This is the second part of Billboard Insider’s interview with Intersection CEO Chris Grosso.  In the first part of the interview, Grosso talked about how travel is back and how intersection is executing travel campaigns for out of home clients.  Today, he talks about how dynamic advertising, QR codes and AI are being used by Intersection.

Talk about how dynamic displays might be used in a travel out of home campaign?

We did real time temperature updates last winter.  We’ve done it’s 80 degrees in Barbados but it’s 35 degrees in New York.  We’ve also done real time imagery from the screens showing the beaches in a tropical destination.  We’ve even done airport departure times.   For example, “You could be sitting at  X location in a couple of hours.” 

Last March you talked about implementing AI at Intersection. How will AI impact ad campaigns?

We’re using AI for creative customization.  In New York City alone, we have over 4000 screens with these new AI tools.   It becomes possible to customize a piece of creative for every one of those screens very quickly.  You can take an ad and make it custom for Greenwich Village or make it custom for the Upper West Side or make a custom for the Upper East Side and the intelligence can generate a bunch of images very quickly. Then we’ll take a look at them, the client can look at them and we’ll publish.  This would have been cost prohibitive for anyone to do in the past.

QR codes are here to stay? 

QR codes have their place for sure at street level.  We did a great campaign with Shake Shack where you could take a picture or scan a QR code and get a sweepstakes entry for a monetary prize or a free hamburger.  They were promoting a new mushroom burger. That was a great campaign.  QR codes are also an opportunity for static advertising. Static ads are better suited for QR codes because they don’t flip so consumers have a better chance to scan the code.  It makes static advertising interactive in a way that was not possible before.  In the pandemic, people got acclimated to QR codes.

What’s your take on out of home impression initiatives?

I think there’s going to be increasing emphasis on having everything audited and using audit and impressions, likely from Geopath.  It’s important to know in a programmatic world that everyone’s operating off the same measurement techniques so everything can be measured apples to apples.  I think as an industry, we need to all work towards the same standard.   Another thing I think the industry needs to work on is standardization of the ad formats that everyone is deploying, particularly DOOH so it’s easier to buy.  It’s challenging when there are so many varying screen sizes.

What else is on your mind?

It’s been a great year for out of home.  There’s a huge amount of momentum in the industry which is great, and a huge amount of creative energy which is even better.  Everyone is looking forward to a strong back half this year.

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