Telematics could have a major impact on the future of marketing. This technology, which usually takes the form of a self-contained box the size of a mobile phone, allows a driver’s behaviour to be digitised for use. These digital alerts can then be used to trigger other actions and experiences. Recent research even suggests that 250m cars will have telematics by 2020, creating an industry worth £124bn.
While the technology has been around for more than a decade in commercial vehicles and the emergency services, telematics have not been widely used in private cars. However, the concept is now gaining traction.
Marketing and telematics
Telematics could work in the sense that they become a driver’s own personal adviser. For example, if your tyre pressure drops too low, you could set systems to send you an email reminding you to top-up. Telematics could even advise tyre specialists in the area if you blow a tyre, or contact breakdown assistance your car breaks down.
Telematics can allow for a level of personalisation not seen before in cars. The ability to provide regular data updates could lead to better targeting of drivers for marketing purposes. Let’s look at an example. A couple always travels to the coast at the weekend. They do it every Friday, travelling 150 miles to reach their holiday cottage. Telematics, knowing that they always take that trip at the weekends, could send them weather reports. Knowing the distance, it could suggest where to fill the car up for the best value for money based on current rates, and suggest more scenic routes to enhance the driving experience.
What are the barriers?
As with most innovations, there are possible issues in using telematics for marketing that need navigating around. Paramount among these is data protection. It will be incumbent on brands to use telematics effectively while reassuring drivers that monitoring them while they drive doesn’t represent a big step towards a Big Brother, Orwellian society.
Transparency is the key. Let people opt into the services they want. Driver A may want to reduce their insurance, so may be more than happy to allow telematics to track how they drive in return for savings. However, Driver B may only want to restrict their use of telematics to informing them when their tyres need changing. It’s important that people will have the option to opt-in for various levels of involvement.
The second problem more interesting. Once you open up telematics to brands (Spotify or Google, for example), they will need to work on differentiating the customer experience. This could result in partnerships or brand-specific feeds to drive unique behaviour.
Finally, there is the issue of who owns the data once it has been collected. Brands will need to establish whether they take control of driver data (the Apple approach) or whether they are open-minded enough to pass data ownership to the driver. The latter approach will create greater trust in the long-run and – arguably – better customers who are willing to interact with the brand.
How should brands prepare?
To be ready for this shift, brands need to play a role in developing the technology. The majority of this already exists, however it all needs to be put together. We need to create the driver API (application program interface) and build connected partnerships. We need to think carefully about how this technology can be implemented in the future, in driverless technology, and in the ecosystem that we would be creating or plugging into.
If we can work this out for the private driver, then the future may be closer than we think.
Luke Battye is sales and marketing director at CAB Studios
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