Commentary

Connected Street Lights: The New Potential Messaging Platform

The Internet of Things has many facets, one of which is scale.

Not all IoT projects will start big, of course, as businesses test and learn what works for them and what doesn’t.

But even a small start can be relatively big, leading to something even magnitudes bigger.

One case in point is the recent decision by the city of Los Angeles to deploy 100 street lamps with small cells to add 4G LTE mobile connectivity to the streets.

While the project is relatively small to start, it can have huge implications.

The key for marketing is that the connected lights can provide a new capability for targeted messaging, since consumers would be tapping into the wired lights as they move along as their main source of mobile connectivity.

There are other smart city projects encompassing much more than adding better mobile wireless to local consumer traffic.  But even those tend to start with at least a proof of concept trial.

In Los Angeles, the so-called Philips SmartPoles were jointly developed by two IoT-involved companies, Ericsson and Philips Lighting.

If the project proves successful, Los Angeles could potentially install the technology in 120,000 street lights in its vicinity, which certainly qualifies as scale.

The poles basically provide better connectivity than huge cell towers and also have LED light bulbs for energy efficiency. They essentially are mini cell towers that also provide lighting.

The connected lights create a new outdoor Internet of Things platform that can provide new messaging and services.

It’s platforms such as these on which new messaging and advertising will ride.

The Iot connected objects projects may start small but can quickly provide a massive new message delivery mechanism.

The question for brands and agencies is if they will be ready to deal with the scale of IoT connectivity when it arrives.

 

 

 

 

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