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Carıng, Sharıng and Wearıng: Embracıng the ıHug Phenomenon
t’s just two years since the launch of the Nike+ FuelBand bracelet but in that time there’s been a stream of devices designed to help users manage their daily lives. Pete Miller, Creative Director at Tangent
Snowball, spoke to delegates at the Figaro Digital Marketing Conference earlier this year about the opportunities and implications presented by this new, personalised, utility-focused technology. Who are the major players, and where are the wins to be found?
1
SEN.SE MOTHER This award-winning
bit of kit from France offers an intimate approach to the internet of things by providing a domestic monitoring hub. “Mother aggregates
all the information in a household and serves it back you in a user- friendly way,” says Miller. “It comes with motion cookies that can be stuck to any surface in your
Pete Miller, Creative Director
at Tangent Snowball, chronicles the iHug phenomenon - technology designed to care – and explains what it means for marketers
house, from your fridge door to your toothbrush. It monitors motion, temperature and location.” Downloadable apps enable Mother to interpret the data and present it back to users, who can act on it accordingly: who’s taking their medication? Who’s getting enough exercise? Who’s raiding the fridge?
“What Mother does really well is
present that information in a human, personal way,” says Miller. “On an iPad this looks more like a magazine than a typical data dashboard.” Whether users are ready for such a
close relationship with technology remains to be seen. ‘Mother knows everything’ is the tagline here. We can’t help but hope that isn’t entirely true.
sen.se
2 BLEEPBLEEPS Kickstarter-funded start-up
BleepBleeps launched late last year with the aim of making parenting easier.
The fi rst product, Sammy Screamer is a motion-sensitive device that can be attached to anything - from a baby’s buggy to a door, bag or bike. If Sammy moves, a notifi cation is sent to your smartphone. Users can then instruct Sammy to start ‘screaming’ – the device emits a volume-controlled alarm - in a bid to stop whatever’s happening from happening. Cute and very neatly designed, there’s
clearly a market for these products, notes Miller. The project reached more than four times its funding target and BleepBleeps’ have picked up a raft of media coverage this year. Next up is Tony Tempa – a digital ear thermometer for kids which sends the results to a smartphone for tracking and guidance. “What’s interesting
about BleepBleeps is that they want to own the whole parenting journey,” says Miller. The full range includes Ultra Stan (an
ARTICLE JON FORTGANG 36 issue 22 october 2014
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