Branding Today's Tech Trends

In today’s parlance, technology trends seem to only refer to Apple’s latest (and late) market entry in wearables, or whatever new fitness tracker just got funded on Kickstarter. Or that the Internet of Things equals having a fridge that knows you’re running out of yogurt, texting you, or your grocery store, a shopping list. Where developers of these technologies and tech services have successfully impressed us all with their future use cases, it is often a bit fuzzy what the true potential can be for a brand. And when brands take a closer look, it fast becomes overwhelming for the marketers of these brands to get their heads and budgets around the bewildering possibilities of using tech in their strategic investments and aspirations. What are the key actionable steps to tap into these tech trends, so a brand can plan for their adoption and optimisation? It could come down to just two: mobility and engagement. 

The Shift To Mobile
We now spend more time on a mobile devices than we do watching TV, and the ownership of smartphones is still on the rise. What attributes are in play here? 

It’s always on and always near. Unlike other tech devices, like a desktop or a tablet, smartphones are almost never shared. That is quite an insight; it means that a smartphone attributes and reflects the behaviour and attitude of its unique user. We tend to never shut them down, and are prepared to lug bulky rechargeable batteries with us so we don’t run out of power. Smartphones are on us, and with us all the time. We sleep with them under or next to our pillows. 

It’s not stationery. Did I hear you sigh “duh?”. It seems obvious that a smartphone is referred to as mobile, yet it can be painfully obvious that most interactions are based on desktop processes that got adapted for a mobile device. That is simply the wrong approach. As with any interaction, the experience is the concept. To optimise the experience on a mobile, always-on always-near device, it most be conceptualised from that mobile point of view. It is much more that adapting a screen resolution or a touch-over-click navigation. In the same vein, content for these mobile touch points, or usability of a digital service. 

It offers purpose. Because of the personal attachment we have with our mobile device, they offer an amazing look into the consumer behaviour and attitude, at levels that are not possible through other platforms. Including focus groups, interviews or other digital channels. That means that the collection and use of this data is both the peril and the promise. Each individual is acutely aware of the value of their own personal data, and frequent reports on the vulnerability of data (Ashley Madison anyone?) do not help the comfort levels. Transparency in what data is collected, as well as what the value is that a brand offers in exchange for that data will go a long way here. It will lead a brand on a path to curate its own brand and branded digital experiences. 

Even with a smartphone being one of many devices in the universe of the Internet of Things, these three attributes are commonly shared regardless of the device. With sensors becoming ubiquitous and embedded in every aspect of our modern urban lives, the departing attributes are:
- Unprecedented consumer insights: more granular, more accurate and more nuanced then ever before.
- Meaningful experiences: if conceptualised from the device’s point of view and point of use. As opposed to having it adapt to a concept it was not developed for.
- Floodgates of data: requiring the in-house intelligence, discipline and regulatory stewardship as to respectfully and meaningfully deduct the right engagement and insights out of. 

It’s The Way That You Do it.  
Big Data; you cannot escape it. Big Data is really just any other regular data, but at scale. Brands need to adapt their current, or include new, strategies that can tackle this big data aggregate. Because, as the song goes, it is not what you do, it is the way that you do it that will get you results. 

New insights through new patterns. Collecting data is one thing, but creating value from it is another. There is an old habit, both client-side and agency-side, to use data only to validate existing perceptions and/or assumptions. I’m not saying that is wrong, but it is limiting and missing the potential that data can offer. Generating new, ideally additive, insights will need an intelligent combination of multiple techniques to unlock the hidden gems within the layers of data sets. 

New engagements. When insights are generated out of the merging of these layers of data, new waypoints in a costumer’s journey with your brand can be created/found. Not to mention new touch points, products and services as well as new consumer environments and even new testing platforms. 

This is already becoming evident with recent activities by Mondelez, Jim Beam, Pepsico, Coca Cola, and Doritos. Although arguably it is still experimentation that is the major driver for these brands to activate tech trends, it is by doing so that these will fast become mainstream. If this is not part of the weekly discussions with your agency and your marketing team, then right about now would be the right time to do so.