The Next Customer Data Frontier – Internet of Things

Remember the 1999 original movie Smart House? In case you don’t, here is the scoop. Ben Cooper enters a competition to win a smart house after the death of his mother leaves the family unable to deal with everyday housekeeping needs. Path – the house virtual assistant (Internet of Things) – does everything from washing dishes to turning the lights on and off. But one day it locks the family in the house, believing that the outside world is extremely dangerous. The movie was considered so farfetched and futuristic that Google classified the movie comedy / science fiction.

In reality, the movie was just a few years ahead of its time, without a crazy virtual assistant of course.

There are three main parts to the Internet of Things at the moment from the consumer perspective. First the smart speakers such as Alexa and Google Home. Next is the idea of “connected cars” where we can interact with an onboard computer to get recommendations, search and receive driving directions. Finally, there is the iBeacon located in stores that provides detailed information on customer journey through the store, what we buy, like, and try.

All this is possible due to enormous collected data and cheap computing power and artificial intelligence with machine learning capabilities.

So why should you care?

Consumers are everywhere and your goal as a marketer is to connect with them. You might not think that your product can use Internet of Things technology or be connected to the internet but consider the case of Diageo.

When beverage distribution company Diageo was looking to find a unique way to connect sons and daughters with their dads on Father’s Day, they IoT-ed 100,000 bottles of whiskey to the internet.

The reason? So that these 100,000 dads could receive a personalized video message from their sons or daughters. The idea tapped into the cultural insight that Dad is more difficult to buy for than mom, and that consumers attach far greater emotional value to products they can personalize.

The campaign changed customer perception of the whisky category, re-positioning the participating Diageo brands as innovative and modern. The campaign overall resulted in a 72% sales uplift in the two weeks leading up to Father’s Day, plus an earned media value five times higher than investment.

If Diageo can turn a bottle of Whisky into a connected device, what can your brand do?

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