are fitted with navigation devices. based on your GPS location, as you are driving - localized ads can be played out to you. E.g. if I am driving close to a restaurant that is doing a lunch special, that particular ad should play on my radio. If I am driving by a bowling alley, and they are doing a Tuesday night special on bowling - that ad needs to be played. And so on... you get the idea.

You could even take it further - depending on what kind of music I listen to (the radio station that is playing), ads can be targeted to specific listeners based on if they are listening to 'classics' or 'rock/metal' or 'hip-hop' or 'blues' or NPR....

I think there a product in the making that will bring GPS manufacturers and radio stations together for localized and targeted radio ads.

2 comments:

  1. Very neat idea.
    So, let us consider this situation: Sacramento has Stn 1 and 2. San Francisco has Stn 3 and 4. While driving from Sacramento to San Francisco, once you reach SF, Stn 1 and 2 wont be playing any longer, it'll only be 3 and 4. And 3 and 4 would already be having SF ads. So, what would you want to change here? The car is driving so fast that within 5 minutes, it crosses downtown and reaches airport side, how would you localize the ads according to those localized regions?

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    1. It could be anything from restaurants nearby or any other deals that I would be interested in. As my GPS (and in turn the radio station) know that I am driving from Sacramento to San Francisco, it can give me ads for hotels or other sight seeing deals that are being offered in a 10-20 mile radius of my location.

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