The Internet of Things and the future for agencies
The opportunities are waiting, but the disruption the Internet of Things could heap on the media industry will make heads spin first.
The Internet of Things – as well as the Internet of Un-things and Thoughts, if you start looking further down the line – is being compared to the Industrial Revolution in terms of scale and impact.
Set to transform entire markets as billions of devices and sensors – handling upwards of 50 trillion gigabytes of data – connect to both the web and each other, the Internet of Things (IoT) could spark a gold rush worth upwards of $5 trillion.
It’s little wonder then that brands and agencies are paying attention – albeit with slightly confused expressions on their faces as they contemplate yet another era of tech disruption.
Speaking at this year’s Media Playground, high-profile media experts gave their views on the challenges and opportunities ahead, with Nick Baughan, CEO of Maxus, arguing media agencies could find themselves moved back to the top of the purchase funnel as the number of media touch-points decreases.
“If we’re reductive about the role of media and consequently agencies in the world of the Internet of Things, it does curtail the length to which we operate in the purchase funnel,” Baughan said.
“I think we’re in a slight golden age at the moment where we operate at all levels of the funnel – technology has allowed that. And, if anything, we’re now bottom weighted to the pointier end of retail because that’s where most clients are right now.
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“What this could do if we’re reductive is actually bring us back up to the top of the funnel, because I wholeheartedly agree that in a world where there’s one-to-one, automatic replenishment relationships between products and consumers, the role for media touch points lessens.”
For Baughan, the work the industry is currently putting in to become more engaged in the “pipes” of clients’ businesses and the data that powers purchasing decisions will make media agencies much more like user experience or data architecture businesses, signalling widespread change ahead.
For Mindshare UK’s chief operating officer, Paul Rowlinson, whenever this change arrives, he does not believe that media agencies will be able cope on their own. Rowlinson said collaboration between agencies, tech providers and “open-minded” clients operating in an entirely inquisitive manner is how brands will make the most of the IoT.
“Ultimately, we have to go out and learn,” he said. “We need to test and try new things and we need clients to be open and willing to experiment with us.”
An example of this experimental attitude can been seen in Mindshare UK’s partnership with tech firms Lightwave and Maido and client Jaguar in the summer to track biometric data during the Wimbledon tournament.
Giving select spectators wearable tech that measured heart rate, motion and audio levels, the team was able to generate a picture of the crowd’s emotional response.
Mindshare then turned the data into Jaguar branded images to share the real-time excitement with the rest of the nation via video screens at train stations and via social media feeds.
Crucially, for Rowlinson, it was working collaboratively with very niche tech specialists that allowed the project to work and signals a future in which smaller outfits team up with media agencies to ensure cutting-edge technology is effectively employed to communicate with audiences in new ways.
Quick to invent, slow to react
For creative agencies, the opportunities IoT presents are potentially more radical. Nicky Bullard, executive creative director, LIDA, views the future role for businesses like hers as being aligned to product development.
“One thing that is particularly exciting about the Internet of Things is that we’re now able to become inventors,” she said.
“We’re not just doing creative work, we’re now thinking about product development alongside our clients. I think we’re approaching an era now in which agencies reinvent themselves.”
Left to right: Paul Rowlinson, Nicky Bullard, Nick Baughan and Tracey Follows
Yet major challenges stand in the way.
“It’s very hard for bigger companies to innovate in anything, let alone the Internet of Things,” said futurist and founder of AnyDayNow, Tracey Follows.
“When you’re also trying to preserve the status quo and deliver the best costs for services it’s very hard to bring in that disruptive way of thinking and working. Big businesses have big processes and that’s what people are struggling with.”
Follows works with a range of businesses, both large and small, and believes the more nimble start-ups operating in the IoT space have something to teach large agencies.
“For many start-ups it’s all about the user experience from day one – there is no separate communication because it’s already been disintermediated. It’s all about the consumer having a say in the product because you’re learning all the time from their behavioural data.”
As for the clients, Follows said that many have filed the Internet of Things in a “bucket marked ‘too difficult to think about'”, but Baughan said he is beginning to see a change in the CMO role.
“We’re seeing people brought in at CMO level to act as agents for change,” he said. “They’re there to help take businesses forward, to push technology and push the process – rather than just deliver great marketing.
“I think the smart advertisers out there are clearly investing into what’s coming next – both in terms of people and technology.”
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