Brandwatch looked at 7 million conversations about the biggest tech companies and found the most important insights and trends shaping the industry in 2017, including: - How gender, interests, and age factor into tech conversations - Which posts get the most buzz on social media

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Consumer Technology
SOCIAL INSIGHTS
What Social Data Reveals about Innovation in 2017
7 Minute Read

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In 2016, the consumer technology industry saw both an age of innovation and
excitement and an age of disappointment. Using social data integrated with
external data sources, this report looks at the relationship between innovation
and technological growth.
Executive Summary
2016 proved that customers are more reluctant to invest both in new technology sectors with
unclear added value or purchasing replacement products with no signi cant advantages over
their current devices. The discrepancy between the hype of new innovations and the dearth of
market growth made 2016 an important time to research to understand the future of consumer
technology.
While innovation remains an important factor in market growth, it will be increasingly
important for tech companies to do more to bridge their innovation to their customers’
experience and needs. In this report, social data was used to distill the reasoning behind
customer behavior; according to research, two important trends for consumer technology
rms were revealed:
In this article, examples from social data are used to examine these trends and their
implications for consumer tech companies in 2017.
2016 and Consumer Tech Market Growth
From commercial drones to the expanding Internet-of-Things (IoT), 2016 introduced dozens of
new technologies to the consumer space. Advancements challenged how consumers interact
with and think about technology, and millions of individuals took to their closest computer to
discuss innovation in this sphere.
However, alongside fascinating advancements, 2016 saw disappointing sales across the board
in consumer electronics. From virtual-reality headsets to smart-watches, the demand for
wearable technology was underwhelming. Additionally, despite excitement about IoT
To continue growth in traditional tech categories, companies need to use consumer
intelligence to guide development in addressing customer issues.
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In order to ignite growth in new product markets, it’s essential to ensure that products
are not only exciting, but also capable of being integrated into current lives.
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technology, devices like smart-home thermostats and appliances have not successfully proven
their value for their cost.
This wasn’t just an artifact of newer technology not gaining market traction. In 2016, despite
new products being released among the biggest tech companies, nearly every geographical
market saw a drop year-over-year in consumers planning to purchase smartphones, tablets,
computers, and televisions.
This disparity occurs because novelty does not neatly map onto innovation. The average
electronics consumer is than ever before. Innovation for the sake of novelty
might wow people at an electronics convention or increase the buzz around a brand. However,
new products are no longer enough to get consumers to invest in new devices.
So, when does innovation become ‘disruptive’? According to research, the most important
trend to direct consumer tech investment in 2017 will be the increased focus on customer-
inspired innovation. Companies throughout every industry are devoting more resources on
research in consumer intelligence and customer experience. This same shift towards
customer-centrism will be key in rede ning technology innovation in 2017.
The Importance of Consumer-Driven Innovation
Since the turn of the century, the relationship between innovation and consumer electronics
interest accelerated the sector into a period of unprecedented opportunity. Looking at the
relationship between online conversations around innovative technology and technology
spending expectations, it’s clear that demand for innovation is not likely to diminish.
more tech savvy

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Relationship Between Social Conversations and Spending
Figure 1: Compares 164,447 online conversations collected using Brandwatch Analytics to the Consumer
Technology Association’s monthly Indexes, measuring consumer sentiment toward technology spending.
However, with dozens of companies currently competing to create that disrupting product to
reshapes their sector, the actual value proposed to consumers frequently get lost.
. To continue
growing demand, technology innovation will need to move from focusing on novelty and
towards a foundation in the consumer experience.
For companies, 2017 will undoubtedly see a shift from technology-driven innovation to
innovation driven by consumer needs and preferences. Therefore, research and development
investment must use consumer insights to drive growth in two important areas:
Year-over-
year, customers are becoming less willing to spend on consumer electronics
Technology innovation will need to shift focus from novelty to a
foundation in the consumer experience.
In newer sectors, this means making the value proposition convincing, even if returns on
investment aren’t immediate.
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Moving Innovation in New Tech from Hype to Value
Many new technology sectors introduced and developed in 2016 are destined to mature in the
coming year. Despite slower-than-anticipated growth in for many categories, excitement for
many new technologies remains high for 2017.
An analysis of online conversations suggests that emerging electronics sectors like virtual
reality and smart-home products dominated conversations at the Consumer Electronics Show
in January 2017, outperforming discussion of computers, smartphones, and televisions.
Popular Topics at CES 2017
Figure 2: Analyzed 152,822 conversations about CES 2017 on social media, news sites, forums and blogs
using Brandwatch Analytics. Product categories were segmented using Rules and Categories
functionality in Analytics.
The next step for these sectors is turning discussion into demand. Converting hype into
consumer interest is reliant on a clear perception of its innovation and value, so in 2017,
companies must ensure that their messaging clearly conveys what makes their products
different and valuable.
For traditional technology categories, this means new iterations of products must focus
on improving customer experience and addressing user problems, and moving away
from “newness for newness sake”.
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Online Interest in Virtual Reality
Figure 3: Analyzes 63,109 about virtual reality on social media using Brandwatch Analytics and compares
to data collected from Google Trends from January 1 - December 31, 2016. Positive conversation was
found using Analytics’ sentiment analysis.
Virtual reality could be a sector that experiences market maturation in 2017. Although sales of
VR products have been disappointing, online data suggests that there is still a strong
correlation between when customers are most impressed with VR devices and online interest.
As positive conversations about virtual reality on social media increases, so does search
volume in Google.
Using Consumer Insights to Innovate in Traditional Categories
Traditional electronics categories are ghting an uphill battle- each iteration of features need
to be . Couple this
with a dearth of innovative advertising campaigns, and the
.
Given the increased reluctance of consumers to purchase devices in traditional sectors, a key
to success in these markets ensuring that new products address customer concerns and
improve consumer experiences.
Diving into the online conversations reveals many missed opportunities for technology
innovations. For example, last year saw the commodi cation of both shatterproof and
waterproof phones.
increasingly more innovative in order to convince customers to upgrade
importance for sectors like
smartphones, televisions, and computers to stay innovative becomes obvious

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Discussion of Phone Issues in August
Figure 4: Analyzed 62,090 conversations about phone issues. Conversations were found using
Brandwatch Analytics’ Queries based on boolean operators.
However, despite individuals discussing breaking, shattering, or cracking their screens nearly
30 times more often than getting their phone wet or dropping it in water, more consumer tech
companies introduced waterproof phones by a long margin.
There is simply too much data available for the innovations of the future to ignore customer
experience. If technology R&D teams aren’t using consumer insights to inform their decisions,
millions of conversations about the needs of their customers, the trends of the industry, and
the ideation of “next big thing” will be lost.
Methodology
The social data that powers the charts and gures in the Social Snapshot and Social Insights
reports was derived through enterprise social intelligence software Brandwatch Analytics.
The data is collected through three formats:
Queries: Collect general mentions of consumer technology brands, products, and
conversations online. Based on boolean operators, Brandwatch Queries are speci cally
customized to lter out spam and disambiguate the data, leaving only relevant
conversation. As such, volume estimates remain conservative.
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Generation analyses were run by creating ve author panels: Generation Z, age 13-18; Young
Millennial, age 18-24; Older Millennial, age 25-34; Young Generation X, age 35-44; and Older
Generation X, age 45-54 (as of December 31, 2016). Author panels had sample sizes of 10,000
and were created using Analytics and boolean strings to nd authors self-identifying their age
or generation membership.
In Figure 1, consumer spending expectation data was collected and compared to social data
from the Consumer Technology Association’s monthly ,
estimating customer expectations for buying technology each month. According to the CTA,
“The CTA Consumer Sentiment Indexes represent more than six years of research into cutting-
edge methods for measuring consumer expectations about the future.”
In Figure 2, search interest data was collected and compared to social data from a 12-month
Google Trends search of the topic “virtual reality”. According to Google,
“Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region
and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term.”
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is the world’s leading social intelligence company. The company’s agship
products, Brandwatch Analytics and the Vizia platform, fuel smarter decision making around
the world.
The Brandwatch Analytics platform gathers millions of online conversations every day and
provides users with the tools to analyze them, empowering the world’s most admired brands
and agencies to make insightful, data-driven business decisions. The Vizia platform
distributes visually-engaging insights to the physical places where the action happens.
The Brandwatch platform is used by over 1,200 brands and agencies, including Unilever,
Whirlpool, British Airways, Asos, Walmart and Dell. Brandwatch continues on its impressive
business trajectory, recently named a global leader in enterprise social listening platforms by
the latest reports from several independent research rms. Increasing its worldwide presence,
the company has of ces around the world including Brighton, New York, San Francisco, Berlin,
Stuttgart, Paris and Singapore. Brandwatch. Now You Know.
Twitter Channels: Collect Twitter data based on speci c brands’ accounts. Twitter
Channels tracks @mentions, replies, and retweets directed at selected brands.
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Facebook Channels: Collect Facebook data based on speci c brands’ accounts.
Facebook Channels tracks likes, posts, comments, shares on selected brands’ Facebook
content.
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Index of Consumer Expectations