Madison Avenue Seeks Engineers, Emerging Technologies

As AT&T, Infiniti, JC Penney's Levi's, Nike, Sony and others put a greater emphasis on digital ad campaigns, savvy agencies search for technologies that give consumers interactive experiences far beyond banner ads and microsites.

The move is part of a trend that relies on technology to turn advertising into entertainment and provoke consumers to interact with brands. "Conversational marketing lets brands involve consumers in the process of discovery," says Jeremiah Knight, director, digital strategy Tequila, a Madison Avenue advertising agency and TBWA Worldwide subsidiary whose clients range from Adidas to Visa. "The savvy ad agencies look for opportunities in digital and sensor technologies that make the consumer interact with the brand."

Tequila execs have researched information on QR codes, digital billboards, and iPhone apps now that Apple released the development kit. They try to keep up with the latest technology because it's becoming increasingly important to their clients that they stay bleeding edge.

Knight found that edge for Tequila's client, Infiniti, in an augmented reality application developed by Total Immersion. The agency created an ad campaign based on the technology, built a demonstration kiosk with camera and database inside to store images, and designed five cards that would help the car manufacturer tell its story.

Consumers walk up to the kiosk with one card in hard to activate the augmented reality technology. The camera inside the kiosk recognizes the image on the card. If it matches with a similar image stored inside the kiosk's database, the kiosk projects a three-dimensional (3D) animated image on the screen over the car image the consumer holds.

When the consumer moves, turns or flips the card in front of the kiosk the camera follows. Tequila and Infiniti took the campaign to several auto shows across the country, including New York and Detroit where consumers had an opportunity to experience the technology. One card held close to the kiosk, for example, animated a ghosted picture of the car's interior, providing details of the instrument cluster on the dash panel.