Interview: Marketing meets the Internet of Things

Media Playground 2016: Smart packaging, a shelf that reorders products on your behalf and a new era of programmatic commerce. How should brands approach the Internet of Things?

Mindshare is one of the few organisations to have researched the Internet of Things and its implications for marketing, advertising and packaging design.

In a study it developed earlier this year in partnership with Sharp End, it put a variety of ‘connected products’ – including moisturiser, shampoo, Absolut vodka, and Old El Paso wraps – into five households to see how people interacted with them, and how they felt about it.

Reorder at the click of a button: Amazon Dash

The results are fascinating – but now, as the likes of Amazon’s Dash buttons finally land in the UK, we wanted to know how this space is really opening up for experimental brands.

In the interview above – recorded at Media Playground 2016 – Mindshare’s futures director, Jeremy Pounder, explains how a new era of ‘programmatic commerce’ could revolutionise the way we shop and interact with brands and packaging – and talks of the possibilities, challenges and risks.
See also: ‘Hi, this is your shelf. Would you like more Marmite?’