Advertising is hard these days. We are bombarded with information every moment of our lives, so we’ve already managed to develop a kind of immunity to it. Some call it “ad blindness”. What’s more, “analogue” advertising methods, such as using billboards or posters to promote your business, are not nearly as effective as using digital channels. You get no control over who sees your ad and if it reaches your perfect customer group at all. All in all, it might be just a waste of money.
That’s why precise targeting is so important. Digital media offer much more complex tools for analysing and reaching potential clients, so it’s no wonder they’ve become the main channel for advertising. The trick is to find creative ways to profit from that knowledge.
While mobile devices are with us all the time, Rzeszów-based startup Wise Glass wanted to go a step further with their interpretation of a digital medium. Why not use a simple mirror? And they’re right; you’ll find mirrors everywhere, from shops’ changing rooms to restaurants’ toilets. Thousands of people look into them every day, and it’s usually more than just a glimpse. That alone gives this medium a leverage over a regular billboard.
Wise Glass took a mirror and added sensors and a display option to it. Thanks to those, the mirror can correctly identify the age, sex, hair and facial hair type, and even emotions of the person standing in front of it, and display an appropriate ad. What’s more, it’s not aggressive advertising; the movie clip doesn’t interfere with the sightline of the viewer but still catches their attention.
“From the very beginning, we focused on making our product as inexpensive for the venue owner as possible. That’s why we decided that the best way would be for us to install and manage it. The mirror is aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t look any different from the ones you can buy in a regular shop,” says Waldemar Bieniek, co-founder of Wise Glass.
The thing that makes Wise Glass really unique is the financial control the advertiser has over the campaign; they only pay for the time the ad was seen by a person; it isn’t displayed when no one’s around. Thus, every PLN you spend has been used effectively. You can easily access all the statistics via a cloud-based platform created by Wise Glass, and check how your campaign is doing whenever you wish.
The system collects data about the viewers but also about the time they spent watching the ad. However, it doesn’t record them so their anonymity and personal data are safe. The whole system is absolutely legal.
What Wise Glass did is not groundbreaking, as they put it themselves, but it is effective. The startup didn’t even have to apply for any funding. They made the prototype, came up with the business plan, and only then did they find an incubator – Samsung Incubator in Rzeszów – to help them with networking. It turned out to be a great decision. The interest in their product was huge, and they had a lot of great deals to choose from.
So, if you want to try an unusual medium for your ads, Wise Glass is something just for you!
