As the wearable market keeps expanding, businesses will have to learn how to make sense of the data the devices produce and how to apply it to their marketing strategy.
According to Strap, the number of sold fitness trackers and smartwatches will double this year to 60 million and companies should be looking at wearable data as it allows them to localise and personalise experiences for users in real time.
For 2015, forecasters predict wearables will reach $27 billion in market value – up from $1.3 billion in 2013.
Marketing strategists, however, will have to let customers connect and play with their new device and visualise the brand itself in that gadget reminding them who the provider is and show the consumer that the company is keeping up to date with them.
In the ‘five urgent truths about the future of wearables’ report, Forrester’s research analyst JP Gownder, noted: "While consumers’ interest in wearables has grown strong, businesses’ demand for wearables is even greater.
"Today, 68% of global technology and business decision-makers say that wearables are a priority for their firm, with 51% calling it a moderate, high, or critical priority.
"This is comparable with the mobile landscape in 2010, when 43% of enterprises identified employees using mobile devices as a critical or high priority."
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The acceptance from a consumer base will not be an issue as a survey revealed that 70% of retail shoppers are willing to pass their data on in exchange of rewards or incentives, such as discounts.
Brands can take advantage of this by interacting in real time and personally with each customer in a new wave of marketing tools.
Chris Camacho, managing partner at Starcom MediaVest wrote that a search term as simple as "Pizza" should know if the wearabler is looking for a restaurant when on the high street, a takeaway if the user is at home, or a reminder to watch out for calories if the fitness wristband is on.
He added: "Recent developer leaks indicate upcoming watch-specific apps will have a maximum time limit of 10 seconds per use, to avoid people remaining glued to their device at all times."
Mr Camacho noted that agencies can look forward to more qualified data to work with and brands will enjoy a wider range of deep audience insights.
As for the consumers, shopping and other experiences should see an improvement with a better quality of search product.
When marketing, brands will have to take into consideration privacy. Users should be able to "opt-in" and "opt-out" as they wish, deciding what they want to be shared with a specific brand.
As wearables adoption will triple by 2017, strategic significance to the enterprise layer will appear.
Lindsey Irvine, Global Director of Strategic Partnerships, Salesforce said: "Wearables are the next phase of the mobile revolution. Like smartphones before them, the key to success for wearables in the enterprise is all about the killer business apps."
This is an extract from a Strap Whitepaper "Wearable Data: It’s time to tap in"
