Your car is the last and largest untapped mine of information for digital marketing, says Eric Noble, professor of vehicle technology at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Major motor companies like Ford and BMW are announcing partnerships with digital service and digital assistant providers like Amazon’s Alexa. The partnership would offer car owners the ability to access their cars from homes, and call up other features from their vehicle via Alexa.
Currently, smartphones process most digital services for drivers and passengers in cars but in the future it is likely that carmakers will adopt more fully connected car technology.
There are some challenges though. The price tag of cars with connected technology increases greatly. Automakers have been slow to adopt connected car technology because they need to be sure there is enough market demand for the features. There are also privacy concerns–how much data are consumers willing to give up? Many consumers may be leery about new marketing and advertising inside of their vehicles.
But digital marketing in cars is not all about drivers and passengers interacting with advertisements inside of their vehicles. A lot of the hype for marketers is big data collection. Marketing companies can capture driver/consumer behaviors such as song selections or voice interactions with digital systems.
An article on Bloomberg Technology explains, “This could then help better personalize what driver or passenger sees or hears in their vehicles—such as an offer for a restaurant or a discount at the hair salon, based on navigation data.”
Other features–probably less exciting to consumers–could let corporations send news and music content to the in-car screen as well as curate audio ads on digital radios and streaming applications per car.
“While there are possibilities today, it will take fully driverless systems before the car truly becomes a digital device. If a driver is doing little more than sitting in a seat with time and attention to burn, more full-fledged entertainment, productivity features and other services will be in demand.”
