The future sounds good, the future looks better, the future will be more interesting and more beautiful for the marketer with the courage to test it.
I am not a tech guy and I don’t own a smart-watch, I’ve never tried Google Glass and I’ve never timed my training. I’m not good with software (though I do have around me more Mavens via Tipping Point) and I’m not the type of person that studies the „ingredients” of the products. I bought an iPhone because I’ve experienced an extraordinary sensation when I first laid a hand on it, because Marian thoroughly explained to me everything an Apple product is and because I was in need of a smartphone update. And yes, I got an iPhone because that is the best phone when it comes to taking photos with a smartphone!
But this does not mean I don’t believe in the power tech & wearables have on marketing strategies.
Because this is the future! Beyond digital marketing, beyond data-driven purpose or count marketing we will be seeing a changed offline marketing, updated and wearable.
People will not only see advertising, but also proudly wear it!
The past months the CES – The Consumer Electronic Show event took place where IT giants and early adopters gadgets savy meet to present their take on the future. And don’t think of the future as something far away that only your grandsons will feel. The future is already here! Things are moving fast, very fast and sometimes too fast.
Statistics show that more and more people use smartphones to read newspapers, stay connected on social networks and simply have fun. Reports show that the new trend in advertising is mobile. But I believe the next trend will certainly be advertising on wearable technology. When? It’s already started. Apple Watch and Starbucks have already taken the next step with a new ad!
And what kind of connection does marketing have with future technology? What do you mean? A GIANT one!!!
The new wearable technologies are based on the theory of a time reduction between intent and action and marketers could take advantage of the next principles in order to more easily connect with clients and potential clients:
1. Location info
If Ogilvy, Leo Burnett or Hopkins would have been alive today, they would have surely used targeted advertisement. Moreover, they would have paid so much attention to it that they would have written another book from which advertising websites would have taken hundreds of quotes. Anyway.
Doing targeted advertisement is easy, but it becomes hard to do it when the consumer yearns for authenticity without feeling followed. Retailers have a lot to gain from this, as long as they know how to use the client’s presence in their stores. I’m talking about the right advertisement in the right place at the right moment for the right person!
2. Mobility
The mobile phone has become a person’s most intimate object. Close to him in the morning, during the day, in the evening out with friends and at night before going to sleep. So close that he would rather look at the time on his phone that on the watch at this wrist. Moreover, I think the watch has become like a simple bracelet, an accessory (it is in fact an accessory, but it lost its usefulness property).
Marketers should start using mobile advertising and, we will soon be able to talk about watch advertising (Apple Watch + Starbucks) or glance advertising (Google Glass). Think about this before you go on! This is the future. This is where you must come in, if you’re smart and have the courage to test the field.
3. Data
This thing with personal data and client privacy, you know who’s to blame? It’s neither the brand nor the marketer. It’s simply the client who leaves his personal data on every site and social network. And if you’re a client and you feel overwhelmed by some advertisements, before you start complaining think about where you’ve left your personal information. That’s right.
But the smart marketer will know how to use the personal information of the client to simply communicate with him, without being too intrusive or aggressive. Your data will be another big plus that wearable technology will achieve. Let’s not forget, though, that there is some data representing a human behavior and the only one that can correctly interpret it is another human, not a robot (yet).
4. Experience
You are able to deliver a solution at the exact moment your client needs it in order to make his life easier, the experience between a brand and a client is guaranteed. Experience is the bridge between need and desire. Perhaps my need is to be on time at the 12 o’clock meeting, but my desire is to arrive 5 minutes earlier.
If your product/service will manage to satisfy my need I will certainly become an evangelist of your brand. New technology has the ability to create a beautiful relationship between a brand and client. It’s up to the marketer how he decides to use it!
In conclusion!
Perhaps what I am talking about is still in the far away future, but let’s not forget that 15 years ago we did not have the mobile phones we carry with us, the smart watches we can buy nor the cars we are now driving. And today, things are moving very fast. It’s up to you as a marketer to take advantage of today or waste the opportunity!
Wearable | Photo Shutterstock
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