When thinking of the future, most people commonly think of flying cars, lots of holograms and self-lacing shoes. As weird as it may sound, all three of these technologies exist now, and what is possibly more surprising is that self-lacing shoes were the last to be made. Now flying cars are more than a while off from being mainstream, so let’s focus on the more accessible and affordable option of future cars: self-driving ones.
Through the innovation of Elon Musk, the technology for autonomous driving is no longer the future, because it is here now and it’s replacing normal vehicles and an extreme rate. If cars are doing the driving, then what are you doing? The average person spends 30-60 minutes driving each day, amounting to hundreds of hours each year that can be used for work or entertainment.
One of the many uses here is a new ad platform. There’s no stopping it, so out of home advertising is going to suffer heavily, since now eyes will be on their phones even more, and not at billboards. This starts an interesting concept as to what is the future of car ads, and the new big opportunity for marketers with self driving cars.
Since the cars are driving themselves, the windows can be used for augmented reality. Uber has already pushed a few self driving cars and they’ve been mostly well received by public. This new Uber and Lyft version of ad networks are going to skyrocket. Can you even imagine how much more Netflix is going to be watched now that you’re being personally chauffeured around everywhere?
The windows in the self-driving cars can feature geo-filters for what you’re actually seeing in real time, or enhance branded experiences with the help of augmented reality. As you’re driving through Manhattan, you can have your windows give real time filters of what you’re seeing whether those are camera lenses or real time geo-located filters like the ones from Snapchat.
Stores that are not as well known, or local businesses will be able to reach out to a much larger audience by sending out pop up ads across a window of your car explaining what they are, or giving out deals, to anyone within a certain radius. With vehicle voice recognition, and self driving cars being almost entirely regulated and cleared, they’re going to become common to the world. These cars could replace the PC as the number two most connected device, which would broaden all markets.
What about audio you ask? This secondary experience is going to make multitasking easier, through voice commands. Local brands can dominate this by buying out ads that will speak to you, giving you deals. If you ask for directions, then the GPS can suggest local places for you to visit as well.
Digital advertising is exponentially growing, and with the demise of billboards incoming, smart billboards will be steadily rising and the dumb will die. Oh, and don’t forget to kiss your radio goodbye, because of applications like Spotify, completely customized music experiences will be the norm.
With more free time due to self driving cars, consumers will have much more time for games, social media, and of course, ads. It’s time to realize that another revolution in advertising is coming.