Day 2 of Mobile World Congress has passed. We heard about the potential for greater connectivity, the challenges of creating seamless interconnection, the potential of the Internet of Things, and thought about how all this can get paid for.

1. 2014
Mobile
world
Congress
Day2
Recap
#OgilvyMWC

2. 2014
Mobile
world
1
Congress
you are in the internet of things business
You may think you’re selling a consumer product or B2B service, but as mobile operators
create stronger infrastructures to support constant connectivity, businesses will have
to transform themselves into always-on service entities.You and your customer share a
two-way connection which will enable you to automate the service you provide them in
reaction to instant, personalized data analysis. As a result, your businesses grows more
predictive and more profitable.
A lot more profitable; the “Internet of Things” will drive $1.7 trillion of economic growth
by 2020. Implementing an IoT service will create new revenues for your business and help
drive operations costs down as companies and brands become smarter and more efficient
with their products, even as they improve customer satisfaction. Seems like a pretty good
business to be in.
#OgilvyMWC

3. 2014
Mobile
world
2
Congress
Living la vida connected
Hardwired or wi-fi or LTE—all those details mean a ton to you and the way you do
business, but the consumer doesn’t give a damn. She wants access anytime, anywhere.
Full stop. The grace period for wonky interoperability has closed, and seemless
harmonization is so expected that its absence is jarring—or will be soon. We can
digitize pretty much anything now. Sensors are cheap as dirt, having already fallen in
price by a factor of 10. And yet the connection is still imperfect. We need to digitize the
interconnections themselves and build the infrastructure to enable them. Absent that,
we’re left with two disconnected sides of an equation. The mobile industry needs to agree
on local, regional and global standards for seamless connection. Maybe your car can help.
The car, generally your largest mobile platform unless you work as a strip miner, is rapidly
becoming a connection hub. By 2020, 80% of new vehicles will be connected cars. With up
to 4 billion cars expected on the world’s roads by 2050, that’s a strong incentive.
#OgilvyMWC

4. 2014
Mobile
world
3
Congress
What’s in Iot for me?
“Everything that can be connected will be connected,” says Tim Hottges of Deutsche
Telekom, recalling the prescient words of Nicholas Negroponte. Being connected is a lot
closer to our world now than being digital was back when Negroponte was at MIT. In fact,
it’s here. A robot can brew your beer and slake your thirst for brewmeister data via your
smartphone. Your toothbrush can learn your behavior, adapt accordingly, and send reports
back to your dentist for analysis. This means no more lying about flossing every night...
and a customized dental hygiene program to keep you healthy. The privacy tradeoff is
real, but so is a root canal. Your car can prevent accidents with its web of sensors, but
if the worst happens, your personal sensor cloud broadcasts your location and calls the
ambulance. Of course, insurance companies would rather you skip the accident entirely.
So, they’re all for installing car sensors to track driving behavior, sending automated price
signals (read: higher bills) to their customers to nudge them toward safe driving.
#OgilvyMWC

5. 2014
Mobile
world
4
Congress
The telco of future
How to make all these connections happen? The IoT is going to require scads of
bandwidth.
Hey, telcos! Keep on focusing on building the infrastructure. It’s what you do best, and it
will make our lives so much more convenient. Thanks! But let’s talk about partnerships,
which, you’ll forgive us for pointing out, is not your strong suit.
You’re generally not set up to develop IoT applications. Instead partner with the small
guys, the companies who are still at small scale or have a startup product you need which
you can provide to your customers through the power of your network. You have a built-in
socket for these partnerships. They can fit right into your network and provide a working
IoT ecosystem.
#OgilvyMWC

6. 2014
Mobile
world
5
Congress
A New way of spending media dollars
This new world we’re building works great in places where mobile data speeds are high,
but what of the areas where 4G service is embryonic? Creating demand for snack-sized
data purchases works only up to a point over 2G and 3G. But upgrading to always-on 4G is
pricy. The trick will be keeping that cost from being passed on to emerging consumers for
whom data is already a hefty expense. That’s no easy task, since Telcos reflexively look to
their subscribers for costs and have been historically unsuited to collaboration. Brands,
however, can subsidize greater connectivity at the individual and operator level in return
for consumer engagement. It can be done piecemeal—text a short message, get a nugget
of connection in return—or at a large scale. A brand could partner with an operator
to supply subsidized data plans in return for that consumer connecting from within
the brand’s media environment. This enables broadband build-out while making data
affordable, diverting the major costs away from improverished, emerging consumers.
#OgilvyMWC