How are 'wearables' going to shape digital marketing strategy in the future?

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It is estimated that by 2018 there will be 130 million wearable devices on the market and that the wearables industry will be worth around US$6 billion. Would you have ever guessed that 50% of people are already considering purchasing a smartwatch? (The figure comes from a recent report by Gartner.)

“the next big thing” Wearables are

Behavioural data provided by wearables will enable complete personalization of marketing across all brand touchpoints.

Benefits of personalisation:

1. Increases conversions 2. Improves customer retention 3. Makes marketing useful

This means that digital marketing will be transformed once again — this time by leveraging on the new data generated by wearables.

Therefore, to stay relevant, brands must start thinking now how to evolve their existing mobile-first strategy to include wearables.

Wearables offer brands incredible in-depth data and insight on consumers.

Therefore, brands have to be mindful not to turn away consumers by being intrusive. Their task is to create well-targeted advertising while respecting users’ privacy.

The screen area on which to present a message is very limited (if any).

Marketers must carefully match the message to the medium since wearable devices have been designed to have “glanceable” interaction, i.e. the messages have to be understood effortlessly.

Main considerations

How to best take advantage of the new communication opportunities fuelled by wearables?

Wearable Marketing Strategy

Brand Utility

Push Notifications

Search

Brand Experience

Content Personalisation

The five main areas marketers should think of when creating wearable marketing strategy

are as follows:

Content Marketing

Advertising

Source: The SHIFT 2015 project

Opted in advertiser alerts delivered to wearables based on context. Starbucks already sends targeted marketing messages to customers’ wearable if there is a Starbucks store nearby, reminding them to have a coffee break or redeem reward points.

This is how they leverage wearables and location-based targeting in order to reach consumers at more optimal times with relevant messages that may positively affect their day.

1. Push Notifications

Search results/ads delivered to wearables after a (voice) search command. Search results and/or ads delivered to wearables after a (voice) search command.

An active voice search scenario: Let’s say you are cycling. Your wearable will know you are on your bike. When you ask your Virtual Assistant for information (e.g. “Best Sushi Place”), it will factor your location and mode of transport before delivering a list of restaurants.

A passive search scenario: Let’s say a week ago you asked your wearable to show you all the styles for GORE running pants.

Today, as you’re walking by Cycle Surgery, an alert comes into your wearable letting you know that this store carries the style you were interested in.

2. Search

Consumer services specially created for and operated on wearables. The message must add value and be non-intrusive. A good example is the Digital DriveStyle app by Mercedes-Benz. The app pairs with Pebble smartwatch and can notify drivers with a watch vibrate if there’s an accident up ahead.

This way Mercedes-Benz builds trust and credibility among its users by being helpful.

3. Brand Utility

Real world experiences powered by wearables. Wearables can be used to enhance events and leave lasting memories. For instance, some brands provide wearables to monitor movement and heart rate of clubbers at branded club nights. The data is then displayed on screens and used to ‘power’ the DJ’s set.

Since people can independently choose whether to participate in these experiences, there is a sense of control and of the brand adding value to their lives.

4. Brand Experience

Delivery of personalised content on other platforms based on wearables data. Different types of data aggregated from wearables will be used to inform targeting and content delivery across other digital platforms within the ecosystem, e.g. desktop, tablet and mobile.

5. Content Personalisation

Conclusion

In-depth targeting data provided by wearables will further blur the lines between advertising and content. In order to further build and deepen customer relationships, marketers must ensure that the messages delivered to wearable devices and across other platforms are 100% relevant, contextual, and valuable.

Q&A