This book looks at the future of advertising from the perspective of pervasive computing. Pervasive computing encompasses the integration of computers into everyday devices, like the covering of surfaces with interactive displays and networked mobile phones. Advertising is the communication of sponsored messages to inform, convince, and persuade to buy. We believe that our future cities will be digital, giving us instant access to any information we need everywhere, like at bus stops, on the sidewalk, inside the subway and in shopping malls. We will be able to play with and change the...

Today, people living in cities see up to 5000 ads per day, many on public displays. More and more of these public displays are networked and equipped with sensors, making them part of a global infrastructure that is currently emerging. Such displays provide the opportunity to create a benefit for society in the form of immersive experiences and relevant content. In this way, they can overcome the display blindness that evolved over the years. Two main reasons prevent this vision from coming true: first, public displays are stuck with traditional advertising as the driving business model....