{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "content": "---\ntitle: \"Algorithmic uni marketing billboards\"\ndescription: \"A generative 'verb your verb' billboard that picks random verbs and Unsplash\n  backgrounds, built with reveal.js and later rewritten in ClojureScript.\"\ntags:\n  - dev\n---\n\nIn the spirit of Murdoch University's\n[_free your think_](https://www.campaignbrief.com/wa/2017/07/murdoch-university-launches-fr.html)\nmarketing campaign, I've put together a dynamic full-page ad billboard as my\npitch for the ANU's next marketing campaign.\n\n:::tip[Disclaimer]\n\nThis is in no way an official ANU campaign. Seriously, though, it's a great\nuni---and you should come [study with us](https://www.anu.edu.au/study).\n\n:::\n\nThe campaign is called: **verb** _your_ **verb**---hit refresh to see the\ndifferent options.\n\n:::warning\n\nThe interactive widget is no longer available.\n\n:::\n\n## How does it work?\n\nIt uses the same [reveal.js](https://github.com/hakimel/reveal.js/) template\nthat I use for all my [talks/slides](/talks/)---it's basically a one-slide\npresentation.\n\nEach time the page loads, it:\n\n1. pulls a random background image from [unsplash](https://unsplash.com)\n2. chooses two verbs at random from\n   [a list of the 1000 most frequently used verbs](https://www.talkenglish.com/vocabulary/top-1000-verbs.aspx)\n3. places them on the billboard in the form **verb** _your_ **verb**,\n   randomising the location and text style\n\nAs with all things on this blog, you can check out the source to see all the\ndetails.\n\n**UPDATE 12 March**: I rewrote the billboard code from vanilla js to\n[clojurescript](https://clojurescript.org) because it makes me happy (source\n[here](https://github.com/benswift/benswift.github.io/blob/source/_cljs/algorithmic_billboard/src/algorithmic_billboard/core.cljs),\nand you can still see the original js source\n[here](https://github.com/benswift/benswift.github.io/blob/9f4dbeceb99a43f1430593f89bdde68e1fc5c3e9/widgets/algorithmic-ad-billboards.html)).\n",
  "createdAt": "2026-05-13T23:15:00.362Z",
  "description": "A generative 'verb your verb' billboard that picks random verbs and Unsplash backgrounds, built with reveal.js and later rewritten in ClojureScript.",
  "path": "/blog/2019/02/16/algorithmic-uni-marketing-billboards",
  "publishedAt": "2019-02-16T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:tevykrhi4kibtsipzci76d76/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "dev"
  ],
  "textContent": "A generative 'verb your verb' billboard that picks random verbs and Unsplash backgrounds, built with reveal.js and later rewritten in ClojureScript.",
  "title": "Algorithmic uni marketing billboards"
}