BY MAC ATTACK

This is a scoop that’s exclusive to this blog only.

Put aside your mouse boys and girls, advertising in Malaysia is about to get really high-tech. I spent a Saturday with a bunch of real moneyed kids – but the ones with good brains on their shoulders. Aside from the free single malts, they showed me their playbook. It rocked me to the very core.

First off was something they have ready to pitch, with a few tweaks required of the clients buy the idea. It’s a large LCD ad-board (about 57 inches by my reckoning) that has a section which allows multi-touch interactivity (if you have fiddled with an iPhone, you’ll know what multi-touch is). Below the unit is a printer of sorts that prints coupons. The paper itself has some security feature – I was told it probably might be a hologram of sorts – that allows transactions to be carried out if the advertising message appeals to you.

You could essentially buy discounted Malaysia Airlines tickets with the coupons, or half-priced off the shampoo that’s being advertised on the LCD screen and more. This thing comes loaded with technology that MEASURES response, including a little camera that feeds the video stream to a program with a primitive facial recognition ability. This is used to track how many people look at the board when they are passing it. I give it a fricking A for ingenuity. The device is remotely managed via an internet connection and clients are given a dashboard for real-time data monitoring. Wa-wa-wee-wa, as Borat will say.

Given that so many CEOs are accountants by profession, and those who aren’t, are being pressed to watch the bottom-line by the influential CFO, this form of advertising (which can close a sale as well), will definitely kick ass!

Release date is sketchy but a prototype is being shipped in soon. Through passing reference, I got the impression that the hardware and original firmware itself originates from Korea. Some tweaks and customisation is being done in their labs over in Jakarta. This might mean that it will be made available in the region, and is not exclusive to Malaysia.

As if this product was not enough, the boys have more toys up their sleeves. This includes free phones tied to contracts with service a provider which allows discounted calls in exchange for MMS based coupons. I’m not so keen on this, as it seems a tad bit complicated. But the LCD boards rocks my socks!

Stay tuned for more updates as ADOI blog breaks more on the emerging technology that will give traditional advertising a run for their money!

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