3 Top IoT Applications You Can Implement in Your Marketing Campaigns

51% of the world’s leading marketers believe Internet of Things (IoT) is a revolutionary force. We looked at brands that have applied IoT technology to garner eyeballs in a crowded marketplace. Read on to learn how:

• Allen Solly made it “rain” with its interactive billboard
• Tide’s Dash button enabled detergent ordering from your dryer
• Nivea used an IoT-ized print ad to boost sales by 62%
   

As a digital marketer, you’ve heard about the buzz around IoT in marketing. By 2020, there will be over 13 million connected IoT devices across the globe, and 51% of the world’s leading marketers believe this will completely transform the marketing space.

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The most significant implication is probably the large data streams pouring in from IoT. You now have access to a mine of customer information, including highly personalized data such as product purchase histories, lifestyle practices, eating habits, and the like. This empowers you to create tailored campaigns for your customers, in-sync with individual requirements.

While this does require a level of data literacy and technical knowhow, marketers are already implementing IoT for their marketing campaigns. Apart from the data potential, IoT also offers an opportunity to link digital assets with the customer’s physical surroundings. As a result, engagement witnesses a massive uptick.

Here are three brands that rolled-out smart and creative IoT applications in marketing, gaining industry recognition as well as converting customers.

Learn More: Are You Considering IoT and Smart Home Devices in Your Marketing Strategy?

1. Allen Solly’s Twitter Campaign Went Viral With an Interactive Billboard

Using hashtags to improve reach on Twitter isn’t a new tactic. However, your customers might not want to share the hashtag without a genuine incentive. Clothing brand Allen Solly came up with a unique way to improve their performance on the social network. When it was launching a new collection in Bengaluru, India, the company introduced the hashtag #RaingingSolly. And to encourage customers to share and reshare this across social media platforms, Allen Solly also created a Twitter-powered billboard. Here’s what it looked like:

Watch the Allen Solly IoT-Inspired Product Launch

With every tweet, embedded with #RainingSolly, the wire behind each shirt would push the product a little further until the shirt literally “rained” on the customer.

Linking social media to your customer’s environment is a great idea. Taking inspiration from this example, you could create promotional kiosks at a store/brand location, which automatically offers a giveaway every time someone shares a social media post about your brand.

2. Tide’s Dash Button Is a Revolutionary Idea That’s Changing How We Buy Home Products

In the FMCG industry, it is difficult to acquire new customers as they are loyal to their favorite brands and rarely make a switch. For example, to push Tide’s detergent variant to new audiences, they partnered with Amazon’s Dash buttons.

Amazon’s Dash buttons let customers order products online by the press of a physical button. Find out how it works here:

Watch the Amazon Dash Button and How It Is Used

Tide (among other brands) created a Dash button that customers could attach to their dryers. As soon as the detergent was almost used up, the customer could simply press the button, and a new pack will be delivered to their doorstep.

The takeaway here is simple: if you’re in the FMCG space, a dash button can help you move products faster, offering customers easy accessibility via IoT. A dash button is simple to set up, requiring minimal technical expertise and ensure customer retention.

3. Nivea Showed Young Mothers that they Genuinely Cared About Them

The most significant advantage of using IoT in marketing is its perfect amalgamation of the digital and the physical world.

Personal care products giant, Nivea, exemplified this perfectly with its IoT print ad. To promote its new range of sunscreen for children, the company launched a print ad embedded with a GPS-integrated bracelet. Young mothers visiting the beaches of Rio De Janeiro (the campaign was highly localized) could put the bracelet on their children and be alerted if the wearers moved beyond a specified distance. Take a look at this IoT application in action:

The results were pretty impressive. “The campaign received critical acclaim: it was featured in 10 press articles and 40 digital ones. For the first time, Nivea Sun Kids had the top sales in its segment, with a 62% increase in Rio de Janeiro,” said Galle Delagrave, Co-Founding Partner/Director of the digital marketing company, Mobbus.

If you’re looking at well placed IoT applications like this, consider next-gen ready digital marketing agencies. They can turn your ideas into tangible outcomes, applying the latest in IoT technology, and in-depth market understanding.

Learn More: Marketing in the Era of IoT: 4 Ideas and 2 Success Stories

Key Takeaways for Marketers

IoT promises to revolutionize campaign design and delivery. These are some of the most notable IoT applications in marketing, in recent years. Inspired by these, you could:

• Leverage IoT’s capabilities to intersect the physical with the digital, embedding connected components into offline campaigns.
• Gather data from a wide variety of sources, accurately estimating customer behavior and response to product properties.
• Find new ideas for product placement, linked to digital elements such as social media or e-commerce.
   

This is a great time to invest in new technologies and relentlessly pursue innovation. Marketers can offer customers a range of new products, services, and more importantly, vibrant and refreshing experiences. That’s why you need to place cutting-edge technologies, such as IoT right at the top of your martech stack, reimagining the entire ecosystem of experience, demand, and expectation around your product/service.

All it needs is a little brainstorming, a ton of research, and a pulse on what your customers really want!

Are you looking to use IoT applications in your marketing strategy, this year? Tell us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.