Schneider Electric calls on pan flute playing llama for IoT campaign

A pan flute playing South American llama is spearheading a new global brand strategy from Schneider Electric, which the company says comes at 'a critical point of transition for the industry in which the business and societal landscape are being transformed by urbanisation, digitisation and industrialisation'.

Schneider Electric says the Life is On strategy is fuelled by its operational intelligence approach to IoT which 'will transform how people and organisations consumer energy, better automate industrial processes and increase the quality of business decisions, while improving their lives'.

The South American llama playing a pan flute is one of two 'hilarious' videos being used to launch the strategy. The other features and electrical engineer who accidentally saves the world from a destructive comet.

The energy management and automation vendor says its approach relies on optimised automation and control, advanced remote management, predictive maintenance, enabling managed services, advanced analytics and generation of actionable information to drive informed decision making in homes, manufacturing facilities, data centers, buildings and cities.

The company says the Life is On brand strategy will show how the company is helping customers take advantage of the shift in the business and societal landscape.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider Electric chairman and chief executive, says the company has invested heavily in innovation, connecting its products and systems through the IoT to its portfolio of software, making energy more distributed and connected.

"We build energy management and automation technologies that ensure Life is On everywhere, for everyone and at every moment," Tricoire says.

Gareth O'Reilly, Schneider Electric Australia and New Zealand zone president, says the IoT is reshaping businesses across industries, with the pace of change increasing and connected products making up an increasing part of the vendor's portfolio.

"Our customers are seeing the benefits of solutions that automate processes while also providing the intelligence to make better business decisions," O'Reilly says.

The vendor has just been elected to the steering committee of the Industrial Internet Consortium, alongside AT-T, Cisco, General Electric, IBM and Intel.

The group aims to develop recommendations for industry specifications and develop frameworks to speed the adoption of industrial IoT technologies.