... a product of the imagination.

But with $3.25 million in initial financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, change is afoot.

Mr Kaplan will join the Lear Center's director of research, Johanna Blakley, as a principal “investigator” for the new enterprise.

Kaplan spoke last week about the futility of counting page-views, “likes,” and retweets when trying to figure out whether an opinion piece, a documentary film or a television show actually moved anyone.

“Those measure how many people saw something,” he said. “That’s not the same as an outcome.”

Read the original unabridged New York Times article.

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... the health of the global economy, particularly in relation to the Eurozone debt crisis.

Despite which WARC expects global advertising spend (based on twelve major markets) to increase by +3.0% at current prices in 2013 and by +5.4% in 2014, according to its latest International Ad Forecast.

With the exceptions of Brazil and Japan, all featured markets have seen downgrades to their forecasts for 2013 compared with WARC's November 2012  report.

The Eurozone countries will all see flat or negative growth in advertising spemajor political or sportind for 2013.

Comments WARC's Data and Journals Director Suzy Young: "With few major political or sporting events this year, global advertising spend growth was always expected to be slower than in 2012. The Eurozone debt crisis also continues to depress growth both among member countries and abroad. To offset this, global adspend will be reliant on a solid performance from the US and strong growth from emerging markets."

Read the original unabridged WARC article.

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... climb at a similar pace throughout eMarketer’s forecast period, which extends through 2016. By that year, eMarketer forecasts, worldwide ad spending will top $628 billion.

The fastest growth during the forecast period will come from Latin America, where ad spending is up 11% this year to $34.66 billion. By 2016, ad spending in Latin America will reach $51.33 billion.

Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa will also enjoy higher-than-average growth rates, while growth in North America and Western Europe will be significantly slower.

This year, Western Europe has struggled to grow ad spending at all, with several major countries posting spending declines.

Japan is the world's second largest nation in terms of ad spending,al though China is hard on its heels and set to surpass it in 2014.

Moreover, China, the third-largest ad market in the world, is growing much more quickly in terms of adspend than mature markets like the US or Japan.

eMarketer estimates ad spending in China is up 13% this year, slightly higher than Warc’s November 2012 projection of 11.5% growth.

Research firms that predicted significantly higher growth rates tended to make those forecasts earlier in 2012, when overall economic prognostications for China were more favorable. Nonetheless, eMarketer predicts double-digit ad spend growth rates in this massive country through the rest of the forecast period, which will help boost Asia-Pacific (and worldwide) increases.

Read the original unabridged eMarketer article.

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... global adspend in 2013 will increase 5.3% compared to 2012, representing $533.2bn.

The revised spending forecast was made in GroupM’s biannual worldwide report, This Year, Next Year, which also said that 2011 advertising spending in measured media hit $482 billion, a 5% increase versus the 2010 figure of $459bn. 

For the US market, the report predicts that advertising investment in measured media will grow 3.6% in 2012 to a total of $152.5bn, down from the 4% growth projected in the previous report issued in December 2011.

For 2013, the new report predicts a 3.1% increase, representing a total spend of $157.2 bn.

Says GroupM Chief Investment Officer Rino Scanzoni: "We attribute the decline in US ad spending to a number of factors, including a loss of economic momentum, the global deterioration from all continents but particularly the Eurozone and political and fiscal uncertainty at home for the election and beyond.”

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... whereby an algorithm could judge whether you look happy, sad, sick, healthy, comfortable or nervous - then direct a personalised advertisement to you. 

In a blog post, Singularity University Research Associate Tarun Wadhwa writes: "To a computer, your face is a set of points and measurements between your features, but to advertisers, these data sets mean lucrative profits and a new way to connect with customers.

"Facial detection technology is making it feasible to do real-time measurement and analysis of advertisements in the physical world and predict the products you will want to buy, based on who you are or what you look like.

"In a world full of cameras and ubiquitous gadgets, there are serious concerns of how far advertisers will take this. From the advertisements outside, to the televisions in your home - this technology will be coming to a screen near you.

"Today, these types of sensors may be part of the television when you purchase it already; in the last year alone, Sony, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba have each introduced "Smart TVs" with facial recognition technology built-in.

"Intel is reportedly making this technology a centerpiece of its new push into the commercial TV sector, using it as leverage to bring reluctant media companies on board to their platform. At this rate, it won't be long before your TV is watching you as well.

"These rapid changes raise important issues around permission and what consumers are willing to tolerate. Parents are not going to be thrilled about special advertisements that play for their kids only when they are out of the room. It is very difficult to "opt-out" of a billboard camera scanning your features from above.

"Measuring your our age and gender today could turn into marketing to your weight, race or emotional state down the line. The underlying technology enables both passive measurement and actively targeted marketing, but the privacy issues surrounding both are markedly different.

"These concerns are just the beginning, with the possibility of widespread automated facial recognition on the horizon. With this, a person could be tracked and identified in a matter of seconds - complete with their shopping history and Facebook profile.

"But what is technologically possible is not necessarily socially and legally permissible. Consumers will soon have to decide what they are willing to accept - some will be turned off by constant deeply personalized advertisements, but others will enjoy the greater relevance of the new offers presented to them."

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... digital technology powering electronic billboards and other displays.

Another key factor favouring out-of-home is the increased fragmentation of other media making OOH appealing to advertisers wanting to reach mass audiences.

At the same time, the expansion of captive video networks will aid advertisers seeking to target specific audiences not accessible via other media formats.

Out-of-home also goes hand in hand with increased mobile ad spending as advertisers seek media that reach people when they are shopping. 

Indonesia, Russia, and India will be the fastest-growing countries for out-of-home spending through 2016, with CAGRs of 11.2%, 11.0%, and 10.9% respectively. Latin America will be the fastest-growing region during the next five years [CAGR 7.6%].

In 2011 Japan and China together generated 36% of total global spending. The US is the largest market with 20% of global revenues.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... Ava, as the digital Delilah is named, has no need of lunch or bathroom breaks, eschews overtime pay and never needs a vacation!  

The body responsible for the three airports - the New York Port Authority [NYPA] has been running a customer care program for over twenty years, but now plans to increase the number of red-jacketed Customer Care Representatives by twenty percent during peak hours.

To expand on its current program, the NYPA has created an innovative pilot plan featuring virtual customer care representatives - the first time such  technology has been used at a US domestic airport.

Currently, 350 human customer care agents provide information to help travellers navigate the airport and public transportation options. Easily identifiable by their red jackets, they staff the airport’s welcome centers and other high-volume terminal areas like checkpoint entry and exit points. Between them they speak a total of 27 different languages, with English and Spanish most prevalent.

The computerized, hologram avatars will provide automated, basic information to travelers in LaGuardia’s Central Terminal Building, Newark Liberty’s Terminal B and JFK’s Terminal 5 when they are installed in early July. The pilot will run for a six months trial period at a cost of around $180,000.

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... told by Microsoft's marketing and data policy privacy manager Lyn Watts in his address to this week's PII 2012 [Privacy Identity Innovation Conference] in Seattle.

Warned Watts: "While the innovation on Kinect apps is incredible, when it comes to privacy there are things that you can do that aren't necessarily the right thing to do."

His topic was biometric-aware advertising, which will become more common as sensor-based devices gain the ability to recognize the people using them.

He not only talked about the promise of the technology, but also its potential privacy pitfalls.

Watts examples centered around Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, which is expanding its potential applications into more commercial settings as it moves beyond the Xbox 360 game console to Windows PCs.

So how should companies making biometric-enabled Kinect apps approach the issue? Advises Watts:

"From a privacy professional’s point of view, there’s a big mountain to climb here. Biometric data, as we know from our customers, is something that is seen as really exciting. And also there’s a little bit of trepidation.

"I think Xbox did a really good job of rolling out Kinect and being very up front about the privacy implications and giving customers control over those implications.

"Those are the sorts of things that the privacy managers for these companies are going to have to think about, too. Boy, be up front about disclosure, about exactly what the data is going to be used for.

"Get clear, clear consent. In a lot of cases, I think it’s going to be opt-in, check-the-checkbox type of consent. There’s things that you can do that aren’t necessarily the right things, and I think that’s going to be foremost on the minds of a lot of the privacy managers that are going to work in this space."

The 3rd annual Privacy Identity Innovation conference at Seattle's Bell Harbor International Conference Center [May 14-16] explored how to protect sensitive information while enabling new technologies and business models.

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determines that you’re at a ballgame and delivers related ads or links to your phone with sports scores and news.

Or maybe you’re making the call from a concert hall, and the sound in the background is the instruments tuning up during intermission. Google figures out that you’re at a concert, and serves up musical news or ads about albums related to the performance. This is an operational diagramatic of the new patent: 

Disturbingly Big Brother-ish?? Google's patent acknowledges “it is important to respect the privacy of the users,” and explains that users will have the option of “enabling or disabling some or all of the sensors for the purpose of gathering information to support advertisements,” as governed by a privacy policy.

Google applied for the patent in January 2008 and received it March 20th. Coincidentally its approval comes at a time of heightened scrutiny over Google’s privacy practices. And the concept makes the automated ads in Gmail sound positively low-tech.

The patent doesn’t only monitor background noise, but also records input a from variety of sensors.

For example, when the temperature sensed by a device dips below a certain threshhold, the system could serve up ads for winter coats, according to the patent.

The idea is to use a variety of conditions sensed by the phone to help serve up ads, not just on the phone itself but also on nearby digital billboards or similar advertising venues.

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... explore novel methods of interaction. Thomas hails it as a way to counteract the modern problem of "infobesity".

He explains: "People are saturated with information all the time, especially when it comes to music, this is a way to cut through all of that. We're trying to recapture some of the tactile experience you got with vinyl records. 

"There's a really different reaction from users to physical media as opposed to digital media, especially when it comes to music."

Thomas added that interactive paper and packaging signified the return of media to the physical - as opposed to digital - world and was no longer solely accessible online.

Development of large-scale production techniques for printing circuits on packages, posters and other paper media is accelerating, Thomas say. Work is also under way to shrink circuit boards so they too can be incorporated in the printing process.

Thomas believes that the low cost of paper and the fact that conductive inks can be applied via ordinary printing presses will quickly drive adoption.

"It will be a couple of years before we see smart paper as a really meaningful proposition but it's definitely going to happen," he said. "Music is a focus for us but it's just the tip of the iceberg."

Future versions could incorporate web connections so that packages, posters and magazines can be remotely updated. As an example, Thomas cites a real world 'Like' sticker that can be affixed to any object, logging every occasion on which the sticker is pressed. 

The Listening Post technology was recently demonstrated at the South By Southwest Show in Austin, Texas.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.