Mini Motorby - RFID Enabled Marketing

Here's an article from Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog that I found really interesting. I've discussed digital billboards in THIS post, but this is a whole new twist! It's a very creative use of outdoor advertising, but as you can tell it has some inherent problems that Mini will have to figure out how to get around. Privacy, practicality (not something Mini is known for), and yes, even safety!

Here's the article:

Mini Cooper Taps Into Uber-Customization: Auto Brand Designs Billboards that Greets Drivers—By Name—When They Drive By

Each day, it seems, marketers go further in their quest to deliver messages so engaging and personalized that one cannot help feeling special. The latest step will be seen this week in four cities when Mini USA begins delivering custom messages to Mini Cooper owners on digital signs the company calls "talking" billboards, The New York Times reports.

The boards, which usually carry typical advertising, are programmed to identify approaching Mini drivers through a coded signal from a radio chip embedded in their key fob. The messages are personal, based on questionnaires that owners filled out: "Mary, moving at the speed of justice," if Mary is a lawyer, or "Mike, the special of the day is speed," if Mike is a chef.

The enthusiastic guinea pigs for the Mini experiment will be more than a thousand Mini owners in New York, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco who have signed up for what the company calls "an ever-changing array of unique, personal, playful and unexpected messages," Times writer Barnaby Feder reports.

"People buy Minis because they really want to have more fun in their days," said James L. McDowell, head of North American operations for the company, which is a subsidiary of BMW of Germany. "We want everything about our marketing to fit that."

McDowell said that Mini would monitor reaction to the test signs for about three months before deciding whether to expand to other billboards in the first four cities, to more cities or to other applications, like using the tags to display personal welcomes when drivers approach their local Mini dealership.

The experiment adds a new wrinkle to the wrangling among marketers and safety experts over whether drivers might be dangerously distracted by messages flashed on the growing number of digital billboards around the nation. Some communities have forced billboard owners to modify or turn off such signs, and the federal government has said it will soon publish a review of the research on the subject.

But Mini executives say they are confident that even RFID skeptics will take Motorby, as the trial is called, in stride.

"There's no piece of this that's invasive," said Trudy Hardy, manager of Mini's marketing department. "It's a completely voluntary program, and there is zero confidential information in the fob."

"Building evangelists is the holy grail of marketing for a number of industries," said Michael Megalli, a partner in Group 1066, a marketing strategy firm in New York. "This is interesting because the marketing is integrated into the product."