Wearable Technology: New Source of Data for Marketers?

Consumers are always looking for the newest, coolest and most fun technology that they can incorporate into their lives, and these days, wearable technology is at the forefront of latest in technology trends. From Fitbits to Apple Watches to Google Glasses, wearable technology is permeating pop-culture and becoming a huge industry in itself. In fact, it is currently a $9 billion industry and that number is predicted to double by 2019!

While this exciting new technology is making waves for consumers, it’s also creating a lot of data about each and every consumer. Their sleeping patterns, their health, their interests, etc. But what is being done with all of this data, and how can it be used to drive the consumer experience? Marketers are trying to answer that question right now as they look for ways to leverage this data to further personalize their messaging and outreach to consumers.

While there is no clear answer yet to that question, we decided to take a look at the three most obvious ways for marketers to use the data. Let us know in the comments what you think and if you agree or disagree with our thoughts:

• Health
  When most consumers hear “wearable device” the most memorable products are fitness smart-watches, which are definitely the most popular types of wearables. The type of data that these devices produce can help insurance companies learn more about their customers and their health, and eventually might even be able to help you get a lower price on your insurance. However, what can it do for health marketers? With access to information about someone’s workout schedule, exercise preferences and nutritional habits, health marketers have incredible access to data that can help them tailor and target their marketing to individual consumers. For example, they can send ads about new exercise programs to a consumer when they know the individual will be exercising.

• Syncing Multiple Devices
  Taking the above location-based targeting one step further. Marketers have the ability to make a consumer’s life significantly easier by using data and information from multiple devices. For example, if a store knows that you were browsing on their website on your phone for new jackets, the next time you’re in the store, they can use your wearable device to know when you are walking near the jacket section and they can send you a coupon or discount for the jacket(s) that you were looking at.

• Geo-Targeted Ads
  Along with knowing your exercise patterns, your wearable device has data on your daily schedule. For example, it knows if you walk past a certain store on your typical workday route. This data can create geographic tags and certain checkpoints in your customer journey map and be shared with retail marketers in your area. By retail marketers receiving this geographic data, they are then able to share special discounts to stores that are on your walk to work.

This new funnel of data gleaned from wearable technologies is an incredibly exciting thing to have access to, and we are looking forward to seeing how this data can be measured and be useful for our clients. With access to this new consumer data – we will be able to build even more detailed and insightful consumer profiles. Wearable technology opens up a whole new door for us data driven companies and we are very excited to see what can come of it.