How Artificial Intelligence Is Evolving Outdoor Advertisements

M&C Saatchi partnered with outdoor advertising experts Clear Channel and Posterscope to evolve a traditional channel: outdoor advertisements. The companies worked together to test a unique algorithm using a Microsoft Kinect camera, which would help them gauge consumer sentiment when looking at a bus shelter ad. The agency's began by asking lofty questions such as "how can we create the most attention grabbing advert?" and "can an ad write itself?", and drilled it down to a meaningful execution. The resulting ad is a structure that evolves similarly to how an organism survives in nature: it evolves and "mutates" based on how much attention and engagement it receives. In short, a series of ads are pitted against each other and the most attention-grabbing one will not only appear most often but it will also inform the weaker performing ads by tweaking their layout and language.