P-Learning: Fill up your tank...and your head?

I’m finally off the road long enough to get out on my Harley to enjoy both the great weather that we’ve been having lately in sunny California and some of the great winding back roads you can see in this picture. However, even at almost 50 miles to the gallon (or about 5 liters per 100k as I would have said when I lived in Europe), enjoying all those lovely miles means that I have to stop to fill up the gas tank once in a while.

So there I was, calmly filling up the Harley with a whole 4 gallons of gas when a voice from above started to talk to me. No, no, not THAT kind of voice!  I looked up to find a large LCD screen installed on the top of the gas pump. As I sat there filling up my tank, the monitor tried to fill up my head with information someone felt I just had to have.

That’s right folks. Just when you thought there might be some escape, along comes  “Gas Station TV”, offered in this case by the company of the same name. Programming on the pump starts when you put in your credit card and it repeats until you finish your fill up. My other vehicle is a pickup truck with a MUCH larger tank than my Harley, so I expect to hear several loops when I’m filling it up!

Of course, I needed to find out more and sure enough, I found an article on Gearlog called “Watch Pump Top TV at Your Local Gas Station”.

My first experience produced mixed reactions:

• The advertisements (was there any doubt?) were annoyingly frequent and the ratio of ads-to-content was way too high. If they want to be effective and not drive us all away, then they will need to come up with much better marketing models.  Perhaps they could follow the success online by placing the ads off to one side or the bottom and let the content come through the majority of the screen space?

• The sound was too loud!  When the station is busy and every pump is playing a different part of the same loop (the “show” starts when the pump starts), it gets VERY annoying very quickly. 
• It will take a while to settle on what type of content is best for this venue. For example one segment gave the local weather forecast and an updated traffic report. Smart and helpful, so I appreciated that. I could see them adding driving tips, how to get better mileage and an option asking me if I need directions to my next destination.

While I understand that we are a “captive audience” in these situations, smart installations could give us more control, resulting in greater effectiveness. For example, they could provide a volume or mute button to let me control the sound, and they could follow the Web example (most of the time) by not having any sound from advertisements unless I choose to let it play.

However, their biggest opportunity for success would be to let the Snowflake Effect hit these installations. The content would be customized and personalized just for me. For example, since I have to stick my credit card into the machine, it could determine who I am and it could:

• Use some of my chosen preferences to give me more relevant information. 
• Know which vehicle I’m driving (ask me on the touch screen if I have more than one), and provide me with information specific to that vehicle.
• Know the kind of content I’m most interested in during these situations—maybe I’m more interested in the weather than sports scores, or I might want different information depending on the time of day. 
• Offer a large series of content so that I could choose those segments that are relevant for me. Then they could keep showing me new content for as long as I’m there, rather than just repeating the same loop ad nauseam.

Still, like it or not, I imagine that this trend will continue to show up at more stations. If used well, this could be an example of modular learning that is good for both the consumer and the producers.

So, next time you are at the gas station, don’t be frightened by the voice from above (well, maybe be very frightened?). Just look up and see this latest example of the digital surroundings we are living in. Gas Station TV is more evidence of the trend line I’ve covered previously here at Off Course – On Target—the  increasing presence of "digital screens" where literally any surface can become an interactive display. Read more about it in my postings "The Old Medium has become the New Content" (Part 1) and (Part 2).

The upside of living in a market-based economy is that we are the market. Ultimately, we ARE in control, because we can vote with our feet and our wallets. My suggestion? If this trend of almost all surfaces becoming digital interactive displays is inevitable, as I believe it is, then let’s start coming up with ways to use it to our advantage. Let's make them  into another opportunity for learning moments.

In the near future, “Fill ‘er up” may apply not only to your gas tank, but  to your head as well. Just remember… your actual mileage may vary. <g>

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