Internet of Things, AR and VR to Begin Changing Face of Digital Marketing and Consumer Experience in 2017

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 15, 2016) - The coming year will see companies continue to explore the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and virtual reality as they move toward connecting and utilizing disparate IoT devices. Against the backdrop of this overarching trend, Xperiel, inventor of the Real World Web™ (RWW™) platform, today announced its predictions for the IoT, digital marketing and mobile sensor market:

• Advertisers combine tools to better reach consumers: Advertising in the digital age has rendered us all but immune to being bombarded with ads we find irrelevant or annoying. While this means that traditional advertising has lost much of its value, more engaging and immersive tools, such as augmented and virtual reality platforms and gamification apps, seek to change customer behavior by leveraging the IoT. In 2017, advertising efforts will break more fertile ground and begin tapping into these tools to reach consumers. Expect disparate advertising channels, such as TV, print and social, to become more digitally interactive, paving the way for a more unified marketing experience delivered through native mobile apps. Additionally, more brands will use deeply engaging games like Pokémon Go as a way to reach customers in both new and familiar places. The next year will provide these new opportunities for brands to create more complex mobile apps quicker and easier than before to build more immersive customer experiences and build loyalty.
• Sports stadiums and arenas go high-tech: While several US sports teams, like the Sacramento Kings and their new Golden 1 Center, have already started introducing modern technology into their arenas and stadiums, next year will see sports stadiums integrating far more digital technology, including AR systems, and services into their infrastructure to create new and better experiences and more powerful engagement for fans.
• Mobile sensors and IoT data expand in popularity: With more and more app companies embracing the IoT, mobile devices will begin exploiting the capabilities of their built-in sensors beyond the already-popular GPS. In 2017, expect to see an uptick in mobile devices and apps tapping into a variety of sensors, including Bluetooth, NFC, accelerometer, gyroscope, etc., to enable users to interact with each other and the world around them.
• Virtual reality technology reaches important milestones toward adoption: Although today's VR hardware is not yet advanced enough to foster mass adoption, analysts predict that 52 million VR headsets will be in enterprise and consumer use within four years. 2017 will see many more experiments, like NASA's Mars 2030 experience and Sony PlayStation VR, conducted by a variety of business looking to make that number a reality. In addition to gaming companies, 2017 will see medium and large enterprises, consumer brands and even federal agencies exploring new ways to engage users in virtual reality. However, the big breakthrough will only happen if hardware can become more affordable and useful to consumers.

"While IoT and AR technologies have become more available in the last couple of years, 2017 will see the early days these platforms working in concert with one another," said Alex Hertel, CEO and co-founder of Xperiel. "AR and IoT are really part of the same phenomenon, namely the push to make the real world digitally interactive. There are a growing number of more sophisticated connected devices, which will soon be interacting with each other in new and interesting ways. Xperiel's vision of this is called the Real World Web. This effort will be spearheaded in part by interest from sports teams, advertising organizations, theme parks, casinos and other parties that value user immersion and experience. Consumers can expect to see these and other properties begin connecting IoT and AR technologies, as well as to start experimenting with VR, while looking for new ways to make their brands more digitally interactive and personal in the long run."

About Xperiel

Xperiel is bringing what it calls Real World Web (RWW) to life. The RWW is where the physical and digital worlds converge to provide mixed reality experiences for consumers across any OS or mobile device. To orchestrate the RWW, the inventors of Google Wallet technology built the Xperiel RWW platform, comprised of a universal trigger fabric, device-agnostic applications in the cloud and an all new graphical programming language based on the founders' original Ph.D. research. Xperiel makes it possible for users to quickly build device-agnostic applications in the cloud that are contextually aware and can communicate with real world and online triggers. A trigger is an activation point that signals Xperiel to deliver immersive, customized experiences to individuals via their mobile phones, wearables, virtual reality technology or any connected device. Xperiel's patented, easy-to-use graphical programming language opens the door for non-technical people to develop applications in less than an hour, radically compressing the time and cost it takes to build IoT apps. Xperiel changes the way people can and will interact with a completely connected world. Companies in industries spanning professional sports, entertainment, retail and more are using the Xperiel platform to maximize the value of their IoT investments. Organizations including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pepsico use Xperiel to deliver engaging experiences via the RWW that ensure loyalty while increasing revenue opportunities.