Wearable technology is increasingly popular and thus an increasingly viable advertising medium.
According to eMarketer, almost a quarter of U.S. adults own a wearable device.
Wearables could represent a huge step forward in marketing practices.
devices are simultaneously an ad medium and a rich source of customer data.
The biometric sensors in wearables track user data like heart rate, location, and emotional status. Their displays can be used to serve ad content responsively to users based on these biological cues.
This data would allow businesses to create more personalized and relevant experiences for customers based on their current mindset.
Review this article to learn how wearable technology promises to bolster advertising processes as well as the challenges advertisers face with these devices.
1. Wearables Offer Insight into Buying Behavior
Wearable technology uses biometric sensors to track the user’s emotional state.
Emotion is linked to buying behavior, meaning that biometric cues can reveal when someone is primed to make a purchase.
For example, an elevated heart rate suggests that the user is excited. A change in skin conductivity (goosebumps) indicates that the user is intensely engaged with their surroundings.
The location-tracking data from wearables could help companies understand the context of these emotions and allow advertisers to be responsive to customers’ real-time desires.
Companies could then invest in more relevant, personalized, and effective ads. Aligning ads to users and their unique circumstances can boost both conversions and returns for advertising efforts.
Wearables could give advertisers access to contextual data that allows them to capitalize on consumer emotions in real-time.
2. Implementing Ads on Wearables Could Be Challenging
Effectively implementing ads into wearables could be a challenge for businesses.
The screens of wearable devices are small, just 1.3 inches wide on an Apple SmartWatch.
Playing ads on such a small display could negatively interrupt and diminish the user experience.
MarketingLand found that mobile interstitial ads alienate users because the ad appears to be over-large relative to the display size.
People may block ads or abandon wearable devices if the ad experience is sufficiently disruptive.
Like smartphones and email, wearables are an intimate device that people prefer to be free of annoyances and interruptions.
Creating ads that are effective on a small display is another challenge. Limited real estate and low pixel count both constrain the use of creativity and impact the amount of copy in the ad.
Each wearable device also has its own screen dimensions, which further complicates the process of formatting ads and leveraging different ad formats.
Businesses will need to address these wrinkles before ads go live on wearable devices.
3. Advertising on Wearables Could Violate Privacy
People want both a personalized ad experience and their privacy.
Companies that fail to consider the “privacy-personalization paradox” risk alienating customers in their ad efforts.
While most people trust apps that track their location, it’s unclear if consumers will be comfortable with brands accessing their biometric data.

While only 15% of people are uncomfortable with apps tracking their location, health data can be seen as much more invasive and personal. Businesses should be careful not to violate users’ privacy.
Brands also must not appear “Big-Brotherly” in their advertising. If users perceive a link between their emotions and the ads they receive, it may alienate them.
The concerns about data breaches on wearables are “significant,” according to Davide C. Orazi of Monash University and Greg Nyilasy of the University of Melbourne. Businesses should pay close attention to how they handle people’s health information.
Location and health-related information could be used maliciously, yet few protections exist for consumers at present.
A federal regulation that gives consumers full control of their biometric data could ease concerns and pave the way for advertising on wearables.
Currently, wearables manufacturers have yet to open up their devices to advertising.
This may change once data privacy improves and device manufacturers are confident that advertising won’t lead to churn.
Why Wearable Technology In Business Things
Research conducted by Salesforce account that the next impact of wearables in companies:
- 79 percent of companies that have embraced wearable technologies in the company say It Is instrumental to their achievement
- 76% state that wearables enhanced their performance
- 86% claim They’ll raise their investment into wearables
Bad for a section that has been seen almost exclusively, till lately, as a park for sci-fi fans.
Nowadays, wearables are sprinkled throughout the range of the customer market and company settings. The manners these overlap and affect each other continue to rise.
Let us look at some real-life usage instances of wearables and dip into how they produce market needs.
Use and types Cases Of Wearables In Business
Research by Ericsson’s comprehensive consumer perspective on wearables will help determine how enterprises and businesses view it.
Here are some of the findings:
- 2 in five users of wearables state that they believe naked when not wearing their own apparatus, and also a few of them sleep on
- 43 percent of the surveyed think tablets will be substituted by wearables
- 40 percent of smartwatch users interact with smartphones, Due to their own wearable apparatus
- 70% stated they consider wearable technology programmers truly care for protecting user information
- 25 percent of wearable technology users believe that their expectations have not been fulfilled, Even Though the general belief supporting the potential for wearables is optimistic
The wearables marketplace is mainly dominated by smartwatches and health/fitness action trackers, even though the sum of usage cases is slowly expanding.
Let us consider the most frequent wearable tech product types that alter the match of their consumer marketplace — and, therefore, of whole companies.
Worker Wearable Tech Use: Trends And Forecasts
Around various businesses, using wearable technology in industries remains in its developing phases.
The above Salesforce research holds that about use cases:
- 23 percent of companies utilize wearables for office safety
- 20 percent of companies use these to get worker time Administration
- 20% use them for communicating among workers
Suppose they are not building wearable technology and wearable programs themselves. In that case, adopter organizations encourage employees to deliver their particular wearables to get the job done.
The “Bring Your Own Wearables” initiative is getting to be a common phenomenon across businesses.
54 percent of businesses encourage this version, while 40 percent of the questioned strategy to achieve this later on.
Servicefutures finds that today’s offices are becoming increasingly varied — and, although in itself is a very positive tendency, the assortment of different profiles and generations has varied, occasionally mutually exclusive suggestions on the way the workplace ought to be.
This mainly worries wearables. What’s a useful, complicated widget to improve work productivity for a few can be an intrusion of others’ privacy.
Therefore, firms shouldn’t insist on a policy, however, to assess the circumstance of each wearable amenity for every worker.
Wearable technologies in a company can further enhance workspace conditions throughout the discovery of anxiety and its cause.
Human resources departments may utilize wearables to spot the methods by which workers invest their time in some specific business areas and the way to modify their expertise for the greater.
Client Wearable Tech Utilization For Growing User Experience
As clients get increasingly utilized to share wearables information with partnerships, the businesses can branch to more practical applications.
A number of the client acts of wearable technology include reward applications, point of purchase, and integrated buying experience — based on Salesforce research.
Consumers using wearables generally begin with much more conventional, first-base use instances connected with apps like loyalty or purpose of sale.
However, because a fresh wave of innovation is expected to disperse in the subsequent two decades or so, together with companies trying new methods for connecting with their clients, more immersive experiences will become accessible.
The largest increase, Concerning customer interaction using wearables and businesses utilizing them, is anticipated in:
- Device integration
- Immersive experiences
- Location-sensing technician
It is well worth noting a triple expansion rate is a prediction for immersive adventures and location-sensing technology.
We’ll observe a 3x development rate in regions like immersive adventures along with location-sensing technology, demonstrating an intention to boost customer touchpoints using 1:1 interactions.
The Future of Wearable Tech and Advertising
An ad medium that moves with its audience and delivers real-time data is exciting.
Wearable devices could expand the targeting possibilities for advertisers, helping them to identify and capitalize on customers in a sales-ready state.
Still, if and when device manufacturers allow for advertising, businesses will need to address concerns about user privacy.