• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 7, 2011

Throughout the week, MediaPost publications including MediaDailyNews have been covering news from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which has emerged as one of the key events, and meet-ups, for people in the industry who want to understand how the next generation of technology will influence how consumers interact with media. Why should you care? Because, "Technology is changing the nature of the relationship between consumers and products," offers Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup in a report being released in conjunction with the conference. McCann is one of the many agencies sending teams of its top executives to CES in an effort to get a handle on those changes, and in the white paper, notes, "People who once swore allegiance to one of two major political parties are now more likely to view their major loyalty as belonging to Microsoft Windows, Apple's iOS or Google's Android/Chrome ecosystem, as an increasing number of key lifestyle choices are connected to their operating system preferences. The cloud is no longer just a metaphor for where data is stored and how content is accessed - it's now a business imperative for all companies."

In an increasingly media connected world where virtually every product and brand now has a digital presence that resides across platforms and gadgets, developments in media technology are, as the agency suggests, constantly "rewriting the rules of how we will behave, and therefore how we must message and communicate with our audiences." To help its teams and clients prep for those new rules, McCann has identified five trends worth keeping an eye on, regardless of the screen it happens to be looking at.

Transforming Data

"Data is now at the heart of everything we do," asserts McCann, noting that virtually every facet of contemporary life - "living in a city," using a mobile phone, changing your TV channel, or using a transit car to take a subway ride - now leaves a data trail with "enormous amounts of power" about consumers, individually, or in aggregate.

Even as the consumer data privacy debate escalates, the McCann paper notes that virtually all of the technology being showcased in Las Vegas this week is designed to provide more information about how consumers interact with them.

"Marketers and brand owners should be looking at that data along with internal sources for competitive advantage," the agency recommends, suggesting that media folks should consider three elements about the new data-centric developments: "The consideration journey," research and development, and building and maintaining trust.

Transforming Identity

"Your identity can be defined as a profile that consists of specific personal data stored (and sometimes shared) by you, including your name, date of birth, address and credit card information," McCann suggests, adding, "More significant for marketers is the concept of 'Digital Footprints.'

"As technology develops and as more of what we do lives online, our digital footprints will increase in quality and depth, enriching profiles, which in turn will enrich the experience, fostered by closer relationships with trusted tools and brands, and creating "integrated experiences" of consumer content."

Transforming Home

"Supported by $4.5 billion in grants in last February's stimulus package in the U.S., a new generation of 40 million devices are coming online throughout the smart grid," McCann reminds us, adding, "A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital communications to control appliances at consumers' homes; this saves energy, reduces costs and increases reliability and transparency. It overlays the ordinary electrical grid with an information and net metering system that includes smart meters. Smart grids are being promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues. Common white goods are now being built to become more intelligent where they can start to moderate power output as well as a wider variety of useful tasks. This could include trading with each other on the efficient use of energy, monitoring used by dates on fresh produce to ordering new products automatically."

Transforming Wellness

"With the investment of government programs and the interest of large corporations to decrease healthcare costs, healthcare management, wellness and fitness will take on a new meaning," the agency notes. "Coupled with technology advancements and the ability for a consumer to stay connected at all times, personal health devices will become a natural extension of our increasingly 'always on' environment. Opportunities will abound for leveraging new marketing channels in these environments as well as reaching targeted demographics such as the U.S. 'boomer,' who is poised to spend the most discretionary income on this part of their lives.

Transforming Auto

"Automotive is one area of our daily lives that will undergo an accelerated development path as multiple trends converge in one place," the McCann report concludes, asserting, "The automobile is now the focus of intense innovation to ensure it is consuming the least amount of energy, utilizing the road network efficiently, and entertaining and protecting its passengers.

"CES's show floor is a witness to the transformation in Auto. In previous years, new technology in automobiles had been limited to stereo and security solutions. But driven by new priorities and requirements of the car buyer, the technology requirements of the automobile are being rewritten. Today, 50% of new car sales are mp3 compatible, and over 75% include Bluetooth - but these are only the beginning of an explosive trend incorporating navigation, digital lifestyle, and life-saving technology into the next decade of automotive."