IOT brings new content marketing opportunities 

When Google bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion in cash, observers scratched their heads. What would the search giant want with a company that was making home thermostats and smoke detectors? One wag speculated that when our homes burn down, we would be able to see Gmail ads for fire extinguishers. But there was a lot more to it than that.

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Nest was led by Tony Faddell, the Apple engineer responsible for the iPod so Google was getting the closest thing any company could get to hiring Jonny Ive. It was also buying a product that did a lot more than change the temperature of the HVAC system.

Google has been hugely effective at understanding whatever we’re doing when we’re sitting in front of a screen. Whether we’re looking for new bookshelves or continuing an email thread with a client, Google knows exactly what’s on our minds. It can use that data to bring us messages from companies that match our concerns. So far, though, it’s been less effective at knowing what we’re doing when our fingers are away from the keyboard and our phones are in our pockets.

As Nest’s “learning” thermostats come to understand our daily habits—when we’re home, which rooms we use, what makes us feel comfortable—so Google will eventually come to learn about how we live. It gets access to a stream of new information about people that it can’t access any other way. Google is no longer just on our devices; it’s running our homes.

At the moment, the company is only collecting data. It hasn’t yet started to turn that data knowledge into content but we can start to see how that might happen in the UK. i20 Water is a water supply company that collects data from devices spread through water distribution networks. By crunching the data it gathers about water flow and pressure, it can automatically inform its customers about upcoming maintenance. In effect, the water company is watching how its product is being used and then telling the customers what it’s about to do.

More advanced systems may also be able to inform customers about leakages in their pipes, dripping faucets or how to lower the risk of ice damage.

That’s likely to be the next stage for Nest. The latest version of the thermostat doesn’t just change the temperature setting based on what it knows about the use; by displaying a small green leaf, it can also nudge customers into choosing settings that are better for the environment.

It’s the first step in our devices talking back to us. It’s not a conversation. It’s not even a sentence. But it is content based on data gained by a company and used to change the behavior of customers.

As the Internet of Things continues to deliver a stream of data, content marketers will know more about audiences than they’ve ever known before. We’ll be able to target our communications personally, addressing singular issues as they arise. At the moment those messages are small, but in the future, we’re going to need a broader range of content forms that are both flexible and that speak with the engaging voice of the brand.

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