An amazing article popped into my twitter stream late last Wednesday night. I had just attended a friend’s book launch and was feeling rather culturally inspired so I decided to embark on reading a book on creativity and productivity. Like most in this industry, my bedside table resembles a miniature desk stacked with an array of charger cords, beverages, my moleskin notepad, a stack of various books, my iPad, and iPhone as well as a lamp. I regret that I have allowed my life to get to this point so early in life but sleep isn’t plentiful for me and I often get a lot of creative ideas as I drift in and out of sleep (I think that I have now seen more lamplight in the past two years than strobe lights). Now, as most will know Social Media in bed midway through a reading session will always end the reading session, promptly. This particular article I regret reading, not because it gave me a little scare about how quickly sensory marketing tech is moving but because it has opened up a new way of thinking for me since.
The article was about the latest technology Google has introduced for Android through it’s Google Now curation ‘app’. Google Now offers various alerts for day-to-day convenience, such as alerts for traffic, weather news, stock prices and all the usual collated info that busy individuals may need in a hurry. This new advancement, however, may be the biggest step forward for omnichannel retail experiences to date. It’s not speculation, it doesn’t rely on QR scanning or user action and from the screenshots I have seen the alerts are in good taste and shown where and how you would want them to be.
So what is the advancement you ask? Well, it is an alert that highlights items that you have previously searched for online when they are near you. YES! Real life Ad words Remarketing – the banner ads you see on other sites pages when you have looked at a product prior and not purchased from the seller. CHA CHING, what a great tool for marketers, business owners and the end-buyer – and all this just in time for the upcoming wearable tech advancements from not just Google but all of the tech powerhouses. As a marketer, this makes me excited and thats why I regret reading the article because that night I missed out on my standard 5 hours of sleep as I trawled through articles on this advancement and read hundreds of comments and related articles on wearable tech and what’s next for sensory marketing.
The Future of Digital Marketing
Well: what is next? It may sound like futuristic hogwash to some and even you may think, “How will that sort of advancement benefit me?” Well, I ask you to ponder this: do you value time? How many times have you spent hours searching for a specific item, gift or pair of shoes and not purchased online purely because you have wanted to feel it, touch it or try it on before purchase? Wouldn’t it be convenient to know when that product was in a store nearby? Wouldn’t that benefit everyone involved from an economic standpoint? Now fast forward to two years or less, what happens when everyone and I mean everyone, embraces wearable tech and that tech now knows you through your Social Media history and search history. Tech that talks to you and knows what products you like and when you like to buy them. Scary thought isn’t it? Except when you think about the amount of times that you have tried to find a new restaurant or drinking establishment and instead have spent hours sifting through reviews and social posts only to make a decision and be disappointed because they don’t even sell your favourite dish or beverage. Well with this sort of sensory marketing is about to change efficiency in a big way and negative experiences like the aformentioned will simply be a thing of the past like CDs, tapes and records before that.
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