Whenever the future of advertising is discussed, thoughts often turn to the sci-fi image of a stalked Tom Cruise in Minority Report being recognised and served intrusive, personalised advertising as he tries to escape a futuristic city.
Hence, recent claims by Russian app FindFace that it could identify people in public by their profile picture on a Russian social media site were met with a combination of awe and concern. Such facial recognition could enable digital screens to tailor messages to each individual as they pass, meaning an end to brands wasting budget advertising the wrong products to the wrong people.
Facial recognition is already following celebrities’ pictures around online and providing advertising space next to them. Computer vision firm GumGum claims to be able to programme any face into its recognition system and then identifies it when it subsequently appears on the internet, even if there is no caption giving away the person’s identity. Typical customers are sponsors seeking to check up on what exposure a celebrity is earning them.
“We’re currently working with P&G to recognise the athletes they’re using in their Thank You Mum Olympics campaign,” says GumGum managing director Ed Preedy. “We not only count how many pictures are posted of the athletes they work with, so they can see how much coverage they’ve attracted, but we can also let them serve an advert next to each picture.”
The VIP treatment
Retailers are starting to see face recognition as a means of distinguishing their VIP customer loyalty schemes. At Axis, which develops facial recognition technology, business development manager Andy Martin points out facial recognition is already being used to enable advertisers to count how many people have viewed their outdoor advertising. The results are even split by gender and age. In a well-known outdoor campaign for domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid, a model’s bruises disappeared from her face as more people watched the screen, getting across the message that if people take notice, domestic violence could be halted.
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