Intimate Tech Tracks Health, Fitness, Mood, Personal Experience and Brand Stories
The battle for eyeballs has become more intimate with the advance of wearables like smartwatches, smartglasses, smartrings and interactive clothing.
These tiny-tech devices have gained wide use as health sensors and fitness trackers. Now companies and their PR teams are turning to them to capture personal experiences they can be turned into brand stories.
As with most technological innovation, there are opportunities and pitfalls.
Quick History of Wearables Evolution
Wearable technology dates back to the 1950s with the first portable transistor radio that could be carried in a pocket. In 1961, Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon created an early version of wearable technology in the form of a computer that fit into a shoe designed to cheat at roulette. A wearable wristwatch-calculator premiered in 1975. Walkman earphones appeared on American heads in 1980 and became instantly popular.
Digital hearing aids became available in 1987, setting the stage for wider use of the technology to monitor a person’s health. A Canadian researcher pioneered a Wearable Wireless Webcam in 1994. Around the same time, Olivetti produced the Active Badge location tracker.
The iPod debuted, with its promise of a 1,000 songs in your pocket, in the early 2000s. The invention of Bluetooth technology increased connectivity, and the race was afoot. Fitbit was introduced to track workout data. The Apple Watch showed up in 2015 initially as a fashion accessory and quickly shifting to a fitness tracker.
The ability to capture and share data in real-time had become a reality. Commercialization and PR innovation was quick to follow.
Brand Stories from Wearables
Coca-Cola features an RFID wristband enabling users to share experiences instantly on social media at festivals, events or parties. The wristband gives the soda drink company online visibility and increased engagement opportunities, reinforcing its brand story.
Nivea generated customer engagement with print ads that include tear-off wristbands with GPS chips, which parents can use to keep track of their children on the beach or other public settings.
Virgin Atlantic and Microsoft teamed up to create an Interactive Digital Adventure app that allows users to take virtual tours to potential destinations. The virtual tour starts with check-in, moves users through the Clubhouse and onto the plane, takes them through the bar and ends with them waking up in their seats and feeling refreshed and ready for descent.
British Airways introduced a mood blanket for passengers on long-distance flights. Headbands with neuro-sensor technology read brainwaves and transmit data via Bluetooth to fiber-optic enhanced blankets. When passengers feel calm, their blankets light up blue. When they’re stressed, the blankets turn red. The informal allows the cabin crew to know who to let sleep and who to check on to ensure a relaxing flight.
Breathable bio-symbiotic wearables are being developed to measure medical conditions from the onset of frailty to the efficacy of new drugs. These customized devices are created on 3D printers and fitted for people based on body scans. The wearable operates continuously through a combination of wireless power transfer and compact energy storage, producing more robust data than possible from a smart wristband.
Instead of runways or house parties, brands and their influencers can host events at a range of locations allowing wearable users to interact with their surroundings while providing grist for PR storytelling and data for designers.
Nike Wearable Experience
Nike’s FuelBand experience is a cautionary tale of wearables. Initially trendsetting and highly popular, Nike discontinued the wearable device that generated lots of data, but not enough insight.
“We tried to put data in the consumer’s hands, but I don’t know that we put depth in that data – a lot of it was data for data’s sake at times,” recalled Jordan Rice, senior director of Nike NXT Smart Systems Engineering. “I began to ask myself a little bit, how deep is this connection that we’ve actually created? Are people connected to the brand and the products? Is this data actually meaningful to them.”
The core issue, Rice said in an interview, was that early fitness wearables bombarded users with data – steps taken, calories burned, height jumped, distance traveled – but did little to contextualize these metrics in ways that added long-term value.
Nike has continued a focus on wearables, including Apple’s smartwatch and jerseys with RFID tags. Rice said the challenge as wearables mature as products is to deliver an experience, not just data. Users will receive greater value and more opportunities will occur for meaningful brand stories.
Wearable Ethical Issues
Like most technological innovations, wearables raise serious questions about privacy, security, data ownership and user consent. Collecting data from what people wear is inherently intrusive as well as uniquely informative and useful.
Nowhere is that more evident than contemporary workplaces that wearables are turning into gyms by replacing clunky treadmills with walking meetings via smartwatches, desk dance parties and step challenges to earn bonus days off.
Wristbands worn by workers can detect rising stress levels, offer breathing exercises and potentially alert managers to a problem. Earbuds can select the right playlist to calm nerves or provide an energy boost, again providing data for a productivity analysis. These devices also can be the posture police, nudging slouching workers to sit up or awakening an employe who dozes off on the job.
While more informed workplace habits is a positive thing, how much of the data collected should be visible to employers? Should any health data be used in employment decisions?
Using actual user experiences as tracked by wearable devices can produce vivid storytelling. But whose stories are they – the brand that collects the data or the person that supplied the data? Who decides whether a story is inspiring or intrusive? Will users even know when their data is accumulated and used in a brand story?
The integration of wearables with other internet-based devices means personal and potentially sensitive data is in cyberspace, accessible by anyone with the tools to discover it.
The growing popularity of wearables suggests users are willing to accept the risks in return for the benefits, especially in the wellness space. Giving health care providers and personal trainers real-time data can be a matter of life or death.
People are sensitive about financial information because cybertheft has become a constant threat. A similar sensitivity may develop on personal data related to our health and habits. PR professionals and brand storytellers need to be alert to this sensitivity and self-impose guardrails to protect personal privacy even at the sacrifice of a great story.
Wearables, AI and Virtual Reality
The lion is out of the cage with artificial intelligence, which inevitably will, if it hasn’t already, impact wearables. AI-empowered devices that track health data or locations could become more sentient and act like wellness coaches or tour guides.
As wearable technology improves, they can monitor heart activity, blood oxygen and sleep patterns. This is invaluable information for healthcare professionals, but could be inappropriately exploited by marketers aided by advanced AI data analysis.
Virtual Reality headsets are becoming more common and introduce a whole new dimension of immersive experiences in the evolving battlefield for eyeballs and personal security.
