Some of the future marketing in the Internet
of Things may be counterintuitive.
During the MediaPost Iot Marketing Forum this week, some new approaches to overall marketing and advertising were suggested.
In a presentation about
the new world of messaging, Haydn Sweterlitsch, global chief creative officer of HackerAgency, suggested that people today have plenty of time but not enough attention.
The essence is that
marketers will have to attract without distracting.
Examples cited were a tea kettle, which signals when the water is ready, and Roomba, which also signals when it is done or has encountered
an issue.
An even better example was a driver of a car, who simultaneously, but somewhat passively, monitors speed, fuel level, passing cars, road signs, traffic lights and more. All of those
monitoring activities require only some attention.
But a text message in that context is totally intrusive and requires a high level of attention (or distraction), which Sweterlitsch pointed
out has contributed to countless accidents.
His point is that marketers will have to create methods that do not distract in the new IoT marketing approach.
“Sound design is going
to be super important,” Sweterlitsch said.
He suggested that conversational design, such as what’s used in Amazon’s Echo with Alexa, is a good example.
The ultimate
result of more connected devices is that an individual can be more precisely targeted. But this targeting will be less about what type of person that consumer is and more about who that person
actuallyis and what are they specifically are likely to want at a given moment.
“We may have to message less,” he said, primarily because the hyper-relevant
messaging will be precise and not frequently needed, and especially not desired, for any one person.
He also said that the Internet of Things could lead to the extinction of bad marketing.
There were many other ideas discussed at the IoT Marketing Forum, which we will detail here in future postings.