This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) has had mixed reviews. It’s true there was no new breakthrough technology, but what we did see was a step change in consumer facing technology which was already in market or on the verge of being there.

This made Mobile World Congress a compelling experience for brands who are looking at how consumer behaviour is about to change.

This year's MWC saw a much greater emphasis on collaboration between brands and technologies to deliver new, richer customer experiences. We’ve seen tech partnerships for some time now, but this year it was a thread throughout the event from Vodafone’s integration with Samsung Galaxy S9 Home through to Seat and Alexa.

There was no single blockbuster story that grabbed the headlines. It was more an aggregation of marginal gains across a number of themes and categories. But the sum of these themes was most definitely greater than the parts.

Key take outs:

• The Democratisation of Technology. We’ve been talking about becoming smaller, faster, more useful and more genuinely prevalent in people’s lives. This year we saw smart homes, AI, even 3D imaging becoming much more accessible to the everyday consumer.
• Convenience Makes a Hypocrite of Us All. We say we love a brand but accept a default when presented with one by a virtual assistant. We say we care about security yet invite microphones, cameras and physical sensors into our bedrooms. If the benefit is strong enough, our principles are put to the test.
• The Ubiquity of AI. We’re still on day one of Artificial Intelligence but AI was everywhere, in our mobile devices, our connected homes and, increasingly, in the transformation of businesses.
• Keeping the things you love safe. There was inevitably a big focus on the security underpinning these services, but also a greater emphasis on how new tech services can keep the things you love safe, your family, pets, even your bag. The paradox remains: new technology can help protect us, but also exposes us to new dangers.
• Shared experiences, not solo. We saw a number of previously solitary experiences emphasising their social aspects, from shared AR experiences in sports bars to a greater emphasis on the use of VR to supplement social media.

CONTACT

Jim Rothnie, New Business Director, McCann Manchester, [email protected]