Sean Donnelly says, “A few weeks ago I wrote a post that looked at why marketers need to pay attention to the Internet of Things (IoT). An Econsultancy subscriber posed some interesting questions in the comments section of that post, so this article is an attempt to respond to his points. It’s always nice to receive comments and questions on posts as they provide great opportunities for us here at Econsultancy to challenge our own thinking. In this case, the subscriber asked about the implications of IoT for marketing and in particular digital marketing. These questions provide a nice... [...]

Sean Donnelly says, “Last week I attended Web Summit, now one of the world’s largest tech conferences. Most of the talks that I attended were at the digital marketing stage although I did make time to attend talks at the data and analytics stage, the content maker’s stage and design stage. One of the bigger themes that popped up across each of these stages was Internet of Things (IoT). It’s something that we’ve written about at Econsultancy before but what’s clear is that the Internet of Things is very much just getting started. Econsultancy’s Marketer’s Guide to the Internet... [...]

ReadWrite team says, “You’re probably thinking “Really?!? Don’t we already have enough?” And you’d be right. The last count I heard was there are over 125 IoT platforms in the industry. Doesn’t IoT have enough problems reaching maturity without more platforms muddying the waters? That’s not the worst of it, though. If you’re anything like me you are probably asking “What does a platform actually do?” The short answer is…. absolutely nothing by itself. However, I contend that many platforms are incredibly useful. What does a platform actually do? A platform doesn’t... [...]

Chris Stone says, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is great—if you want each of your devices to exist in its own connected-but-siloed world. What do I mean? Your Nest thermostat is undeniably smart when it comes to heating and cooling your home. And your Amazon Echo conveniently recites the weather report at the moment you need it. But what if you want your Amazon Echo to communicate with your Nest thermostat and let it know there’s a heat wave approaching on Tuesday? Tough luck…today. The year of the Internet of Things has been discussed and predicted for years, and finally, devices... [...]

Paul Miller says, “The Internet of Things, or IoT, finds its way into a lot of conversations these days. CES in Las Vegas last week was awash with internet-connected doo-dahs, including cars, fridges, televisions, and more. Moving away from the home and into the world of business, the IoT furore continues unabated. Instead of connecting cars to Netflix or a teen-tracking insurance company, we connect entire fleets of trucks to warehouses, delivery locations, and driver monitoring systems. Instead of connecting the domestic fridge to Carrefour or Tesco or Walmart in order to automatically... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Every year at CES, internet fridges delight the masses (of journalists) who scurry off to write arch pieces on the internet of things. I didn’t attend CES, but nevertheless I’d like my oportunity to shout into the wind. Please. I need this. Some pieces are quite measured, of course. This excellent article in the FT looks upon these hulking connected devices as pointless but indicative of the falling cost of technology and slightly less silly in the context of the rising importance of the messaging app. I find it hard to be so level-headed. Take a look at the... [...]

Scott Amyx says, “The tech industry is no stranger to change, but the data derived from the IoT is taking disruption to a new level—sforzando. At IBM’s Insight conference last month, Bob Picciano, senior vice president of IBM Analytics, talked about the rise of the “cognitive business”, or an enterprise that engages with analytics to improve its customer relations, business processes, and decision-making capabilities. There are dueling predictions over how ubiquitous the Internet of Things will be, but most indicate that the marketplace will host between 50 and 75 billion connected... [...]

David Nield says, “Once our homes are kitted out with all manner of smart devices and sensors, where does the growing mass of collected data go to? Enter Kinesis Firehose, one of several services announced by Amazon at its AWS Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas this week. The Firehose lets device makers stream data straight to the cloud—the Amazon Web Services cloud, to be exact. It builds on the existing Kinesis framework but makes life even easier for developers and engineers: All of the monitoring, scaling and data management is taken care of by Amazon. That means anyone with a home security... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Econsultancy has just published a helpful guide to the internet of things for marketers. The connection of physical things to the internet, to each other and their surroundings throws up interesting possiblities. Here are five opportunities for marketers. To read the full list and to find out more about this maturing market or launching your own project, download A Marketer’s Guide to the Internet of Things. 1. Loyalty The ability to hold consumers within a brand ecosystem, enhancing their interaction with a product or company may do wonders for loyalty. As consumers... [...]

David Friedman says, “Big data is one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time. It’s also incredibly vague. You’ve probably been in conversations where the different participants were using “big data” to refer to (a) large amounts of data; (b) data sets that exceed the capabilities of traditional databases; or (c) the software tools employed to analyze the data sets in the first two definitions. One of the most significant benefits of the Internet of Things is the fact that it will vastly expand our ability to monitor and measure things taking place the real world. A shop-floor... [...]