Technology is no longer an add-on to our modern lives; it is at the core of everything we do. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in our relationship to money.
Since the launch of ATM’s in 1967 there’s now 70,000 cashpoints across the UK with 175m debit and credit cards. And whilst 546m cheques were written last year, some banks are now giving customers the option to send images of cheques electronically via a Smartphone.
Online purchases are so commonplace they’re no longer newsworthy (unless the goods can be delivered by drone!), and contactless payments are the current big thing in shopping experiences. Today, purchases are generally capped at £30.00 but that’s more to do with consumer confidence than the technology.
And the next innovation? It’s here and it’s wearables such as Barclaycard’s bPay, combining a device with a prepaid account (associated with any UK VISA or MasterCard, which is a debit or credit card) that ‘integrates with a digital eco-system’.
It’s undeniable the role for wearables is growing; tracking, monitoring, measuring and facilitating more and more of our everyday lives which will only increase. Even now, combining wearables and IPAs (Intelligent Personal Assistants, such as Alexa and Siri) could help alleviate aspects of the impending social care crisis. Read more in our earlier blog, ‘CareWear in the Community’.
The Joy of ‘Buy-o-Metrics’
From an OOH-media perspective, the synergy between DOOH – with it’s network of Wi-Fi and beacon enabled sites in areas of high volume consumer footfall – and wearable technology could become a treasure trove of data that benefits the consumer, brands and advertisers.
For example:
1. Purchasing patterns, preferences and shopping ‘journey’ could be tracked in a similar way to loyalty cards such as Nectar.
2. Brands and retailers could be infinitely flexible and tailored in their use of products, messages, creativity and promotions reflecting locations, day-part and audience-activity (state of mind).
3. OOH-media owners might become enablers, as data collections points for consumers’ wearable data through their network of WiFi and Beacon connected DOOH.
Responsive advertising is particularly exciting with endless applications. In fact, it’s first uses have already been implemented and proven. In 2016 Ocean Outdoor ran a Digital advert on their Shepherds Bush large format panel for Maserati SUV. Ocean used ANPR cameras to check vehicle registrations and when a specific model was identified, such as a Volkswagen Toureg, a digital ad displayed to suggest that the driver trade up to a Maserati. The data was anonymised and only the salient datasets were interrogated and responded to.
Wearbles offer an unparalleled opportunity to better understand customers’ behaviour far beyond their purchasing history. We already move within a sea of Wi-Fi, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth – what’s needed now is a unified approach to developing the data gathering and storage platforms.
Inevitably, there will be concerns about personal privacy, how information is shared and to what degree, but these are not new issues. Data collection is already commonplace in the wider world, whether it’s loyalty cards, cookies on computers, or Amazon using your purchasing history to suggest other products you might like.
Integration and Segmentation
Today’s data storage, mining and reporting techniques are sophisticated and getting better. All that’s needed is appropriate governance, security and consumer protection, which isn’t a big ‘ask’, is it?
Wearables offer an unprecedented opportunity to personalise the shopping experience and present consumers with relevant opportunities. Biometric data in the devices could also enhance our understanding of human behaviour on a grand scale.
This approach to big data is already central to insurance risk management. It is being used (not without controversy) in so-called predictive policing, where computer programmes analyse data to identify potential crime hotspots and decisions can then be taken about resourcing and crime prevention initiatives. Not unlike the first days of Experian UK (then CCN).
Where next?
A wearable wristband is only one option. How about payment by wedding ring?
Ultimately, it may be that the payment device is the actual person. As we were putting this article together, news came in about a Wisconsin based company, Three Square Market, who offered its employees the opportunity to have a sub-dermal RFID chip implanted, which can then be used to unlock doors and pay for food in their cafeteria. Significantly, 50 of the 80 employees said yes.
You can read about it here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/microchips-wisconsin-company-employees.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
When it comes to contactless, and data management on an ever-increasing scale, the genie is already out of the bottle. What we need to decide – as consumers, brands, advertisers and government bodies alike – is how we want to see society changing as a result. Fortunately, no ‘three wishes limit’ applies!
And for the OOH-media sector? We’ve already written about the need for the sector to rapidly develop OOH v3.0 to cope with the opportunities and challenges of autonomous cars which, if achieved, would equally deliver the opportunities wearables suggest.