LONDON — When new screens arrive on the scene, many marketers instinctively get excited about new opportunities to deliver messages to consumers.
But, whilst the new smartwatch category may whet appetites with the prospect of advertising to audiences’ wrists, the reality will have to be more sensitive, more nuanced, and may be more about input than output.
“Nobody’s really cracked what the Internet Of Things opportunity is. Will we deliver advertising? Probably, but not in the way that we’re currently used to it,” SMG digital managing partner Isabelle Baas tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“Will we use it more as a way of saying, ‘I know that you’re here, would you like to see a message on a display in store that’s around you?’? I think that’s probably more the type of advertising that we’ll play in.”
In April, Juniper Research forecast marketer spending on smartwatches will reach $68.6m by 2019. But that estimate could be far too small if you consider the smartwatch and mobile as interlocutors, rather than distinct devices.
“I think there’ll be much more data,” Baas adds. “What do we learn about the different sensors, what can we read from the information that will be made available to the screen? Rather than say, ‘I’m going to try to fit a display ad on the watch’.
We interviewed her as part of the series The Road to Cannes, our lead-up to the Cannes Lions Festival presented by Coull. Please visit this page for additional segments. This interview took place in the London office of SMG.
