Smart city concept is a new buzz word, often misused. If something is digital, doesn’t mean it’s smart. Dr. Peter Williams (Chief Technology Officer for Big Green Innovations at IBM) suggests a smart city “is where the Internet of Things and analytics are applied to public infrastructure, services, and participation in the community.”.[1]

In the core of Smart City concept are new tech-powered connections:

• Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Connections

• People-To-People (P2P) Connections

• Machine-to-People (M2P) Connections

Outdoor digital signs fall under M2P connections. Which can be defined as: Information transferred from a machine (such as a computer, mobile device, digital sign) to a person, or vice versa. Whether a person gets information from a database or conducts a complex analysis, this is an M2P connection. Often called Data & Analytics.

Core of a smart city systems are people, process, data and things. All four elements are tightly connected with outdoor digital signs:

• People: Connecting people in more relevant valuable ways.

• Process: Delivering the right information to the right place, person, or machine at the right time.

• Data: Leveraging data into more useful information for decision making.

• Things: Physical devices and objects connected to the internet and to each other, in ways that encourage more intelligent day to day decision-making (sensors).

The OOH industry has an opportunity to participate in the transformation of conventional cities into smart cities with turning data into wisdom. The aim is to use it for anticipating new behaviors, speed new initiatives, and avoid potentially negative outcomes.

Smart City and New Opportunities for OOH advertising industry

Smart city technology results in involving more sensors generating more data, which is resulting in growing number of “urban facts.”. Realtime information can be used as hyper targeted messages. More details translate into more effective, personalized messages, which ensures greater response rates.

For example, Croatian advertising company used cameras to recognize the size and breed of passing dog. Based on that personalized ad was played on imotion outdoor digital sign. If we keep in mind that a third of Croatians are dog owners, the development of simple algorithm means displaying the ad only to people in the target group, which increases the effectiveness of advertising by three times.

Advertising will have a crucial role in formulating urban business models with ad revenue funding development. Additionally, the owners of billboards or street furniture inventory will certainly focus on capturing relevant data.

Opportunity for Governments

On of the major challenges facing cities hoping to crate smart city is funding. Only by developing a workable business model can cities bring this technology onto their streets. The main objective is to make economically self-sufficient and financially sustainable system. There are various revenue models to consider, including advertising.

Local governments control key locations for OOH industry, such as bus shelters, information kiosks, and transit systems. These locations are very valuable for any OOH medium owner. Hence smart city transformation can be beneficial across the sectors of the economy.

Community, municipality and governmental institutions:

• Effective, data-driven decision-making.

• Enhanced citizen and government engagement.

• Safer communities.

• Improved transportation.

• Improved infrastructure.

OOH medium owner

• Differentiation factor with unique value proposition.

• Raise chance to obtain highly interesting locations.

• Possibly lowering total costs of ownership due to value proposition to municipalities or supporting, organizations (power, internet, renting space).

Second Generation of Smart Public Totems

Smart public totems are a step up from previous “just digital” outdoor signs. They are direct answer for a growing demand for higher quality city information, so-called “direct” city experiences.

Through the development of innovative hardware, software, and services, connected by an integrated solution, smart public totem providers have demonstrated that any municipality, small or large, can use technology to create smarter, safer, and more efficient cities.

One such solution is imotion URBAN. Physical and digital platform that allows for the integration of IoT and communications technologies: LTE small cells, IoT gateways, environmental sensors and city safety features.

There are many useful tools integrated in imotion URBAN smart public totem:

• Environmental sensors: It collects environmental data, such as, Air Pressure, Dust Particles, NO2, SO2, CO, Humidity and Air Temperature. Data can be used to reduce pollution or to guide people to less polluted city areas.

• Audio Devices: An audio sensor can records noises around a kiosk. A city’s agencies can use the data to assess noise levels, in real-time, which can be used to reduce noise pollution.

• Surveillance System: Four cameras can generate real time overview, which can be used as valuable information in emergency cases.

• Emergency System: SOS button decrease reaction time of passers in case of emergency.

• Connectivity: With Wi-FI hotspot brings high speed internet to the ones who currently don’t have broadband connectivity at home.

[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart-city-starter-set-peter-williams-ph-d-distinguished-engineer/?trk=mp-reader-card