The rapidly growing trend in devices that connect to the Internet beyond smartphones, tablets and computers, known as the “Internet of Things,” manifested itself during the 2013 holiday season through the popularity of connected fitness trackers like the Fitbit and the Jawbone Up. This year, it’s likely that a collection of smart home devices, such as Wi-Fi thermostats, light switches and cameras, will graduate from being the darlings of the “Tech Junkie” segment to adoption by a wider base of consumers. In fact, as Ad Age recently reported, the smart home push is already on. Specifically, Nest, makers of the smart home thermostat, smoke detector and Dropcam, launched its first national advertising campaign consisting of four entertaining television spots just before the official start of the holiday shopping season.
To track the growth of this category, Experian Marketing Services created an online search portfolio consisting of more than 60 of the top branded and unbranded smart home products. That means that in addition to including search terms like “Nest thermostat” in our portfolio, we are also monitoring terms like “wifi thermostat.” This is important in a nascent category as consumers are likely to use more generic search terms to learn what branded products are available.
In the past year alone, searches for products in this portfolio more than doubled. As of the four weeks ending November 22, 2014, the top branded products were: “Dropcam,” “ADT Pulse,” “Nest thermostat,” “Wemo” and “Philips Hue.” The top non-branded searches were: “wireless doorbell,” home automation” and “smart home.”
Hot smart home searches – 4 weeks ending November 22, 2014
For more information about the Internet of Things trend as well as insights into those consumers on the leading
edge of device adoption, watch our recent webinar.