Castrol recently ran a very bold ad campaign in London.

In short, the ad played on several Clear Channel digital billboards in high traffic areas.  A camera mounted nearby would first take a snapshot of your license plate, and then electronically match it to the record held on file by the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (The UK’s DMV). The billboard would then proceed to instantly update and display what type of Castrol motor oil was right for you as you drove by.

You can read the full story here.

Many who first read this story cried foul on the part of privacy. But, Rob Stroud, marketing manager at Castrol, insisted otherwise: “We’re confident that the campaign will not only excite and intrigue drivers, but serve its purpose in helping motorists to understand the “right oil, right car message.”

My hat goes off to Castrol for taking such a leap of faith in this direction.  (Undoubtedly, the viral press they are receiving is paying for the campaign 10 times over).

However, I can also sympathize with those who view this as scary and an invasion of privacy.  Once upon a time, I thought the same thing about contextual ads on my Facebook page.  “An ad for snowboarding gear that is for sale? But, how did they know I like snowboarding?” Of course, I soon realized it was because I stated snowboarding was a hobby of mine.  Now, I am use to it and rather look forward to being presented with offers based on my preferences.

The obvious difference being that I chose to volunteer certain information (snowboarding as a hobby) into public domain, and therefore was presented with an advertisement coinciding as such.  In this case, no one driving by these signs agreed to opt in and that is the key problem, in my opinion.

I am in favor of digital signage advertising being used in this or some other complementary form, so long as viewers reserve the right to ‘opt-in’ only the information they want to share.

That was not the case here.  Sadly, to add more fuel to the fire for consumer rights activists, the campaign was abruptly shut down just 4 days into its scheduled two week run, because access to the DVLA database was apparently never authorized.

How they were able to tap the database without proper clearance and who is responsible for the massive security breach is an entirely different topic altogether.

What do you think about the concept of personalized digital signage ad campaigns like this?

-Matthew Olivieri