Smart Watches Wearable Technology Wearable Marketing

Wearable technology is an emerging market that is quickly on the rise.  Some well known devices today are Google glasses and Smart watches.  The first releases of successful smart watches were released in 2013 with the most well known being Samsung's Galaxy Gear. Many new players have since come into the market with their own variations, most notably Pebble with even Apple rumored to be creating their own iteration.

Source:  Forbes

So exactly is a smart watch? The best way to understand their capabilities is to make a comparison to your smart phone.  You can essentially do anything on your phone that you could do on your laptop, your smart watch can receive messages, use geo location software and of course tell you the time.  A misconception among people is that smart watches are just an extension of your smart phone as many models need to be connected to a smart phone. In research done by Nielson it found that the main reason consumers purchased smart watches was because of convince. That screen is more convenient to view and with the use of your smart phone one can control what type of notifications they want to be bothered with.  Geo location ad targeting is one such option that can allow targeted Ad's if a someone is shopping in a mall or looking to grab a coffee.

Another thing to consider is data that can be collected from users for marketing purposes.  The technology can be used to gather further information on consumer trends and actions when purchasing or visiting a business.  With this product just entering a period of growth the possibilities for its uses for both practical and business are endless.  Imagine walking into a store and scanning an item and getting an instead description on promotions or comparisons for that product.  Have a look at the below articles for more information about smart watches and its future potential for marketers.

Sources

http://mashable.com/2014/03/23/smartwatches-ads/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2013/09/27/smartwatch-market-forecast-to-reach-15-million-in-2014/

http://mashable.com/2014/03/23/smartwatches-ads/