Certainly not talking about NASCAR but rather the car that is possibly shaping up. I call this out because much about marketing is understanding trends and positioning yourself and your client to leverage the outcome.
For years now, the Lab has been advocating the ideals of an integrated content strategy harnessing the virtues of traditional and emerging technologies. As every new piece of technology emerges, this strategy evolves and comes to incorporate the reality derived from the trend. Today we hear about OnStar and of Sync of TomTom’s and of Garmains but what is really exciting and what should be of greater interest to us all is in how the car itself is being viewed.
Did you know that there is a move to create a “dot.car” top level domain name? In my opinion this is significant. This is significant in that the perspective of the car as a utilitarian platform (wheels, motor and Bluetooth holster) is changing into a content centric platform (think part of content strategy). There is a general recognition, much like that with the dot.TV, dot.Mobi, that the uniqueness of this platform requires its own particular means of delivering content, interfacing with this content and creating standards around the environment in which the content lives. The car-network will need its own protocols and standards. It will need this to effectively utilize such telematics-centric, real-time data as vehicle performance and maintenance diagnostics data, as well as vehicle location data (think location based services) and content transmission. Firewalls that protect your ability to seamlessly interface with the web and potentially with your network at home. There are clearly implications for auto manufacturers, marketers and content players. More on how they will affect each in future posts.
Content and the car are on the move …will you be ready?
