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

An industry buzzword and a revolutionary technology trend, IoT brings the ability to create a whole new world of connected experiences. It also carries tremendous potential to transform marketing functions, ushering in an era of personalization and creativity. We share stories, insights, and ideas to inspire you.

We are all aware of the transformative impact of the Internet of Things (IoT). This is a true revolutionary force that uses wireless communication technology to connect locations, objects, and people via the internet, ensuring seamless transmission and sharing of data. There are many IoT examples and illustrations around us – smart home gadgets like Alexa are probably the most popular. For users, it means that this sophisticated ecosystem of smart home automation can switch on lights when movement is detected in a room, set ambient temperature as per weather conditions, or simply play songs and videos. But as a marketer, what are the implications of IoT for you? Here are four ideas for the application of IoT in marketing, and surprising case studies that demonstrate its implementation.

CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM (CDP) BUYERS’ GUIDE 2019

Welcome to the 2019 edition of CDP Buyers’ Guide. As customer data platforms are becoming increasingly necessary for enterprise marketers, it is also becoming more complex to choose the best fit CDP platform amongst the pool of new and old vendors.

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Also read: By 2030, Each Person Will Own 15 Connected Devices — Here's What That Means for Your Business and Content

1. Smart Marketing Can Interlink Social Data with Connected Devices

In this era of smart home gadgets and wearables, it’s easy to imagine a conversation between you and your refrigerator, and the possibility of gleaning insights from this chatter. Recently, a company linked its vending machine with its Twitter account. Social media and IoT can also be linked for access management across buildings and devices, using one’s social footprint or digital signature.0

2. Products Can Become Advertisements

What smart home automation implies, is that a product – like a bottle of soda in your pantry – can be turned into a medium for brand image building. With an embedded chip on the bottle, users can directly post their comments and feedback on the brand’s social media platform right from the bottle. You don’t need to look too far to understand the implications of this idea. Think Fitbit, and you can learn from how the company allows users to post stats from their activity records across social channels, essentially advocating the product.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Can Be More Effective

CRM is possibly the single most important impact area for IoT in marketing. When combined with robust CRM software, marketers are able not just to gather customer data, but also to uncover key insights on the customer journey, that enables you to tweak campaigns and strategies. This can help you understand the various touchpoints across different devices involved in the customer experience, and offer customers the push needed to convert.

4. Click-through Rates (CTR) Can Hit 100% Accuracy

The days of pop-up ads, banners, and other generic forms of advertising are beginning to look numbered. This is because, with IoT and smart home gadgets, ads will transform as a whole. It will be possible to directly link usage to requirement, eliminating irrelevant ad placements. For instance, in a smart home automation environment, when a lightbulb stops functioning, the IoT network will make a note and trigger a digital coupon. This coupon can be accessed through a smartphone, and the user can order the bulb online. What this means for you as a marketer, is that campaigns will become relevant, actionable, and at the end of the day, more cost-optimized by cutting out unnecessary ad expenses.

Also read: Why CMOs Need to Reimagine Data Management to Compete in the IoT Future

Success Stories: Internet of Things (IoT) Examples and Why They Worked

As a marketer, you want to personalize the messaging or the brand value proposition, depending on the consumer. Diageo, the global beverage giant, decided to position its premium whiskey as a drink to celebrate fatherhood on Father’s Day. The brand connected a limited edition set of bottles to the internet, and customers could create their own personalized digital video message for Father’s Day.

The campaign was a massive success with Diageo witnessing a 72% sales uptick and 5X Return on Investment (ROI). More importantly, it also positioned the company as a true leader in the segment, reinforced by technology and innovation.

Uber and Spotify recently joined hands, enabling customers to connect their Spotify account with the Uber app. Customers could access their playlist via the Uber app, and play music over the car’s speakers while commuting. Two apps were seamlessly integrated – powered by IoT – to ensure brand loyalty.

These Internet of Things examples are only a few of the illustrations that point to a clear fact: you can now design a variety of creative campaigns and streamline your marketing strategy to ensure better customer experiences and reinforce retention. That’s why no marketer can afford to fall behind the IoT wave.

Also read: 5 Ways IoT is Changing Digital Marketing

How do you think IoT and smart home devices will influence marketing in 2019? Visit us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to share your thoughts.