The consumer tech that agencyland couldn’t live or work without

Let me entertain you

James Calvert, head of generative AI, M&C Saatchi: “My favorite consumer tech is the Kindle. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t demand my attention with endless features, but that’s what makes it brilliant. It takes the timeless act of reading and quietly enhances it. I can conveniently carry an entire library, without extra weight. It doesn’t beep, buzz, or attempt to hold my attention hostage with notifications. It simply lets you do what you want: immerse yourself in a good book. If the Kindle hadn’t been invented, I’d spend more precious time wandering aisles of bookshops (which, to be fair, isn’t the worst thing in the world). Professionally, it’s been indispensable – access to vast knowledge, anywhere, anytime, is like rocket fuel for a curious strategist.”

Jayme Maultasch, MD client growth, innovation + partnerships, DNY: “My Beats Fit Pros are my favorite piece of consumer tech. Much of my gear is role-specific: for work, for play, for outside etc. My Beats headphones transcend all that and are physically with me every moment I am awake and on my ears throughout the day. I find them freeing – sometimes they block noise so I can multi-task and eavesdrop on my kids playing while leading a conference call. Often, they help me check out from the world and meditate during a long run or a dog walk. They keep me informed with podcasts and playlists from my oldest! Life without them would be strange – something about the form factor helps me to listen to more sources than ever before. I’d also be way less fit – their quality lets me MOVE and WORK; almost all of my one-on-ones with my boss, our CEO Val DiFebo occur on a dog walk and that just couldn’t work without perfect sound.”

Bas Korsten, global CCO innovation, VML: “It has to be my Apple AirPods Max headphones. The first product in a long time to supersede expectations in a major way. I travel quite a bit for work and even though the monotonous airplane noise is something you get used to quite quickly, nothing prepares for the complete lack of any of that noise when wearing these headphones. It’s like there is no plane, no fellow travelers, no crying babies with sensitive eardrums. There is nothing but the sound that you have chosen to hear. Oh, and the occasional message from the captain, because it knows that it is important that you hear those. Despite having overpriced, sketchy wifi on most flights, the plane is still one of the few locations where you can disconnect. And where you can truly focus and think. Now, if that’s important to you and it’s something you like, I’d invest in a pair of these headphones.”

Thomas Reynolds, associate creative director, BBH London: “Without my R1 I might still be stuck trying to totally ‘digitize’ my entire world experience. From listening to vinyl to taking trips to the cinema to meetings to sketching or writing down ideas with a pencil and paper, my creative acts usually deliver more interesting results when completed through the physical. Maybe it’s because I prefer to ‘feel’ things out or perhaps it’s something hard-wired into my brain since I grew up during the transition to everyone using computers in their day-to-day lives. That’s what Teenage Engineering products represent for me, anyhow. Everything they release is a design classic too.”

Matthew Ward, senior creative technology lead, Instrument: “As a kid, I recorded (bad) one-take emo songs on a $10 tape recorder from Goodwill – pure, unfiltered creativity. Later, I dove into complex music software, offering endless possibilities but often ending in choice paralysis. Then my friend let me borrow his Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer. It brought me back to that childlike simplicity but with modern capabilities. I bought one immediately. The OP-1’s philosophy of constraints has bled into my work as a Creative Technologist. It taught me to focus on the core idea, embracing a ‘good enough’ approach in the early stages. Now, I create rapid UX prototypes that convey concepts clearly without getting bogged down in the refinements that should come later. The OP-1 reminded me that creativity thrives within constraints. It’s taught me that sometimes, less really is more.”

Raphaël Smith, design lead, Shape History: “At the moment, my favorite piece of tech would be my Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones. Yes, that’s actually what they’re called and yes, Sony has a hard time naming their products. Of course, they’re great for listening to music, but I particularly value them for the ANC (active noise canceling) feature, which will wrap you in a mellow sonic cocoon and reliably shield you from most ambient disturbances (in-flight noise, traffic, upstairs neighbors, commuters etc). They allow me to focus and work in environments that I’d normally find too distracting, but also relax at home, and make travel a little less daunting. Had they not been invented, I’d find it much harder to go places and stay in high-stimulation environments for any amount of time.”

Lizelle Galaz Estrella, strategy director, Instrument: “The Amazon Kindle is one of the greatest inventions of this generation. I got my love of reading from my grandfather, and as beautiful and aspirational as his library is, the ability to buy books that don’t take up shelf space feels like a tiny miracle. At a time when every device we own tries to do everything, the Kindle stands out due to its singular focus on making reading easier everywhere. As someone who works in product and experience design, I appreciate how every feature has been fine-tuned generation after generation – from the screen to ridiculously lasting battery life and easy integrations with public libraries. Had it not been invented, of course, there would still be printed books, but it would be tedious and nearly impossible to keep a reading stack that can feed into my work and keep me entertained on long flights.”

Jeremy Whitt, executive media director, Hanson Dodge: “My AirPod Pros (wireless earbuds in general), for several reasons. For travel, since I’m a light packer, having noise cancelation that fits in my pocket has been a game changer. In a hybrid world, I have the ability to focus both in the office and my shared home workspace, while jumping between mobile and laptop devices relatively seamlessly. If they hadn’t been invented, I’d get by, but I’d have a series of wired earbuds or over-ear headphones for different devices and tasks. I’d forget them at the office or home, and who likes juggling another cable while sitting in coach?”

Food for thought

Chelsea Noronha, strategist, SocialChain: “Air fryer, no contest. I’m constantly asking myself, ‘What would this taste like if I air-fried it?’ Spoiler: it’s always delicious because I’m pretty sure this tech could make even cardboard taste gourmet. If air fryers were never invented, I’d be trapped in a sad, endless cycle of ‘15-minute, 5-ingredient dinner’ TikToks and chained to my kitchen sink for hours after.”

Adrienn Major, Founder, POD LDN: “I’m completely obsessed with coffee machines and couldn’t live without them. I own quite a few different models: from a traditional filter drip machine, to a cafetière and a Nespresso maker. My latest one is a Sage Barista Touch bean-to-cup machine, and the freshly ground beans make such a big difference to the experience. I love the smell, and it also has a whole range of settings – you can change the grind size and time, the brewing time, how much froth you want in your milk. And yes, it’s expensive but it’s far cheaper than buying pods, or spending five pounds a day on takeaway coffee. Coffee is such a treat for me. I’ve even managed to convert my fiancé from drinking instant: when we first met he couldn’t believe I spent £300 on a Nespresso machine, but then he ended up buying one a week later.”

On the job

Barney Worfolk-Smith, from Daivid: “Once upon a time, my presentations were drier than a Marketing Week thought piece. Then, I got my remote clicker with built-in laser pointer. Now, I’m like TED incarnate, stalking the far reaches of any presentation space, flicking slides back and forth, willy nilly, laser pointing the bejesus out of my decks. In lockdown, I showed it to my lad and he lost his shit. We only use laser clicker now. It is the way. Frankly, a life without clicker/laser pointer, personally or professionally is not worth living.”

Josh Golden, chief marketing officer, Quad: “My favorite consumer tech item, which I use and trust every day, is called a Synology Server. Basically, it’s a bunch of very big hard drives with a digital ‘brain’ that sits on top of all that history and organizes and protects it all. Once everything has been loaded into the system, it makes a local digital copy and sends another copy to the cloud to be backed up again. This tech is so important to me because I am a historian at heart, and I love to trace work from the very beginning to its conclusion and keep cherished photos and videos of the people I love throughout their lives. This backup system not only protects my professional intellectual property but also backs up the most important moments of my life as well, preserving my history and my family’s history in perpetuity.”

Emma Thompson, head of agency, Golley Slater: “Electronic personal assistant and banker, pocket entertainer, and communication device… What is that? Oh yeah, it’s a smartphone. Well, it may not be the best creative tech answer, but seriously my smartphone is my ‘can’t live without’; not nice to have. Imagine having to remember all your login passwords, open a computer to check your diary and mail, or boot up a console or TV to play a video game or watch Netflix? Ugh nope, so defo smartphone is my fave.”

Michael Phillips, head of communications, Havas Media Network UK: “Surely the internet is the most significant. It’s allowed the creation and integration of a plethora of things into our lives, including our smartphones and everything that comes with it – from social media apps right through to accessing information, how we work, play, and even navigate. The consequence of this technology is we’re more connected and independent than ever before – we can meet up easily, stay connected globally and navigate cities without needing anyone. Yet paradoxically we’re more disconnected and (inter-)dependent than ever – isolation is rife despite the ease with which we can connect today and imagine trying to meet up without the internet; doable, but a challenge. The internet and all that it’s created is a fully integrated extension of ourselves now and it’s hard to see how to disentangle from it if ever we were to choose to do so. In fact, so important is it, that the UN declared the internet – a piece of consumer tech – a human right in 2016, placing it on par with water, security, food, health and so forth.”

Louie Wood, mid-weight copywriter, Waste Creative: “The following may contain mistakes for which this human is liable. Thank god for AI - or is AI god? Either way, how could we live without it? We have ChatGPT, penning thousands of poems about overstretched colleagues every minute. People without a 5er can now get a logo for their new crypto business. How many more millions of years would it have taken artists to realize Jesus’s true form? Shrimp Jesus. It plays dumb sometimes, giving us entirely wrong information to massage our egos and make us think that we’re still the no.1 threat to our planet’s extinction. AI is the most important technological achievement of our time, and only a monkey-brained fool would argue otherwise.”

A happy home

Cliff Englert, VP of partnerships, TigerLily: “My favorite consumer tech is my Google Nest Doorbell. It provides both entertainment and utility – cherished clips of my kids being meme-worthy AND clips to prove my car was taken out by a delivery truck!”

Yann Caloghiris, ECD, Left Field Labs: “Growing up as a latchkey kid, my set of keys was a symbol of independence, but it came with risks – stories of stolen keys leading to break-ins were all too common. Fast forward to today, and my favorite piece of consumer tech is the smart home system, complete with keypad door locks, cameras, and AI-driven automations. It’s the ultimate solution to the old key conundrum. Now, when I leave the house, the alarm arms itself, the thermostat adjusts, and the lights play tricks on potential intruders. Different people get different levels of access, and when packages arrive, my smart doorbell recognizes the box and alerts me. But imagine if none of this existed. I’d still be juggling keys, relying on neighbors to watch over things, and facing the occasional panic of lost keys. Our family life would be less flexible and feel less secure. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have experienced the frustration of the Nth software update or a piece of hardware getting deprecated, making it impossible to turn the alarm off (this actually happened.)”

Carly Nyman, digital strategist, Brandwidth: “At first, I was hesitant to invest in another needless piece of consumer tech, but now I cannot imagine life without my Roomba. My reliable robot vacuum works tirelessly to keep my floors clean, following an automatic schedule 5 times a week with no complaints. Living in a small space with a pet and working from home, I was vacuuming constantly, only to find more to clean. Now, I can focus on other things while the Roomba zips around, picking up dust, crumbs, and dog hair. I appreciate how autonomous it is - navigating around obstacles and returning to the charging station when it’s done. Without it, I’d have to go back to manually cleaning, which would mean sacrificing time almost every day to vacuum and my apartment wouldn’t feel as clean. My Roomba is not just a convenient or entertaining device, it gives me time back in my day to do more important tasks or simply relax.”

Fred Schank, SVP of Brand Experience, TMA: “My favorite piece of consumer tech is the smart home because of its ability to seamlessly automate daily tasks, from adjusting the thermostat to managing lights and security. It’s the convenience of living in a home that adapts to my needs and preferences, offering both efficiency and comfort. One of the most basic – and yet, one of the most impactful devices in this system is the smart switch. It enables control of lights and fans throughout the house automatically. Without this ecosystem of technology, my life would be less streamlined, and I wouldn’t have the same level of focus on my family, recreation, and professional endeavors. My smart home inspires me professionally, and I often get ideas from living in an environment where technology effortlessly integrates with daily life.”

Stuart Rentzler, creative technology lead/AI concepts & products, Barbarian: “The LED/LCD screen, whether in my laptop or connected to my portable MSI Claw for gaming and work on the go, thin screens are a true game-changer in life. Imagine how heavy life would be if we had to lug around laptops with glass monitors – like a brightly colored 1999 iMac modded with colorful iWheels shoved on it along with an extending telescoping trolley handle so we could roll our Macs back and forth to work!! My home set up on a drafting table would be swallowed up by a massive boxy and beige cathode tube monitor, with a glass monitor inches from my face, leaving my keyboard teetering on the edge, ready to plunge to the floor with the next powerful keystroke. And if monitors were never invented? TikTok would be reduced to hand-drawn sketches of crazy stunts, faxed to your mobile phone and printed out in one long, scrolling sheet!”

Healthy body & mind

Mike Caguin, chief creative officer, Betty: “As a dad bod-ing workout type, I cannot live without my Garmin watch and app. As a triathlete, it not only helps track the finite (and sometimes humbling) details of my runs, bikes and swims. It keeps me going with monthly goals that come in the form of digital badges. And who doesn’t love a good pixel participation trophy? In all seriousness, exercise and the tracking of such is critically important to my productivity and my mental health at work and beyond. So, if Garmin ever needs an average athlete to pump up their brand they needn’t look any further.”

Patrick Tomasiewicz, SVP strategy director at Le Truc: “I’m a sucker for new tech, probably to a fault. My wife (lovingly) keeps a list of “Patrick’s gadgets that didn’t work,” and currently there are 43! But THE tech I could not live without has to be a fitness tracker, specifically my WHOOP band. I can barely tell it’s always there, yet it miraculously knows what’s happening inside my body better than I ever could. I love that it doesn’t have a screen, so it can’t distract or guilt-trip me. The feedback is simple and actionable. Sometimes, when I feel tired and open the app I’m surprised with “You’re ready for anything today!” which is a nice mental boost. Without my WHOOP I’d probably… sleep less, drink more, and exercise even less than I do now. My doctor and internal organs are all happy WHOOP exists.”