4 ms·

Interesting application of evolutionary optimization. The system is probably easy to reproduce: expect open-source versions soon.

• joshwa 18y ago
  I'm pretty sure the ad agencies have something like this already.
  • jamiequint 18y ago
    They don't actually. Ad agencies have people who do this stuff for a living (generating what they feel will be the optimal ads). Agencies have been held back by these people in a way, because they are naturally very resistive to someone telling them that a computer might be able to do their job better than they can, even if the end result may not be as aesthetically pleasing to them.
    • joshwa 18y ago
      In terms of automating the variations, that can be done ahead of time with photoshop scripting/etc, and then leaving it up to the adserver's optimization algorithms to serve the best-performing creative. e.g. http://www.rightmedia.com/solutions/ad-server/ http://www.rightmedia.com/solutions/ad-server/ Then there are the folks doing personalized dynamic text/etc on ads, e.g: http://mediaplex.co.uk/dynamic_messaging.shtml http://mediaplex.co.uk/dynamic_messaging.shtml http://advertising.yahoo.com/marketing/smartads/ http://advertising.yahoo.com/marketing/smartads/
      • drusenko 18y ago
        you're talking a couple generations behind what we're doing. there is a huge difference between plugging 10 variations into an ad server and using a genetic algorithm to quickly and efficiently find a local (or global) maxima in a search space of over 1 billion possibilities with constantly shifting preferences. smartads is also a very different product, very focused on offer optimization, with a rigid system that doesn't expand well beyond the specific verticals they've created templates for. most players in this space have fairly limited optimization abilities, ie a/b testing, which does not scale up.
        • joshwa 18y ago
          cool!
    • brandnewlow 18y ago
      Heh. Sounds like newspapers!