Are you a robot?

There’s a whole heap of money flowing into digital media at the moment—and that pot just seems to keep getting bigger. But there are a fair few concerns being raised about whether that money is being spent wisely, whether it’s due to bot fraud, dodgy metrics or viewability issues. Recently, one of the world’s most powerful ad men, Sir Martin Sorrell, said he thought the pendulum had swung too far towards digital and it was time for marketers to reconsider the effectiveness of traditional media (which seemed to warm the hearts of many harried publishers and broadcasters). And in New York during Ad Week celebrations, the US outdoor industry body has launched a clever campaign making the same argument by pointing out that digital has a reality problem. 

The campaign uses outdoor to direct people to feelthereal.org and, when there, it asks them if they saw the ads in the real world or whether they’re robots. 

 In an infographic, it points out that as few as eight percent of digital impressions come from real people and it offers punters a quiz to test how real they are. And, as it says on Ad Age, “those who respond to the Feelthereal.org quiz by saying they are robots are greeted with a long line of binary that translates to a quote from USA Network’s series Mr. Robot.”

“The ads also contain more messaging than is immediately apparent. It turns out that binary numbers on each ad contain messages. One translates to: “Ad Age loves real clicks.” The one on the truck making its rounds in Manhattan reads: “OOH makes digital real.” 

This last point is backed up by the stat that shows outdoor is three times more efficient at driving search traffic than radio, print or TV.  

Speaking of robots, can you tell the difference between writing created by a machine and by a human? And will a robot take your job?