High Tech PR Is Facing a Sea Change

The IFA fair in Berlin— one of the world's oldest consumer electronics shows — moved into new territory last month by making room for washers, dryers, stoves and other household appliances, alongside the more customary flat-screen TVs, digital video cameras and state-of-the-art mobile phones.

There are a number of good, sensible reasons for this change in the short-term, but the longer-term implications for high tech public relations practitioners are profound.

Today, many retailers (the IFA’s target audience) sell both types of products and many major electronic manufacturers (which underwrite the IFA) make both kinds of devices. What’s more intriguing — and this is what may make a difference ultimately in the practice of high tech PR — hybrids of the two kinds of devices are already in the works (e.g., refrigerators, with built-in LCD televisions, that send you your shopping list by email).

In high tech PR, we’re just beginning to wrap our minds around the concept of mobile marketing to cell phones. What about a future that promises DTF (direct to fridge) marketing?