What do you think about a world where every interaction you have with objects, people, and animals gets tracked, and data gets transferred without any human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction? You just tap your phone at the label of the item that you are about to purchase, and voilà, data gets transferred through a harmonious mixture of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems, and the Internet.
If you think this is a hypothetical question, then you’re wrong. The Internet of Things (IoT) is happening right now and grows exponentially at a fast rate. According to AdAge, increasingly more companies and corporations, like Diageo and Mondelez, have tested actual web-connected products in the market. The IoT platform company Evrythng and the digital ad company Trueffect joined forces to work together towards creating ways marketers can use data, collected through consumers’ interaction and purchase of products.
With the information collected, marketers of corporations can reach their specific target market and tailor their messages to their consumers personally. Not only are data collection services available for the online purchases of products, but also – with the innovation of new smart packaging technologies like printed electronics – will we soon see special labels on products that collect data of consumers’ offline buying behavior. We expect to see most companies utilizing these business-thriving features soon.
How it works: Every product will be assigned with a unique ID, which connects through a digital tag to a mobile app that triggers a signal. Diageo applied this new marketing strategy to find out who is buying and possibly drinking their star Scotch, Johnnie Walker. Without further explanation, Diageo reported to AdAge: “With Evrythng’s technology, we are creating Diageo’s first one-to-one marketing platform at point of sale, which means we can engage and respond continuously to our highly-connected consumers by bridging the virtual and real worlds.”
The immense opportunity for digital marketers to create personalized consumer relationships and connectivity through these innovative marketing strategies is predicted to induce most companies to adopt the joint data collecting platforms. IoT is not only going to revolutionize the digital marketing world, but it has already left remarkable footprints in the world of social media.
This article is written from the personal perspective of Desiree Popelka. The opinions and views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Miller Group Advertising.
