(Article pulled from original source.)

Everyone wants to create a more robust digital experience for their brand. The best way to do that? Make sure you and your agency partner are up on the latest user experience (UX) trends and find a way to integrate these digital solutions into your brand’s portfolio now. Here are 3 UX trends happening in the digital space and how these trends influence what you should look for and expect from your agency:

1. RESPONSIVE IS AN ASSUMPTION, NOT A SELLING POINT.

That’s right. Gone are the days where anyone should ooh and ah over a website’s ability to adjust content based on the device it is viewed on. It is 2017 and absolutely everyone should assume that a newly developed website will have responsive capabilities. Why?

• According to the web analytics company StatCounter, mobile web usage officially exceeded desktop usage in the later quarter of 2016.
• Google finds responsive websites easier to crawl and, as a result, gives responsive designs an SEO rankings boost.
• Responsive design is future proof. No matter what size device comes out in the future, a responsive website will adjust accordingly for it, saving you time and money on website maintenance.

These three reasons alone suggest that developing a website for responsive is a key factor in the ongoing success of your website’s performance.

In fact, with the ever-growing trends of digital personalization and data collection, the term “responsive” is likely to take on a new meaning in years to come. There is a growing discussion about age-responsive design where the content itself adjusts based on the age of the person looking at it. For example, if an older user is visiting a text-heavy website, the site might respond by making the typeface bigger and removing the neon colors surrounding it on load making the reading experience easier for the older user. Or if a younger person is looking at a music website, it might change the headline and imagery from a story about James Taylor to a story about Justin Bieber.

Agencies and clients should start to have these forward-thinking conversations with one another as new website opportunities start to move into development. Responsive website development as we know it today should be considered the rule, not the exception.

2. BUILD EXPERIENCES, NOT WEBSITES.

So often we expect to extend a campaign or brand message digitally via a website, app, or interactive tool. While these communication platforms provide powerful ways to measure user engagement in a budget-friendly manner, these are also the simplest and least creative two-way communication channels to create a digital experience. With the capacity to put Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technologies in virtually anything, we can create digital and interactive experiences that go far beyond the screen and allow us to tell a brand story or expand on a campaign’s message in immensely more compelling and unique ways. Why let the screen tie us down?

With some of the largest and most powerful companies heavily invested in virtual and augmented reality technologies—Facebook, Google and Sony, to name a few—financial trends suggest that digital experiences beyond your desktop aren’t going away anytime soon. A website helps tell and sell a brand objective, but we need to make sure we are open as both an agency and a client to creating experiences for our audience, not websites.

3. LET CONVERSATIONAL UX METHODS DO THE WORK FOR YOU.

One of the known faults of a website is its inability to create a robust two-way conversation. You present content and if the user responds accordingly, you can assume that the site is doing its job. Regardless of what a company website is looking to achieve, it can sometimes feel difficult to create the engagement needed to produce desired outcomes. To solve this, many companies are turning to conversational UX methods. These methods include messaging platforms, digital assistants (think Alexa and Siri), and chatbots—all of which create an unparalleled sense of intimacy and customer service.

In physical form, chatbots are most often known as the chat screen that pops up when you first visit a website. This is usually accompanied by a friendly looking avatar and an invitation to interact with it. “Can I help you find something today?” it asks. While it is presented as though there is someone on the other end of the computer, these automated bots are programmed using rules to try and help you find what you are looking for.

Perhaps this doesn’t sound too impressive yet, but just think about the possibilities these bots could provide in the future. Imagine searching within a website for a certain pair of shoes and when you finally find the pair you love you see that your size is out of stock. What now? With a chatbot you could write “order the Brand X shoes, size 8, when they are back in stock.” The bot can return a receipt of purchase and the transaction is complete.

To see another fun example of the potential of chatbots, watch David Marcus, Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, speak about how conversational UX will transform the future of Messenger:

Conversational UX methods are also a fantastic mechanism for immediate feedback. If a lot of people are asking where something is on your website, you know that your website needs a structural or content review. If people are asking if a certain ingredient is present in your product, you know that the presence of this ingredient is important to your audience. The opportunity for continuous improvement is endless.

So what does this mean for your brand today? While the growth of conversational UX methods—and chatbots in particular—are limitless, these technologies even today provide an opportunity to better know your audience as they engage with your brand’s digital presence. This results in unprecedented, valuable feedback as well as the opportunity to provide better customer service. At the very least, discussing how your brand can integrate conversational interfaces in its digital portfolio is a worth-while endeavor to explore with your agency.

Between the term “responsive” evolving to take on a whole new meaning, digital work moving beyond the screen, and the rise of conversational UX methods, a lot is changing in the digital space. At a time when technological capabilities are evolving at the speed of light, it is important to ask: is your agency ready?

(Article pulled from original source.)

WHAT IS THE GENERAL DATA PRIVACY REGULATION?

On May 25, 2018, an unprecedented regulation will go into effect to protect the personal data collected from individuals in the 28 countries that make up the European Union (EU).

While being an ocean away might lead you to believe that the impact of this one parliamentary measure won’t put a dent in your marketing plan, the specifics of this act suggest it will unequivocally change the way brands speak to consumers across the globe. In fact, according to a survey performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 90 percent of American C-level executives surveyed consider adjusting marketing and business practices to accommodate GDPR compliance a top priority on their agenda.

This regulation, called the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), works to protect the privacy and data of its citizens by requiring far more consent, transparency and exchange of knowledge between the people who control data and the people whose data is collected. While this specifically protects the citizens of the EU, anyone who collects the data of EU citizens must follow suit as well, or meet a swift penalty.

Specifically, this act requires that when data is collected, people 1) must be told exactly what data is being collected, 2) must be told exactly how their data is being used, 3) must specifically and actively consent to the collection of this data 4) must be guaranteed protection of their data, and 5) must be given a clear and evident opportunity to request deletion of their data at any time. Organizations are also only allowed to collect data that’s immediately relevant. Therefore, data such as an email address can’t be collected by organizations for potential future use. There has to be a clear and evident reason why that email address is needed as it is collected. Data is defined as anything from basic identify information to IP address to current health status to sexual orientation.

AS A MARKETING PROFESSIONAL, WHY SHOULD I CARE?

No matter where you are in the world, there are major reasons why marketing professionals should take note of these changes. Major organizations, like Facebook, Hubspot and MailChimp, have already taken steps to comply to the GDPR. But marketers and the the third-party platforms they use are also held accountable when data collection is not compliant. In other words, a third-party processor not in compliance means your organization is not in compliance; and the fines for noncompliance are steep. Fines for a single violation are approximately $25 million or four percent of global revenue, whichever is greater. Thus far, the regulatory powers that be have proven to make an example of any organization, big or small. In fact, in 2016 a company called Flybe sent an eblast to a mailing list (including citizens of the EU who previously unsubscribed from the list) asking if their current information was still correct. This use of an email address without consent violated a less strict EU pre-GDPR act and, as a result, Flybe was fined 70,000€.

Who in marketing is affected most by the GDPR? The general opinion is that the GDPR will most impact how email marketing managers (specifically B2B), public relations executives and UX/UI designers operate. For email marketers, practices like buying email lists and cold emailing will now be risky endeavors. Unless you have the utmost confidence that every single email address on your list is outside of the EU, you are risking GDPR violation. Additionally, PR executives and third-party PR platforms like PRWeb will have to be more cautious about who is receiving press releases or being contacted about new product releases. After all, journalists in the EU can no longer be contacted without previous consent regarding the use of their contact information for that specific purpose. Lastly, UX/UI designers will now have to give more thought to how they design digital experiences that request a user’s information. For example, in the image below there are two forms to enter to win a faux Stephan & Brady prize pack – one form is GDPR compliant, one is not. While both these forms are only asking for the top-line information that is required for an individual to be contacted if they win, the form on the right does not provide an opportunity for a potential EU user to actively consent to how their data might be used or how they might be marketed to via email – which presents a clear case of a GDPR violation.

AM I GDPR COMPLIANT?

As a marketing professional there is a lot to consider in regard to how GDPR compliance impacts the lines of communication between your brand and their consumers. In fact, according to data security and risk research firm CSO, two-thirds of major U.S. companies believe that the GDPR will require them to rethink their strategy in acquiring data and communicating to consumers. As regulations like this continue to take effect, it will get increasingly harder to attract customers attention. That being said, this opens up the opportunity for a long overdue discussion about how we are reaching our audiences and opens up the opportunity for fresh, innovative thinking. While the GDPR undoubtedly presents some gray areas to organizations operating outside of the EU, Hubspot published a fantastic compliance guide to get us started on operating a GDPR-compliant organization. As for the conversation of data regulation for citizens outside of the EU, with Russian bots, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica all making recent headlines, there is every indication that this conversation is just getting started. The wisest thing for U.S.-based marketing firms to do is start having discussions about data use and compliance today.

(Article pulled from original source.)

User experience (UX) design trends move fast. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that we were excited about the unforeseen potential of responsive design and the Internet of Things (IoT). But as user-centered trends continue to grow, shift and evolve, we are taking a look at what is next and how these design trends will influence the way brands operate both inside and outside the digital landscape in the next decade.

DESIGNING FOR TRUST

As we conclude the 2010s, consumer confidence in companies and their dedication to digital ethics are at an all-time low. One culprit of this cynicism is company misuse of user data. And this mistrust is justified. According to digital identity solutions startup Selfkey, at least 5.3 billion accounts were breached in 2019 alone.

Additionally, people have wised up to and understand the manipulation behind addictive UX design tactics like Facebook’s unlimited scroll and Candy Crush’s limited play. Each created to hook users and prevent them from averting their attention. (Look up the terms dark patterns, gamification and skinner boxing for more information on this topic.) As privacy concerns, unsavory design practices and the spread of misinformation continue to make their way into our daily lives, consumers are hungry to interact with products and brands that provide a level of trust and optimism.

Moving forward, this means that successful brands and products will focus on creating experiences that support the natural behavior of the user and their environment instead of using design as a way to manipulate it. Usability, transparency and clear messaging will all play a role regaining user trust through design moving forward.

A great example of a brand that is designing for trust is email service provider MailChimp. Between 1) using outcome messaging that focuses on the audience instead of feature messaging that focuses on the product, 2) building ancillary features that help create a sense of community between MailChimp and their users, 3) designing a simple yet intuitive UX that walks a user through the otherwise daunting process of building and 4) sending an email campaign and aligning themselves with trusted third-parties, MailChimp is a brand that is ahead of the curve in building an audience through trust.

DESIGNING FOR ALTERNATIVE INTERFACES

For as long as modern UX design has been in effect, the discipline has always been evaluated through the lens of sight. How does it look? How does the user see a particular feature? Still, the fact that you likely know who (or what) Siri, Alexa or Bixby are suggests that alternative forms of interaction design are capable of making big moves in the next decade.

Two alternative forms that show the most promise are voice controls and gesture-based controls. Of these two interfaces, voice control design is easier for most to envision in the near future. In fact, according to Jason Clauss at UX Planet, “Last year, 41% of adults and 55% of teens were using voice control, and up to 71% of people claim to prefer voice over keyboard to find information online.” The future of voice assistance in the 2020s will include personalization for individual users based on voice, increased integration into smart technologies (e.g. TVs, refrigerators, car audio systems, etc.) and more individualized, streamlined notifications (e.g. “Bob. I noticed you haven’t left for your doctor appointment yet, but traffic will delay your arrival by thirty minutes today.”)

As for gesture-based design, the vision may still feel space-age to some (think: Tom Cruise in Minority Report), but Apple, Google and many other organizations are hard at work bringing this futuristic design form to the present. For example, Google’s Pixel 4 already integrates gesture controls that allow users to snooze alarms, skip songs and silence calls with the flick of the wrist. And, according to Wired, Google hopes the new chip used to craft these controls, called Soli, will wildly expand the potential for gesture controls very soon, making the future of design both accessible and controllable through gesture alone.

For brands, this suggests that if you can’t be on the ground floor of early innovation, you need to think about how alternative design controls can play into the future of your brand. As a retailer, how can you use voice control design to help convert sales? Or, as a brand, how can gestures be used to help communicate your brand’s message? Lastly, what kind of talent and knowledge does your organization need to start recruiting to make integration of these design advances into your brand possible within the next ten years?

STATIC INTERACTION IS DYING. DO NOT RESUSCITATE.

This trend is simple. Microanimations – the animations that take place when a user initiates a specific interaction with an element in a product or website – will continue to dominate UX in the next decade to the point where static interactions will appear passé. It was only a few years ago that the only animation a designer had to worry about was the color a link or button would change to when the user selected it. In the next decade, we can expect that every interaction will have a corresponding microanimation. There are two reasons behind this meteoric rise in microanimations. 1) We have learned through UX research that users’ brains are stimulated by movement through video content and animation in the digital space. 2) Microanimations provide an intuitive way for designers to offer subtle recommendations to their user. In this way, microanimations are truly a win-win.

For brands and organizations, this ever-growing trend suggests that focus needs to be placed on collaboration tools, like Figma and Adobe XD, that prioritize animations and interactions in their products. Additionally, it is absolutely vital that companies recruit talent that are capable of creating and bringing these microanimations to life.

To explain the importance of UX in a rapidly evolving digital ecosystem, UX leader Jared Spool said, “Design is the rendering of intent.” Therefore, if the world is increasingly feeling deceived by products and companies, brands have the capability to design for trust. If alternative interfaces are tearing down the walls of how companies interact with consumers, brands can access their audience in a whole new way. And, if studies suggest the human brain responds well to movement and animations when interacting with a digital product, brands can serve their audience information in a way that delights them. Overall, UX has come a long way in the past decade and, for brands, the opportunity to take advantage of upcoming trends and truly design digital products and experiences for their audience creates a new potential for brand/consumer interaction that is endlessly exciting in the decade to come.

(Article pulled from original source.)

Color theory is a science and art unto itself. Some colors make us anxious; others make us calm and others even make us hungry. Knowing, understanding and applying any level of color theory to marketing executions is a vital step to a brand’s longevity. After all, there is no better leg up than understanding people’s wants and needs on a biological level. In fact, according to color theorist Graf1x, color is the first thing 90% of people will notice about a product or brand. So let’s take a deep dive into the world of ROYGBIV and gather a better understanding of how colors influence human behavior and help inform brand identities.

RED

The color red plays a pivotal role in human emotion and physiological reaction. In fact, the mere presence of the color red has the unique ability to raise our blood pressure, heighten our respiration rates, increase our appetites and enhance our metabolism. After black and white, red is the very first color our brain recognizes when we are born. Red also has the longest wavelength in the color spectrum which results in red objects appearing closer than they really are and grabbing our attention the quickest. From the moment we are born, our brain has a strong, unconscious relationship with the color red.

• Summary: Red is powerful color in stimulating emotion and biological response. Use it wisely.
• Good Application – Food Marketing: Red’s unique ability to influence emotion and rapidly increase appetite is why nearly every fast food brand and many consumer package goods integrate red in their identity. Red is a great color to use when you need to make someone feel hungry quickly. You’ll never look at the grocery aisle the same.
• Bad Application – Finance Marketing: For decades both local and national banks have turned to red to quickly appeal to emotion and exude power, but with many cultures having strong negative associations with the color red, international banks like Chase, Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley have it nowhere to be seen.
• Brands that Use Red: McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Wendy’s, Coca Cola, Campbells, Kellogg’s

ORANGE

Behind red, orange has the second longest wavelength in the color spectrum. This means that orange also has the unique ability to quickly attract attention before almost any other color. Unlike red, though, humans naturally interpret orange with a more youthful energy. People report associating orange with health, excitement, warmth and enthusiasm. Of all the colors in the spectrum, orange is most closely associated with adventure and the release of inhibitions. But while orange is considered youthful and energetic, it is also a color that adults inherently don’t care for. In fact, according to CRM creator Help Desk, 33 percent of women and 22 percent of men report orange to be their least favorite color. This suggests that orange has a very special use case in a brand’s marketing and communication.

• Summary: Orange evokes enthusiasm and adventure, but adults don’t inherently care for it. Use it with intention.
• Good Application – Youth-Oriented Marketing: Of any color, orange is the most strongly associated with an unabated, carefree energy – which is a difficult feeling to evoke without words. Therefore, it is no surprise that orange is so often associated with brands and products aimed at energizing a younger audience.
• Bad Application – Zen-Oriented Marketing: Want your audience to feel a sense of calm? Stay away from orange. As noted above, orange evokes movement, energy and adventure so if you are marketing products or services geared towards meditation, psychotherapy or sleep, steer clear of orange.
• Brands that Use Orange: Nickelodeon, Hooters, Cheetos, Reese’s, Soundcloud

YELLOW

Towards the middle of the color spectrum, yellow shares qualities of both its warmer- and cooler-colored counterparts. Along with the color red, yellow shares the strong physiological ability to increase hunger and metabolism. Yellow is also associated with feelings of lightheartedness and cheerfulness but, in other cases, has the unique ability to biologically produce feelings of anxiousness and uncertainty. In fact, at its purest saturation, the color yellow reflects light at amounts that can stimulate the eye to uncomfortable levels. In 1989, The Wagner Institute for Color found that babies are far more likely to cry in yellow-painted rooms – which has led to a long-standing uncertainty about large amounts of yellow in design that persists to this day.

• Summary: Yellow is an unstable color that can produce both optimism and anxiety. Use it with a strong support from other design elements to properly communicate your intention.
• Good Application – Children’s Marketing: There is a reason so many products and brands that market to children contain the color yellow: yellow attracts the eye. Yellow in small doses also takes on a happy-go-lucky tone which evokes the spirit of most children. In small doses, yellow is a good thing.
• Bad Application – Luxury Marketing: Both men and women perceive yellow as a lighthearted, puerile color. Therefore, luxury brands that pride themselves on sophistication and subtlety (like Mercedes, Rolex and Gucci) should and do avoid the use of yellow in their marketing communications.
• Brands that Use Yellow: McDonalds, Cheerios, Crayola, Play-Doh, Pokémon

GREEN

People trust green. Green has the unique ability of appearing both strong and trustworthy as well as peaceful and secure. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Most of our associations with green are thought to come from the positive associations we make with the green found in nature. This connection to nature and sense of calm is also thought to be why we so often associate green with safety. For example, the green stop light. Green is also one of the easiest colors on the eye and, therefore, registers as a calming color to the brain.

• Summary: Green is a stable color that evokes growth, health and harmony. Use it in marketing applications where summoning these qualities are important.
• Good Application – Green Marketing: For obvious reasons, green is so closely linked to nature that it is a visual home run for those trying to make a connection between the environment (i.e. environmentally friendly, organic, all natural, etc.) and a particular product or service.
• Bad Application – Rebellion Marketing: There is a sense of trust and stability that comes with most shades of green, so if you are a brand like Hot Topic, Element or Rolling Stone Magazine that wants to integrate an element of mystery and rebellion into your core brand, stay far, far away from the stale, trustworthiness of green.
• Brands that Use Green: Whole Foods, REI, Animal Planet, John Deere, Starbucks

BLUE

Blue is the most popular color in the world. Fifty seven percent of men and 35% of women call blue their favorite color, 53% of flags in the world contain blue, blue jeans are worn all over the world and blue is the most commonly used color in corporate identity. Blue tends to conjure feelings of loyalty, trust, cleanliness, confidence, tranquility and calmness. While these associations are often thought to come from the equally calming blue sky and the blue ocean, another reason behind blue’s popularity is tied to its ability to slow human metabolism and heart rate which, in turn, produces a calming effect. These qualities make blue a hugely popular color in healthcare, tech, finance and more.

• Summary: Blue is a safe and calming color that can evoke trust across a wide array of industries. Use generously but realize that your competition may be doing the same.
• Good Application – Startup Marketing: Startup brands have a tough road to household brand recognition. Why not let the color you use in your marketing do the work for you? Blue has been a go-to for startups to help communicate all the qualities customers, investors and shareholders look for in an organization.
• Bad Application – Food Marketing: Between blue’s ability to slow down metabolism and its rare occurrence in natural foods, blue is the largest appetite suppressant in the color spectrum. Therefore, any shade of blue should be avoided at all costs in food (especially natural food) marketing and photography.
• Brands that Use Blue: Facebook, LinkedIn, AT&T, Intel, IBM, Pfizer, GE, American Express

PURPLE/VIOLET

Purple has the unique ability to bring good things to those who see it. Purple is said to uplift, calm anxiousness and encourage creativity. Artists and musicians are encouraged to paint their workspaces purple to maximize their creative potential. Part of this is because purple has the shortest wavelength of all colors in the spectrum and, thus, is the least overwhelming to the eye. Purple has also been associated with royal qualities and the avant Garde. The singer Prince was a great example of a brand that used purple to exude both an element of superior inventiveness along with a touch of wacky. In an effort to encourage more creativity and imagination in the world, Pantone even named Ultra Violet the official color of 2018.

• Summary: Purple is the color for artistic expression, creative awakening and free thinking. Best used with a side of eccentric.
• Good Application – Quirky Marketing: While purple is associated with royalty, most of its associations are tied more closely with originality and eccentricities. Therefore, it is no surprise that zanier brands like Taco Bell and Aussie have attached themselves so closely with the color purple.
• Bad Application – Male-Oriented Marketing: While there are always exceptions to the rule, the biggest contrast between favorite colors among women and least favorite colors among men can be found in the color purple. Twenty three percent of women consider it their favorite color while 22% of men consider it their least favorite color. Therefore, if you are looking to market a product exclusively to men, avoid the unpopular color purple.
• Brands that Use Purple: Yahoo!, Taco Bell, Crown Royal, SyFy, Cadbury, Barbie, Aussie Shampoo

As you can see, the use of color influences our associations with brands on a biological level every day. Is the brand trustworthy? Is it healthy? Is it appealing to me? These are all considerations your brain makes within seconds of coming into contact with a brand and it is largely due to color theory. So, whether you are just getting a brand off the ground or working on the latest round of a brand campaign, there is no question that color is a great shortcut to evoke a brand message in your communications moving forward. The power is now in your hands. Use ROYGBIV wisely.

(Article pulled from original source.)

If you know anything about web page optimization or SEO, you’ve likely heard about the recent buzz surrounding Google’s pet project, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Whether you have a personal website or help manage your company’s website, Google AMP is something you need to know about. But before we jump into the details of Google’s latest venture, let’s establish a couple of important facts about the online landscape as it exists today.

According to KissMetrics and YOTTAA:

• 47% of desktop users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
• 40% of web users abandon a site that takes four or more seconds to load.
• Last year, the average size of a web page was approximately 1MB.
• The average size of a web page grew more than 15% each year from 2005 to 2016. 

So, what does this all mean? With the rise of responsive design and the increasing presence of high-quality web imagery, websites are getting much, much heavier, but the average user’s patience in waiting for these rich websites to load is getting much, much smaller.

Thus, Google AMP.

WHAT IS GOOGLE AMP?

Google AMP is an open source initiative created in collaboration with dozens of publishers, technology companies and content creators across the globe to create a faster-loading mobile online ecosystem. A web page that is Google-AMP compliant uses AMP HTML and will load nearly instantly on mobile devices – making the mobile web browsing experience better for companies, publishers, and advertisers alike.

While Google AMP is clearly focusing its initial efforts on content publishers (news publications, social media platforms, bloggers) all webmasters can and should be talking about if AMP code integration makes sense for their website. Additionally, integrating Google AMP isn’t just a consideration at the initial stages of a website’s development; there is code available for content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress or Sitefinity, to integrate into their existing websites today.

According to amproject.org, sites that have integrated AMP HTML have already proven to load an average of four times faster while using 10 times less data than equivalent non-AMP pages. 

And if user experience wasn’t a big enough motivator to consider AMP integration, Google has sweetened the pot by announcing that AMP-compliant pages will be designated as such in Google mobile search results and given SEO preference. In fact, if you search for the word “Facebook” via Google on your mobile device, you will see that a number of AMP-compliant pages about Facebook are getting top ranking in your search results.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Regardless of whether AMP integration is a priority for you or your company’s website right now, the key takeaway is that a conversation about page load time is now mainstream. If you want someone to take a particular action on your website, you need to consider how page load time plays into their user experience. If your site doesn’t load fast, not only will people look elsewhere, but Google has now made it a greater priority to have that play into your mobile search result rankings. Therefore, whether you are a developer, a marketer or a business owner, it is time to start talking about Google AMP.

(Article pulled from original source.)

Nearly all of us have been to tradeshows before. “Excuse me Ma’am,” says the overly confident man behind the booth. “Have you heard of [insert product here]”? You listen to the sales pitch. Your eyes browse the one sheet. But ultimately the experience can feel very monotonous. “Don’t forget to grab a keychain,” he notes as you slowly slither away.

But as I walked into this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) tradeshow, I instantly discovered that this was unlike any tradeshow I had been to before. This was a different song and dance. In fact, it was different because sales reps were coming out from behind the booth to sing and dance in an effort to show anxious tradeshow goers the capability of their wearable products. Everywhere I looked, someone was putting something on to demonstrate its technological capabilities.

As I walked out of the bustling Austin Convention Center that day, I instantly thought one thing: wearables are officially here.

Ultimately, this fact shouldn’t come as a surprise. Consumers are increasingly comfortable with technology making their everyday lives easier, better, more streamlined. In fact, according to Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Julie Ask, one-third of consumers are ready to buy wearables today. Additionally, 40 percent of people in the U.S. are tired of pulling out their smartphone. That’s right. That device that was once seen as instant access to the world in the palm of your hands is now considered a nuisance. People want their tech more instantaneous. And, according to Business Insider, the Apple Watch is slated to sell 40 million units in the first calendar year of its release alone. We have now reached an intersection where tech companies possess the capability to provide fascinating wearable products and consumers are ready and excited to consume them.

NOW WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU, THE MARKETER?

We now have every indication that wearables are not a thing of the future. They are already here. As marketers, how can we cater to this increasingly prevalent market trend? The worst thing we can do for a brand is entertain the thought of developing something to cater to the technology itself. For example, just because Apple Watch is coming out soon doesn’t mean brands should be developing products for the Apple Watch. In other words, objective first, platform second. If there is a particular problem that can be solved or objective that can be met via the immediacy and intimacy that an Apple Watch can provide, then developing an app for the Apple Watch is something that should be explored. But if we focus on the idea that we should develop for a technology simply because it exists, we are setting ourselves up to fail.

And this same idea can be applied to brands that may want to adjust their existing technology for wearables. “Let’s push our mobile app to the Apple Watch,” says the misguided marketer.  But it is important to remember how different a mobile experience is compared to the instantaneous experience one gets from a wearable device.  What is a user’s motivation to use your app via a smartphone? How would this same user’s motivation differ for an app tied to a wearable product? And how should that motivation influence the user’s experience with your app in a wearable environment? These are all questions a marketer must consider as we dip our feet into these new technological opportunities.

TRENDING WEARABLES

If you are still skeptical of the potential of wearables, here is just a peek at some of the fascinating products that were trending at this year’s SXSW:

• Lechal Shoes: Haptic footwear for runners or bikers. These shoes sync with Google Maps to provide directions to you via foot vibrations while you’re on the move. Right shoe vibrating? Turn right at the next block.
• Kinetic: A waistband and watch duo that helps prevent workplace injury for manual laborers. Employers can instantly see an employee’s safety analytics and alert them if there is a concern that they are lifting items in a way that is physically harmful.
• WonderWoof: Wearables aren’t just for humans. This wearable comes in the form of a bowtie that is attached to a dog’s collar. Dog owners are able to track their dog’s location, behavior and activity or even set up a doggie play date with nearby WonderWoof users via the bowtie’s Bluetooth capabilities.
• MultiSense Memory Patch: A smart Band-Aid that measures vitals and sends results to your computer. Developed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, this Band-Aid can last for 7-10 days and is seen as a pivotal tool to help in the treatment of Ebola patients.

Pretty cool, huh? It is hard to deny how some of these products make someone’s life easier, better, more streamlined. And no longer is wearable technology exclusively for the likes of James Bond or the Jetsons. Technology is now more accessible and mobile than ever before; but for marketers, the challenge is making sure we are conscious of leveraging technology in the right way for our brands. With a strategic understanding of trending technologies, the rising capabilities in tech and the increasing consumer demand for wearables, the Internet of things present a vast new world in providing intimate brand experiences for our product or service’s core audience.