Coca-Cola: Building a Better Design Machine?

Pretty cool article about Coke's "Design Machine" that has increased efficiency in creating localized ad collateral and reduced overall expenses by over 30%.  This will likely become a hot trend and we will see lots of ad agencies and consulting firms offering to create these systems for other large mega-brands in the next few years....

Brought to you by theYreport at y-report.com

Seth Godin: Profile of a Marketing Guru

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2008/id20080924_140114.htm?link_position=link1

What 'Facial Coding' Analysis Says About McCain, Obama Ads

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A marketing research system that studies the emotions expressed by facial muscles has been used to analyze presidential campaign ads. The system is the subject of the new book, "Face Time," by Dan Hill. Mr. Hill heads Sensory Logic, a consulting firm that has been using "facial coding" methods to study second-by-second consumer reaction to TV commercials. Its clients are normally large marketing corporations. But during the primaries, the company began analyzing audience reactions to the major candidates' ads.

Video at http://adage.com/video/article?article_id=131352

Scanning Shoppers

From Business Week's "Point-of-Sale Advertising Goes High Tech":

Some retailers are starting to experiment with even more advanced tools. Merchants can now, for instance, install tiny cameras that scan shoppers' faces to determine their sex, race, and approximate age, and then flash appropriately targeted ads. YCD Multimedia, an Israeli company that sells digital-display systems, is already integrating such technology in some of its systems and is discreetly testing them in some U.S. retail outlets, though it won't say where.

So, long story short, a tiny camera can now guess your demographic profile, process an algorithm and suggest which muffin from the bake case that someone of your age, gender and race would most likely enjoy with [insert long, complicated coffee order here].

Is this the next evolution of television? If we can manage to take the "mass" out of mass-market advertising, will consumers listen? Or, will they revolt? Will our culture reject any and all "recommendations" and flock to establishments that value human relationships -- where a chef still makes his recommendation based on the fresh fish, the seasonal vegetables? Are we OK with Amazon's or iTunes' suggestions as long as they are delivered in privacy?

How could similar technology affect billboards and digital displays in the 2012 election? Do you think "they" will have figured out how to track our credit cards to these displays by then to process our spending habits, too?