The ‘Internet of Things’ (IOT) or Machine 2 Machine (M2M) is going to be big in 2016. But what is it? It is all about how things are connected, how data is transmitted and how making our things smarter can help us in our everyday life.
Basically it could be any object that can be assigned an IP address and can then communicate that information over the internet.
You can probably remember hearing about how in the future your fridge would send a message to your mobile to let you know you had run out of milk. At the time this might have sounded far-fetched but it is entirely feasible.
Examples that we are already seeing having an impact include Hive, the British Gas app which allows people to remotely control their heating from their smartphone and Nike+ Fuelband which tracks daily activities such as running and walking and communicates with a phone app, letting you know if you are achieving your fitness goals.
We predict 2016 will bring a host of new smart products with applications that vary from the practical to the weird and wonderful.
The opportunity to gather data will definitely be of significant interest to marketers and we are sure we’ll also start seeing some really creative use of IOT in marketing. Watch this space!