ISSUE #02
__Summer 2015
H & M : # H M LOV E S M U S I C PALLADIUM: DELIVERING A BRANDED MESSAGE R I V E R I S L A N D : H OW L I V E M U S I C C A N E N H A N C E T H E R E TA I L J O U R N E Y
HatchIssue02
The Gap Between
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TO LEARN MORE CONTACT IAN IRVING ian@breedcommunications.com @MrIanIrving
Sea Containers House 22 Upper Ground London SE1 9PD T. +44(0)203 695 6957 www.breedcommunications.com @breed_creative
P H OT O B Y. K A L E B N I M Z - 5 -
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Handmade in Mallorca WWW.MONGESTUDIO.COM
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TEAM Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Ian Irving - 0203 695 6957 ian@breedcommunications.com @MrIanIrving
Editor
Chris Henry - 0203 695 6956 chris@breedcommunications.com @chrishenry23
Art Direction & Design
Paul Boulding & Daisy Boulding
Words
Ian Irving, Chris Henry, Brian Boakes, Tom Scott, Sam Blackmore
Contributions from:
Esther Kho (CloudTags), Graham Halling (VMob), Darren Jarvis (SMP Group), Francesca Nicasio (VEND), James Perry (LocoSo), Jennifer Spragg (Whirlpool), Daniel Levy (Streetlike), Andy Vale (SocialBro), Xavier Escales Estruch (ASICS & Onitsuka Tiger)
Photography & Video: Daisy Boulding & KASH
Printed by our parent company: SMP Group
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__ C O N T E N T S
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12-13 16-17 18-19 22-23 24-27 28-29 30-33 36-37 40-41 44-45 48-49 53-53 54-55 60-61 62-63 68-69 72-73 78-79 80-81 84-85 88-89 94-95
Editor’s Notes Welcome to HATCH From POS to POP Giving them what they want: Today’s Customer Three technologies that are revolutionising Bricks-and-Mortar Retail Data Debate: How Retailers can leverage data effectively The Gap of Experience: Losing users in the Experiential Journey Creating Connected Stores Sharing the Gap Going all the way: The growing challenge of shopping basket abandonment The Experience Economy HATCH LIVE Reward Programmes and The Gap Between A Beacon of Hope On the Go: Mobile in Retail Mind the Gap Tweet to Till: Shortening the buyer’s journey with Twitter The Path to Purchase battle Retail Reward: How brand loyalty is changing the retail experience #AlwaysPeopleFirst The Social Consumer and You: Using live to kick start Social Media strategies Next Generation Retail: The Future is Now
Campaigns in Focus: 3 8 - 3 9 #HMLOVESMUSIC 5 0 - 5 1 #MUMINAMILLION 56-57 64-65
Palladium: Delivering a branded message to a social audience River Island: How live music can enhance the retail journey
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EDITOR’S NOTES
I A N I RV I N G
WELL, H ERE WE ARE ISSUE #2! AS CON FI DENT AS WE WERE THAT ISSUE #1 WOULD BE I NTERESTI NG AN D WELL RECEIVED, WE N EVER FOR ON E MOM ENT EXPECTED TH E REACTION TO BE SO POSITIVE. The E-zine was downloaded over 3,000 times and this mixed with the positive response through social media has driven our decision to print #2, and here we are an issue packed with insight, solutions and examples of successful campaigns from brands such as H&M, Whirlpool and Tesco. We have interesting articles relating to social, e-commerce, mobile marketing and beacon technology from some of the market’s leading innovators and suppliers, such as Vend, SocialBro, CloudTags and new kid on the block LocoSo. We also have some interesting views on Point of Purchase from our parent company SMP Group. We also have coverage from our hugely successful ‘Hatch Live’. An evening of insight, education, demonstration and discussion that left people going away inspired and excited to share their learning with others, the inaugural HATCH LIVE was a tremendous success that captured the imagination of its 170 plus strong audience and perfectly encapsulated an immersive ‘think-tank’ retail environment, our editor Chris Henry is going to give you the full lowdown on this hugely successful event later in this issue, be sure to check out the photos and videos from the event but from my part all is left to say is a huge thank you to everyone who has supported this initiative, thank you to Melissa Noakes of Sony, Kyra Oates of Benefit, Jennifer Spragg at Whirlpool, our friends at KASH, the team at CreateLondon, SMP Group, Esther Kho at and a special shout out to our event producers Cathy Harper, Sam Blackmore, Carly Holland, our amazing designer Daisy ‘Mai’ Boulding and last but not least our editor and organizer Chris Henry.
Watch this space for news of the next Hatch live event.
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We are CreateLondon, we support the Marketing, Events and PR industry. We’re a team of highly experienced event producers who create engaging experiences through technologies that merge the online and off-line worlds in today’s social economy. We provide innovative tools that allow a live experience to be broadcast online through organic brand and consumer co-creation. We embrace user generated content. Social Media Powered Vending Machines Twitter & Instagram Printers Photobooths Mobile Studio Live Branded Video to Facebook Photography with Live Content Uploads 3D Print Booth
CreateLondon South Bank 22 Upper Ground SE1 Tel: 0203 289 1120 - Mob: 07800790253 Twitter: createlondon - www.createlondon.co.uk - E-mail: info@createlondon.co.uk A Breed Communications partner - 14 -
YOUTUBE H IGHEST VISITATION RATE – 85% OF ON LI N E USERS VISIT EACH MONTH 6 BI LLION HOURS OF VI DEO WATCH ED EACH MONTH 100 HOURS OF VI DEO UPLOADED EACH M I N UTE - 15 -
HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE SECOND EDITION OF HATCH MAGAZINE. It seems like only yesterday we released the first edition of HATCH as a digital release back in January. Since then we’ve gone on a huge journey that has taken us to this exciting point of time. From releasing the first edition of HATCH that explored the new world of retail in 2015, we’ve seen the magazine receive great feedback as well as over 3,000 downloads. The success of the first issue led us to launch the inaugural HATCH Live – an evening of discussion and demonstration that proved to be an immersive experience for all involved.
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Attended by a host of technologists, influencers, experts and brands, the evening’s conversations focused on a topic that has reared its head in this, the new world of retail; The Gap Between. Where we’ve seen the world of retail change quite dramatically, so to has the customer. As a result we’ve seen gaps occur in the shopper journey and brands have struggled to retain their customers long term, seeing them go elsewhere, be it in the digital or physical space, thus making their experience slightly disjoined and disconnected. This has ultimately shaken the world of marketing with brands constantly looking to embrace new methods and processes in their continued efforts to inspire new levels of fandom that hit home on a more individual and personal level as opposed to a mass one. To steal a phrase from one of our good friends and speakers from HATCH Live, Thom Shardlow of Visual Voice: “Where we used to have to shout from the rooftops to get our messaging across, we now have the opportunity to whisper in people’s ears”. Today, those words couldn’t be truer. Consumers are now the driving force for today’s retail experiences and it is their aspirations and desires, not just as shoppers but also as people, which are tearing up the
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rulebook and forcing brands to rethink their approach. HATCH LIVE was a tremendous success and shed new light on this growing issue, and provided valuable insight on how retailers can combat this gap and win the customer battle on all fronts. In this issue, you’ll read more about the discussions that took place on the evening. With contributions from a host of retail specialists such as CloudTags, VEND, VMob, SocialBro and Streetlike, as well as contributions from brands the likes of Whirlpool and Asics & Onitsuka Tiger, who are also running a great prize giveaway exclusive to the magazine. We’ve left no stone unturned and we’re certain after reading this issue, you’ll go away more informed about the Gap Between and how you can fill that gap in. All that’s left to say is, read on and enjoy! Chris Henry EDITOR
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FROM POS TO POP WORDS: IAN IRVING B R E E D ST R AT E G Y D I R E C TO R
There is little or no doubt that today’s audiences are at home in, and entranced by the digital retail world. Today’s audiences shop in very different ways to even as little as 5 years ago, they use social media for insight and affirmation, they interact with fashion in real-time, and curate their own lifestyle portfolios with product selections and product bookmarking. But, don’t give up on the physical retail experience just yet: it’s proven that the physical interaction with product and brand is still just as important. The real challenge is brands keeping the consumer engaged throughout the purchase journey and not letting them slip away in The Gap Between. The rise in social media as a tool to shop is a new digital revolution and is gaining real traction and momentum. There was much hype around social shopping – so called F-Commerce – but to be honest this didn’t quite hit the mark. What we see now however in the advent of the Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram have instigated a new wave of social commerce. Using these platforms, audiences are now curating their own online spaces and galleries that are effectively shop windows for products that demonstrate their personal tastes and styles amongst friends and peers. It is stated that almost two thirds (62%) of audiences admit to being inspired to buy a product after seeing it on social media platforms and it might or might not be a surprise that this rises to seven out of ten (72%) just amongst women. Interactive technologies are more than ever playing a part in the consumer journey and major brands like H&M, Burberry and ASOS have been investing in interactive media to engage its customers.The trend for mixing social media with product selection can be seen in the live retail environment as well, many brands are integrating live streaming, Twitter and Instagram applications to ensure that their consumer interaction with the brand is as engaging and shareable as possible. Breed has created the mantra of Create. Capture. Share. as a response to these interesting developments in consumer engagement, Create: Brands need to create to survive. Today’s consumers are harder to inspire so you need to stand out from the crowd. Capture: Brands need to capture. A live experience is a single moment in time and you need to ensure that your live campaigns live beyond that moment. Share: We live in an ‘always on’ society where our use of social media applications and mobile devices means brands can deliver experience beyond the live moment direct to the public at any time. As you’ll see later on in the magazine, H&M are putting considerable investment in the creating, capturing and sharing of content in collaboration with their customers. We recently worked with the brand to support the long running #HMLOVES campaign which has proven a huge success for the brand.
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GIVI NG TH EM W H A T T H E Y WA N T : T O DAY ’ S C U S T O M E R WORDS: CHRIS HENRY
2015 is holding a variety of both opportunities and obstacles for retailers. The change in customer’s shopping habits is giving brands license to adapt their in-store experiences to meet consumer expectation in exciting and innovative ways that captures the imagination of shoppers. Digital is only enhancing the bricks and mortar experience but despite footfall figures showing no sign of decline, there still lays ahead a challenge to ensure the whole customer journey is joined up and complete from start to finish. The shopper journey is now very much steered by the consumer and the retailer must appease their navigational preferences to help them reach the sacred point of purchase and make certain engagement to purchase is achieved with ease and there is no room allowed for consumers to be veered off their objective. The point of purchase can no longer be defined as merely a visual and transactional element of the retail experience – it is now an arena to where many other factors are vying for the consumer’s attention and aiming to take them away from their original goals.
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As the year goes on, we will continue to see a mega shift in shopping behaviour and the expectation and demand of shoppers in general, will only grow. Looking at what will be the dominating factor in the retail experience, it will unanimously come down to one sole thing, the customer. Where factors such as mobile and wearable tech will of course have some role to play, what will be driving their usage and uptake is the shopper and what they want from a retail experience. Looking at the customer of 2015, expect retailers to satisfy shopper’s ability to browse, select, save and spend in a more streamlined fashion via connected devices, and what will be imperative in their focus is the importance of ease, security and convenience for a customer. This need for technology to be used as an interface for the in-store experience be it navigation, purchase or both, is something that has evolved thanks to the modern savvy consumer and the growing need to integrate digital
into today’s in-store experience. Brands are listening to this need and we are witnessing this with the blending of technology into an in-store retail environment and naturally, customers are choosing the retailers who enable this and are as a result adapting their habits in a seamless fashion. Retailers that continue to be customer centric in their approach and give them what they want will reap the rewards in 2015.
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THREE TECHNOLOGIES
THAT ARE REVOLUTIONISING BRICKS-AND-MORTAR RETAIL WORDS: FRANCESCA NICASIO, R E T A I L E X P E R T F R O M V E N D
Pay no attention to claims that bricks-and-mortar retail is dead, because not only are physical stores alive and well, a lot of them are actually thriving.
provide personalised, engaging and compelling experiences to shoppers. In addition, evolved retailers are more connected and can often link to mobile and ecommerce sites, enabling them to connect with customers no matter where they are in the shopping journey.
More than 90% of all retail sales still take place offline, and in recent years many online-only retailers such as Amazon, Rapha and Orlebar Brown have opened physical stores as well – and with great results. Since opening its first store in San Francisco in 2011, seven years into its online retail business, Rapha has expanded to branches in London, Osaka, New York and Sydney.
Many of the successful bricks-and-mortar retailers we see today fall under the ‘evolved’ category. And needless to say, it’s also this type of store that will continue to thrive in the future.
These are all clear indicators that physical retail is still going strong. But before we all start celebrating, we first need to establish the distinction between traditional and evolved bricks-and-mortar shops.
If your bricks-and-mortar store is still on the ‘traditional’ side of the fence, fret not. Making the transition from traditional to evolved is completely doable. Merchants who want to follow in these evolved retailer’s footsteps can do so by implementing the right tools and strategies in their stores.
The former pertains to stores that don’t do much except sell products. Shoppers walk in; find the items they need (and maybe engage with the associate) then leave. Evolved stores offer so much more than just somewhere to buy what you need. These stores make use of technology and train staff to
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Here I’ll shed light on some of these tools and offer examples of how other stores are using them. Have a look and see if you can implement them in your business: 1. Mobile POS Far more efficient and functional than traditional cash registers, mobile point-ofsale (POS) systems give retailers the freedom and flexibility to make a sale from anywhere in the store, or even on the go. They enable merchants to speed up the Checkout processes, reduce bottlenecks in the store, and sell in dynamic environments such as pop-up shops or at events. Consider what Etsy did last year. In December, the online marketplace decided to host a pop-up store called Etsy House in London’s Covent Garden. The pop-up, which ran for three days, showcased some of the top products from Etsy sellers in the UK. Etsy House used Vend for its POS system, which allowed them to open the store, take thousands of payments, manage inventory, engage with customers and get all of their reporting in just one week. “We wanted people to be able to come in, browse the space, and not feel like they had to move to one location to pay, and it allows our staffers to take credit cards and e-receipts,” said Jonathan Zatland, multi-channel manager at Etsy.com. “With Vend we’ve been able to provide, I believe, a very slick customer experience.” 2. Beacons Powered by BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology, beacons are devices that can transmit messages to other Bluetooth-enabled gizmos such as smartphones, tablets and smart-watches. More importantly, beacons have the capability to ‘recognise’ devices based on their location or previous interactions, enabling retailers to send tailored notifications to shoppers depending on their purchase history or their location in the store. One example of a retailer implementing the technology is House of Fraser, which rolled out beacon-enabled mannequins at its store in Aberdeen. Customers who download the accompanying app will be able to receive alerts when they’re within 50 metres of a mannequin; they could receive information about what it’s wearing, special offers, or details on how to purchase the items online or in-store. 3. RFID Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags offer a more modern solution to inventory management and retail security. With RFID, product information is stored in a chip that’s embedded in the item’s tag or packaging, and it enables retailers to track merchandise in real time, using their inventory system or a handheld device. RFID makes it easier for retailers to locate items in their stores or warehouses, and it allows them to count merchandise more quickly, reduce out-of-stocks and have greater inventory visibility across their entire operation. RFID also helps retailers ensure that each item is in the right place at the right time, so they no longer have to hunt down products when they (or customers) can’t find the right colour or size on the shelves.
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MARKS & SPENCER IS ON E OF TH E LARGEST RETAI LERS TO EM BRACE TH E TECH NOLOGY. I N 2014, M&S SET OUT TO ACH I EVE 100% RFI D ADOPTION ACROSS ITS APPAREL AN D GEN ERAL M ERCHAN DISE ITEMS, AN D TH IS YEAR TH EY WI LL BE ROLLI NG OUT TH E TECH NOLOGY TH ROUGHOUT COSM ETICS AN D BEAUTY PRODUCTS. According to RFID24-7.com, M&S’s RFID initiatives have reduced out-of-stocks by 40% and have enabled the retailer ‘to take store inventory up to 10 times faster than with traditional barcode scanners’. Technology, while powerful, is not a silver bullet. Can the above-mentioned tools transform retail stores? Yes, but only to a certain extent. It’s important to note that technology, while powerful, can only take you so far. Technology is a tool and not an ultimate solution, so if you’re looking to adopt new systems in your stores, you must first do your research to determine which tools are right for you. Talk to your customers. Figure out their needs, map their shopping journeys and then find tools that will make those journeys easier and more interesting. See to it that you adopt solutions not just because they bring the ‘cool factor’, but because they address real consumer needs and pain points. The key is to implement tools that would enable customers to get their hands on the products they need in the most convenient way possible. Because at the end of the day, isn’t that what retail is really about? About the author: Francesca Nicasio is a retail expert from Vend, a point-of-sale, inventory, and customer loyalty software that helps over 15,000 retailers manage and grow their businesses. She’s the author of “Retail Survival of the Fittest: 7 Ways to Future-Proof Your Retail Store,” a practical guide to modern-day retail success.
WORDS: FRANCESCA NICASIO, R E TA I L E X P E RT F R O M V E N D
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THREE TECHNOLOGIES
THAT ARE REVOLUTIONISING BRICKS-AND-MORTAR RETAIL
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DATA DEBATE: HOW RETAILERS CAN LEVERAGE DATA EFFECTIVELY WORDS: BRIAN BOAKES MANAGING DIRECTOR, BREED
We’ve seen continual investment in data by retailers as they aim to produce experiences that are tailored more to their consumers on an individualistic need. And with data becoming increasingly granular and specific, retailers know they must treat every customer like the last and give them, the consumer, what they desire the most, or risk losing them in the shopper journey. Online retailer Amazon is the clear and obvious example of an organisation leveraging data most efficiently, with the e-commerce site operating in an almost anticipatory manner and guiding the consumer through a tailored online experience based on their shopping habits and preferences. Arguments have surfaced over the intrusive element of this type of activity with users, for instance, seeing personalised adverts based on their viewing history pop-up on their social networks as something of a nuisance. However research continues to prove that the collection and leverage of data both online and offline, is still something consumers are happy to co-operate with as long as the issue of trust is adhered to accordingly by retailers. The key factors to consider for retailers when speaking of data are transparency, relevancy and value. Loyalty schemes for instance still have tremendous value in them but there needs to be a huge effort and focus on the retailer’s behalf to ensure what they are offering the customer is of great value and fits seamlessly into their lifestyle and habits. Rewarding the customer means everything today and if there is any indication that data is becoming misused, the shopper will look elsewhere. Brands today need to be trustworthy and this starts with proving to the customer that the data they are collecting is being used effectively. Brands need to ensure their usage of data is strategised well and any communications to their customers are executed in a timely and suitable fashion. If brands become too frequent and unpredictable in their messaging approach, consumer resentment grows and brand trust diminishes. Retailers do in some ways need to be always there for their consumers, but in a way that is subtler and suggests to the shopper “We’re there when you need us”. Achieve this and retailers will see their customers pay attention for the right reasons and stay loyal to them.
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THE
G
EXPERI ENCE
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AP OF
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LOS I NG US E R S I N
TH E EXPERI ENTIAL JOURN EY WORDS: IAN IRVING ST R AT E G Y D I R E C TO R , B R E E D
Whether you’ve got over a thousand followers, are an allstar on LinkedIn, or your latest Facebook update got over 50 likes – that does not necessarily make you a social media star that understands social and knows how to engage people through its use on a wider scale. Social is not as simple as it seems and the path to mass engagement via a campaign that embraces social media is one paved with difficulty, and like retail, its ever changing environment is being driven by evolving consumer (or follower) expectation. When brands set out to channel the power of social and produce a campaign that gets their followers talking, they need to incentivize the call to action on the consumer’s behalf. A campaign that aims to amplify social messaging needs to have a purpose and an end reward for the user that gives them a reason to be a part of it and make them want to be part of that brand’s story. We see many social campaigns nowadays usually encourage social media participation by way of ‘freebie’ giveaways, e.g. follow us, retweet and use the hash-tag to get a free gift or some sort of goods.
This all seems well and good (and quite simple) going down this route, but if brands believe this is the way forward for truly memorable campaigns that fully embrace social and increase user engagement to new heightened levels, there may be a level of naiveté to their thinking. We must remember that for all the good social has done in the world of marketing, its onset has had an effect on human nature with consumers now more impatient than ever. Using a hash-tag can be a great way to aggregate and deliver consumer messaging in a social campaign, but the hard work doesn’t stop there. Brands need to think about the end result and what the long-term goal of their campaign is. As mentioned before, human behaviour both offline and online has changed thanks to social. We are aware also that consumer behaviour has changed drastically thanks to social and other contributing factors like technology for instance. Taking this into account, we can view the road to social user engagement or activation in the same way as we view the consumer journey from point of purchase to completion. Brands want social to live beyond the moment for them and there needs to be engagement beyond the hash-tag much like there needs to be engagement beyond the point of purchase in a retail environment. If brands neglect certain steps of the social journey there will come a point where the user will disengage and take their business elsewhere.
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I was one of those users who was disengaged with an experiential campaign that didn’t quite pay specific attention to every step of my social customer journey. A confectionary brand had taken some space in an iconic part of London that had great footfall. Placing branded vehicles around the space, passers by were invited to take a picture and share it on Twitter with a specific hash-tag. The reward for all this work would be free goods. Simple enough hey? Wrong! From taking the picture and sharing it socially with the specific hash-tag, It was then tweeted back with a link where I was asked to enter my details – name, e-mail, etc. Once that was done, I played the waiting game. Many hours later, I was finally sent an e-mail that asked me to enter these details again and only then was I taken to a link that asked me to print out a voucher to claim my free goods. There was no sense of instant gratification from this process. The end result for me seemed to be the voucher, of which I would have to go to a specific store to claim my prize. Let’s also not forget I had to print this voucher that only added a further step to the journey. In this instance, I also had some technical trouble with opening the voucher online.
From my initial point of engagement with this campaign to the end goal, much time had passed to where I was now no longer interested in claiming my free goods as other things had peaked my interest elsewhere. Perhaps a few years ago I may have been slightly more patient but the immediacy of the internet and the always switched on environment we now live in, has changed my interactions with everyday things. Adding to this, there was also an experiential team of 20 plus deployed in the space whose value to the campaign was little due to none of them really doing anything to help the messaging be complete. This particular brand had failed in retaining me beyond the point of engagement as they had over complicated the process to what was actually a great way to utilise social media. If brands are looking towards building long-term customer loyalty through social, they need to simplify and ensure that a great idea does not get lost amongst the detail. Social users interacting with brands today do not engage with the small details and are only interested in the final reward, the pay-off. Make the road to that far more seamless and only then will brands see better results with social engagement.
BRAN DS WANT SOCIAL TO “LIVE BEYON D TH E MOM ENT AN D TH ERE NEEDS TO BE ENGAGEM ENT BEYON D TH E
#HASH-TAG”
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FOC
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CUS
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___Creating Connected Stores Wo rd s : E s t h e r K h o AC C O U N T D I R E C TO R AT C LO U DTAG S
Over 80% of customers walk into a retailer’s store, browse, and leave without purchasing. How are retailers using digital technology to capture who these customers are and what they’re looking at? As technologies and possibilities in online advertising and e-commerce advance, retailers are constantly on the lookout for solutions to keep their brick-and-mortar stores engaging and relevant places to capture customers. Previously, customers only had physical stores to visit in order to see a retailer’s product range, but browsing and purchasing online is now easier than ever. From a showcasing point of view, websites are unlimited by physical space, eliminating the need for retailers to consider immediately accessible inventory space or to cram a showroom with products just to show the full range to customers.
Nonetheless, the majority of big-ticket items - such as furniture or luxury apparel - are still purchased in-store, as customers view in-store service as part of the holistic experience of larger purchases. The retailers have no information about those who have spent time in store without purchasing - they don’t know how to identify the shoppers, and they don’t know who looked at what products. This accounts for a substantial amount of missed data - data that the retailer could be using to re-engage those customers with personalised offers. CloudTags allow clients to engage and retain the customers that would otherwise walk in and out anonymously. We help retailers discover who these customers are prior to the point of purchase, predict what they want to buy, and re-engage them to buy more (and more often). Connected stores blend digital and physical experiences, resulting in increased data collection and sales. Powered by our smart tags, sensors and devices, shoppers digitally explore using existing content in a retailer’s product feed with ease - no CRM or POS integration needed. This set-up allows customers to access digital content, curate physical products, and opt-in via email/phone number to receive their wish list afterwards.
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Shoppers want to access content to make easier, faster buying decisions with rich content. A significant portion of retailers have a branded app, which customers can download and use in-store. Afterwards, they want to remember what they saw so they can share it with others or buy it online later. Unfortunately, this can pose a barrier to entry for customers not willing to download a separate app for each retailer. By providing in-store tablet installations, CloudTags removes that barrier to entry - no need to connect to Wi-Fi, download an app, and create an account for every retailer you go to. We make it easier for a customer to interact digitally, thereby increasing the percentage of shoppers who engage in digital experiences in-store, in a way that respects customer privacy. Using CloudTags, customers can create and curate a wish list of products that they looked at while browsing - almost 50% of customers then choose to e-mail it to themselves at the end of the experience. v As in-store sales associates are also involved in the process of engaging customers with tablets and providing a superior in-store experience, online sales can be attributed right down to the sales associate in any given store. With these multiple data points combined, we create opt-in customer profiles that predict a customer’s likelihood of purchasing specific products. Through our recommendations engine, Nimbus, we can not only help retailers with what products a customer has looked at, but also push products that that customer would be likely to look at. Using this data in remarketing efforts shows a click through rate above 10% and an average of 3x increase in AOV. More than 75% of the customer profiles we create in the store are new - so not only do we provide retailers with data to personalise the experience for their known customers, we help them grow their CRM database by capturing customers that would otherwise have walked away virtually unnoticed. This kind of solution offers benefits to everyone involved. The customer opts in to receive the wish list they spent time creating, the sales staff receive commission for online sales linked to the store customers they assisted, and the retailer is able to enrich customer profiles and drive increased sales. Closing the gap between in-store and online activity and purchasing is a challenge that retailers are regularly facing - now they are able to not only close that gap, but also enhance the customer experience to maintain a strong brand.
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#
HMLOVESMUSIC RETAILERS ARE CONSTANTLY STRIVING TO FIND NEW WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH THEIR CONSUMERS AND NOT JUST RECRUIT NEW FOLLOWERS, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY RETAIN LOYAL ONES. A bespoke retail environment with a multitude of different elements gives a high level of creative license for brands. Now with so many ways to bring innovation to a customer journey, be it social, technology and live to name a few, there is ample opportunity to create an experience that is memorable and captures the imagination and inspires shoppers. Despite the opportunities and resources available at the fingertips of brands, there is still every chance a message can be completely lost amidst the potential smoke and mirrors of a customer experience that either aims to be too clever for its own good or fails to strategise on how best to achieve its primary objective. Breed recently activated a live retail experience for high street fashion label H&M. The experience in question involved various aspects of the customer journey and it was key for H&M that the event was not over complicated and there was a level of consistency to it whilst always reinforcing the message of H&M throughout. A live music event that had social media central to its activity, H&M hosted an intimate pre-party for the Elle Style Awards. Taking place at the label’s flagship store on Oxford Street, it gave attendees not only the chance to be a part of this esteemed awards evening, but also brought them closer to the H&M range be it through sampling and in many instances, eventual purchasing. Although this was an awards night with music entertainment, at its heart the evening was a fashion retail experience. Therefore bringing footfall in the way of potential and loyal customers to the event was key and the lure of an awards night with live music was a way to achieve this.
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However, whatever facts and figures you could have reported for increased footfall, browsing and purchasing for this evening, H&M were looking for an event that went beyond a simple awards evening in which product interaction enhanced. They were looking to achieve a messaging that stayed and resonated with their audience well after the point of engagement and purchase. The night consisted of a music performance by English pop singer Florrie. Her live performance and the video capture of the evening by Breed and video team KASH, presented the perfect opportunity to align the H&M brand with engaging content and transform it into more than a high street fashion label and give the night its own unique story. Helping enhance this message and content of the night, Breed, also worked alongside social activation company CreateLondon, who implemented social amplification tools that enhanced the story of the evening. Using the Instagram hashtag #HMLOVESMUSIC, event attendants captured their memories of the night with a picture which was instantly printed off as a physical keepsake of their experience. There was a great level of immediacy achieved with this social printing and H&M followers were instantly rewarded for their brand engagement efforts with something physical that could serve as a long term memento for the evening. What the campaign set out to achieve was long-term engagement that ultimately would retain the customer and echo the H&M story into their consciousness well after the event had finished. ––This was achieved with great success with H&M logging record levels of social activity and long-term interaction.
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P H OT O B Y. N I C O L A I B E R N T S E N - 40 -
SHARI NG
TH E GAP W o r d s : J a m e s P e r r y F O U N D E R , LO C O S O.C O
Commerce is changing. Decisions are made based upon the infinite authority of the Internet. A savvier consumer has emerged and it’s the battle for the backlight that’s tearing up the high street. More people are spending their time online browsing, sharing, comparing and buying around the clock. All of which drives footfall and eyeballs away from the high street. People everyday venture out into their own personal high street. Online and offline media, engaging rich content driving a desire to want that look; that holiday, that car, that dress and when you look a little deeper all they want is that experience.
The majority of people know what they want, know what they need and when they have bought into a brand can be loyal for years. Enter the sharing economy - over the past few years there has been a huge movement towards sharing and collaborative consumption. Access over ownership and reducing the amount of wastage we have. As unique as we are as individuals we all have the same basic needs.
The gap between is about creating a personal and unique experience from end to end where the customer is in control of their interactions. Working with them to establish what, how and when they want or may need something. With great engagement, comes great feedback and if monitored and managed correctly can enable business owners to tailor their offerings and experience for each individual. It’s all great news for businesses that have access and knowledge of these tools, but how does it help you or me?
At LocoSo.co we are working with UKShare.co, a UK trade body for The Sharing Economy, to push regulation change and build tools that will empower people, businesses and communities. These tools will let us understand what we have, and what we need within our own communities. It’s about sharing our possessions and skills; to collaborate with and support every member of our community. LocoSo.co – Empowering community through sharing and collaborative consumption. Follow them on Twitter at @LocoSocoUK
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P H OT O B Y. D A I S Y B O U L D I N G
Video will be 55% of all internet traffic by 2016
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G O I N G A L L T H E WA Y:
T H E G ROWI N G CHALLENGE OF SHOPPI NG BA S K E T A BA N D O N M E N T W o r d s : G i l e s M o r g a n - D I R E C TO R - D I G I TA L I N N OVAT I O N , K M P G
AS E-COM M ERCE GROWS, SO TO DOES TH E CHALLENGE OF R ETAI N I NG A CONSUM ER’S R EADERSH I P. Where we all love a browse in-store, online is the perfect arena for a shopper to search to their heart’s content. With consumers continually opting more for convenience and instant gratification, the immediacy that online shopping brings means that your average consumer will browse a significant time more in contrast to their browsing habits in a physical store. Adding to that a more personalised online retail experience where an e-commerce site will tailor a user’s journey more accordingly to their tastes and browser history, this all makes for a lengthy online experience for the customer. Despite increased user and visit time for online shops, when comparing to their bricks and mortar counterparts, the e-commerce world still faces the same challenges a physical retail environment encounters. Consumers love to touch and feel when browsing as this hands on experience with a product delivers a stronger emotional connection to a commodity and brings them closer to the answer of the question – is this what I’m looking for? The same can be said of an e-retail environment but in a slightly different context, with users researching an item in extreme detail, be it checking sizes and measurements or customer reviews. Whatever platform a consumer is browsing on, they want to ensure whether or not an item is compatible to them and their lives. In other words, is this right for me? Looking at consumer browsing in more detail, whether it online or in-store, we’ll see that for the majority of time, browsing will start and remain as just a flirtation for the consumer. Most times out of ten, there will be no end result or destination for a product that goes beyond the online or store shelve and that item will either find a home in the hands of another consumer or not at all. This problem is proving itself to be a constant obstacle for online retail in particular, with online basket abandonment reportedly costing retailers in excess of 1 billion. An astronomical sum arguably but a figure online retailers are not taking lightly with time and in-depth research being invested into how they can curtail this type of online shopping behaviour. Online retailers are realistic and understand that as much as they would like to, not every consumer that browses through their e-commerce platform is going to complete their online journey with a purchase. There has been considerable improvement though with abandonment figures diminishing and this has come with continued learning. Consumers today want shopping to be simple, easy, consistent and secure. The issue of security was something that was having a detrimental effect on abandonment rate and retailer’s response to the problem was initially something that was only making the problem worse. Listening to the need for security on the consumer’s behalf, the industry’s response was to create payment systems, which though secure, lengthened the process of payment for the consumer and this method ultimately disengaged the consumer. As well as taking into account the need for security, e-commerce sites need to satisfy consumer’s demand for contiguity.
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Online retail giants the likes of PayPal, Amazon and ASOS have heeded this advice by creating checkout systems that are far more integrated and shorter, thus keeping a consumer engaged and not losing patience with the whole process. Seamlessness and consistency is key and retailers should avoid complex registration stages, or even attempt to avoid that step completely in some way. This is truly a reflection of today’s instant customer and it is their expectations that are continually spearheading the online evolution in retail. Other factors that have contributed to basket case abandonment have also been issues such as hidden delivery charges and technical functionality. All these are things that have only played into a consumer’s desire for immediacy. We’ve also seen e-retailers adopt a more personalised approach when combating basket abandonment. Leveraging data correctly and efficiently, e-commerce sites have targeted consumers who left on the cusp of purchase completion and delivered to them timely and appropriate content, that either reminded them of their original intention to buy or other products they may be interested in. Consumerism is undoubtedly a selfish practice and customers want to be treated as individuals. These personalised reminders on the retailer’s behalf can only appease the individualistic need and benefit we all implicitly crave as consumers. Shoppers are more fickle than ever today and attention spans are continually waning. Retailers must go to great lengths to improve and enhance the experiences they offer to shoppers with them becoming harder to impress. Brand loyalty is changing more and more and customers in an e-commerce site will move from site to site if their experience is not befitting of their needs and shopper behaviour. Taking into account the mindset of their shoppers and getting to the crux of what they are all about and how they like to shop, adapting their e-commerce offering to their needs and habits will be a huge stride towards bigger online conversion rates. It is those slight adjustments that can make the difference to a customer dropping out or going all the way.
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WHIRLPOOL PRESENTS
“THE MAIN INGREDIENT� A series of live cooking demonstrations, kicking off on Saturday 30th May 2015 at the Great Eastern Kitchen at Westfield Stratford. We are excited to announce that we kick off the first event with our new ambassador and celebrity chef, restaurateur and food writer Adam Byatt. Come and join Adam in the new Whirlpool kitchen, as he cooks up some stunning summer infused recipes. There will be Q&A and live challenges for a chance to win a prestigious cooking Master class with Adam himself at one of his Clapham restaurants, as well as the chance to win many other kitchen related prizes on the day.
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P H OT O B Y. D A I S Y B O U L D I N G - 47 -
TH E EXPERI ENCE ECONOMY B Y J E N N I F E R S P R AG G MARKETING MANAGER WHIRLPOOL
P H OT O B Y. W O J T E K W I T K O W S K I - 48 -
AS WHIRLPOOL EMBARKS ON ONE ITS FIRST FORAYS INTO EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING WE HAVE LEARNT THAT THE DISCIPLINE HAS GONE THROUGH YET ANOTHER TRANSITION,
IT IS CLEAR THAT TH E DISCI PLI N E CAN NO LONGER LIVE ALON E AN D DEMAN DS TH E SUPPORT OF DIGITAL AN D SOCIAL M EDIA TO I NCREASE REACH, AWAREN ESS AN D SHARE-ABI LITY. Working with live experience experts Breed we have learnt that the event is merely a “single moment in time” and the real results come from what follows and this is why our forthcoming campaign “The Main Ingredient” at the newly refurbished Great Eastern in Westfield Stratford, sees us utilise a number of pioneering social media applications to enhance the live activation and ultimately amplify the experience way beyond the live moment. Breed negotiated a deal with Westfield and then set about building an integrated campaign strategy around the Great Eastern. The ‘experience economy’ has truly never been more valuable than now. As the public become used to events being activated on an unprecedented scale, the demand for more immersive and memorable experiences is likely to continue to grow and grow. It is inevitable that we will see more brands realising the value of events and public experiences and see the invaluable opportunity to publicise products and services as well as using these live experiences to create rich content that can be used to amplify the message to a more global audience. However, the watch out here is that the content does not take precedence over context, too often we see agencies and brands shooting content for content’s sake, they need to realise that its context that is King and not content! The public backing and enthusiasm for live experiences is starting to see a massive shift in budget placement from brands seeking to tap into the ‘experience economy’. At Whirlpool, budget management versus engagement and ROI are key to our marketing communication choices thus ensuring that we take a strategic approach to any future branded live experiences so for me there are a number of things to consider…
B E S T R AT E G I C
A brand should never just badge an experience, they should put the brand values at the heart of the experience and ensure that the experience is authentic to the brand’s ethos and values. Brands must ensure that their presence adds value to the experience and indeed enhances the public interaction. Consistency and an integrated approach are incredibly important at a time when consumers are sharing their live experiences in the digital space, so your strategy should have an integrated and uniform approach. Never run an event in isolation from your other comms channels. Live events are a single moment in time and having an integrated approach will give far better ROI in the long term. Having an integrated approach will also improve brand loyalty and fandom in the long term by affording the consumer as many touch points as possible. SOCIAL MEDIA IS KEY HERE!
B E C R E AT I V E
This is a no brainer; the best way to engage and inspire consumers is through great creativity. When we consider the level of creativity today’s consumer craves and expects, it’s clear that brands will need to work hard to keep consumers engaged pre, during and post the event. It will be imperative that any live or experiential activity is exceptional in its deployment to ensure that it captures the imagination of the public and drives brand fandom and future engagement.
C R E AT E E N G AG I N G C O N T E N T
Consumers are slowly becoming media moguls in their own right, seeking rich content, sharing content and of course creating content. So, clearly the more creative your brand campaign is, the more the public will talk about it, interact with it and share it across their own media platforms - they’ll be proud and excited to be part of the experience you are creating. Great creativity in the live environment provides great opportunities for engaging content, which can then be distributed over a broad range of brand channels, which of course amplifies the campaign’s reach and thus extending your engagement potential post the experience. Brands need to ensure that creativity is a focus when deploying live experiences.
K N OW YO U R AU D I E N C E
The approach of “Build it and they will come” is just not going to work today. It is more important than ever for brands to understand their target audience and make sure that their live communication is at the right time, in the right environment and culturally relevant in its content. It is becoming harder to profile audiences these days and brands need to think hard about who they are trying to reach and what that audience will gain from the experience. They need to find the right audiences, give them an unforgettable experience and more importantly turn the public’s engagement into a longer-lasting relationship through the use of strategic amplification, only then will a brand truly benefit from public interaction.
Our agency Breed has a mantra that we totally buy into CREATE, CAPTURE, SHARE
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3C O,M1B 3I N 9 , 7 6 4 E D T O TA L I M PRESSIONS
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#MUMINAMILLION TESCO Amplifying TESCO’s messaging via social media on the Mother’s Day weekend, Breed deployed teams of twenty plus experiential staff across ten major TESCO stores across the UK for its Mum in a Million social media campaign. Using the hash-tag #MumInAMillion, TESCO customers were invited to capture a photo on social image platforms Instagram and Twitter as a special message to their mothers. Instantly shared on social media and instantly printed out as a photograph, TESCO customers were given both a digital and physical souvenir of their Mother’s Day message. The instant print out of customer photos served as a tangible reminder of their experience at a TESCO store that they could take home with them and would stay with them long after their experience was over. This live experience was not only something that surprised and delighted TESCO customers and created a huge level of conversation amongst store visitors, but the campaign reached new heights of social engagement. Across the ten stores in the space of one day, the campaign yielded these results:
1359 Photos Shared 1 9 6 8 P h y s i c a l P h o t o s Ta k e n H o m e 1371 Retweets 3603 Instagram Likes 5 5 2 , 1 7 1 C o m b i n e d To t a l R e a c h
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H AT C H L I V E HATCH LIVE, BROUGHT TOGETH ER A HOST OF H IGH STREET BRAN DS TH E LI KES OF WH SM ITH, FOOTLOCKER, PUMA, AN D SONY, PLUS A SELECTION OF I N FLUENCERS AN D EXPERTS I N TH E FI ELD OF RETAI L AN D MARKETI NG, TO EXPERI ENCE AN EVEN I NG THAT PROM ISED TO EDUCATE AN D I N FORM ATTEN DEES ON A SUBJECT MATTER THAT HAS DOGGED TH E RETAI L WORLD BOTH I N TH E PHYSICAL AN D DIGITAL SPACE; ‘TH E GAP BETWEEN’ Compered by Breed Strategy Director Ian Irving whose opening introduction set the tone for the evening with him shedding light on the new world of retail and how its changes are being driven by technology, consumer data and changing customer behaviour, this was swiftly followed by talks from Tom Head, Director of Digital Agency Lab, Esther Kho, Account Manager of Omni-Channel technology specialists CloudTags, Phil Day, Director of Retail Marketing Trade Association POPAI and Social Technology company Visual Voice, who all shared their take on the Gap Between, be it discussing the new customer journey, creating connected stores or battling the in-store gap. Demonstrating at the event was one of Breed’s creative partners CreateLondon whose social activation technology was on display for use. Using the hashtag #hatchlive – attendees received instant print outs of their photos when using the hashtag on social platforms Twitter and Instagram, giving them a both fun and physical token of the event to take with them. The technology only amplified the evening’s message with attendants echoing their enjoyment of the evening on social platforms during and after the event.
Hosted at the Mondrian Hotel on London’s Southbank, HATCH LIVE proved a tremendous success with many of the evening’s attendants already anticipating the next event planned. Breed strategy director Ian Irving reflected on the success of the evening, speaking particularly about the event’s great feedback, “We couldn’t be more happier with the success of our first live marketing event HATCH LIVE. The collective effort from the whole Breed team has really paid off and we have delivered a first class event we can all be extremely proud of. We had many brand representatives and top influencers in the world of retail praising the event highly and already have had offers from organisations interested in speaking and demonstrating. I’m sure if we were selling tickets on the evening for the next HATCH LIVE, we would have sold out before it even started. The evening was exactly how we envisaged it, an immersive and interactive evening that featured cutting edge technology and insightful discussion. Most importantly, the evening positioned both Breed and SMP Group as true thought leaders in the retail industry.”
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R E WA R D P R O G R A M M E S A N D T H E
‘GAP BETWEEN’ Wo rd s : D a n i e l L evy CHIEF EXECUTIVE, STREETLIKE
Through our conversations with retailers and customers, there seems to be a disconnect between customers wanting a more engaging retail experience and the levels of actual customer engagement in-store. With the ever-increasing growth of retail apps, customer use of them is generally limited, with many customers not doing anything while out shopping. Ordering tablets are great but they are a second best alternative to the actual store experience when the customer’s intention is to make a purchase ‘now’ as opposed to ‘later’. However what we tend to find with digital engagement is that unless it is aligned closely to the customer journey path such as iPad tablets in Argos or Click and Collect kiosks then it simply gets lost in the total retail experience. Where do customer rewards fit within the retail environment? Technologies that can track and reward customers while they browse in-store using Beacons are great. But most customers do not want to be tracked, bombarded with notifications or willing to download an app and switch on Bluetooth on their phone. The first gap in the customer journey is the area around reward participation. If retailers can offer a differentiated reward experience that reduces the barriers to entry, views the customer as a more ‘active’ decision maker in allowing them to personalise rewards. This creates a compelling reason for them to embrace in-store technology with a feeling of satisfaction in shaping a reward programme that is tailored for them.
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WH ER E DO C U S T O M E R R EWARDS FIT WITH I N TH E RETAI L ENVI RON M ENT?
P H OT O B Y. G I L L E S L A M B E R T
The second ‘gap’ is the transition from awareness to participation. At Streetlike, we take a view that to simply offer enticing rewards is only half the battle. The other half is competing for customer awareness in an environment that is already overloaded with promotional display and products. Digital signage can help promote a reward programme to really standout but it doesn’t end there. If we continue the digital experience by making it interactive and we make that transition to rewards more seamless then customers will be compelled to participate. Streetlike – an SAAS in-store reward programme for digital signage.
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PALLADIUM: DELIVERING A BRANDED MESSAGE TO A SOCIAL AUDIENCE
In today’s modern marketing world, brands need to inspire and be seen as more than just plain commodity and goods. Consumer engagement is no longer regarded solely as transactional engagement with a product. To rely on commercial interaction with a brand alone is naive and counterproductive. Brands are now forward thinking in their approach to creative strategy and are not just focusing their efforts on customers parting with their pennies but ensuring their story stirs the emotions of consumers and strikes a deep, emotional chord with brand followers on an individual level in new and innovative ways. A level of feeling for a brand needs to be created and this can come from consumer perception. There needs to be a certain resonance on a consumer’s behalf that is etched into their very heart and soul. Consumers whether they know it or not, love to talk passionately about a brand they have an affinity for and it is up to brands to keep giving them something to talk about. Footwear brand Palladium was keen to enhance its story for its Explorer Series campaign through live event, content creation and social media amplification. Using the brief ‘Explore Your City’, the team utilised the different platforms available to communicate the campaign’s message in ways that would stay with the consumer and showcase Palladium as more than just a footwear brand. The team created a film that featured radio presenter and DJ MistaJam, and was produced over two days on location in Nottingham. Exploring MistaJam’s Nottingham roots and the city’s musical inspiration, this story and
setting was a perfect way to align the campaign’s messaging with a rich and engaging piece of content. Created for the YouTube generation, the film acted as a conversation driver for Palladium’s audience and following. With the influence and power of video, fans were given something to relay their passion to and ultimately would make them proud of their association and connection to Palladium as brand champions. Using the city of Nottingham, the team and social activation company CreateLondon also created a series of nights with MistaJam in the city’s famous nightclub Bodega. This gave the story a sense of identity and gave the campaign further relevance to Palladium’s following. By connecting the story to an English city where a feeling of pride and history was associated strongly with consumers, this further intensified the level of fandom and passion for the brand. On the night itself, using CreateLondon’s social amplification tools for live events; attendees were invited to capture their night on social platform Instagram. Their reward was an instant branded print out of their picture that would serve as a reminder of the evening. Though just a simple picture, the Instagram print out served as something memorable that the consumer could hold on to and interact with and would stay with them well beyond the live event itself – after all a picture paints a thousand words. With over 300 photos uploaded, this resulted in over 600,000 impressions on Instagram for the live event and created a renewed sense of brand advocacy for Palladium with their followers.
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"THOSE WHO THE FUTURE DELIVERING
DON'T UNDERSTAND ARE IN DANGER OF THE PAST"...
P h o t o b y. GLEN NOBEL
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A B E AC O N O F H O P E W o r d s : To m S c o t t D I R E C T O R , C R E AT E LO N D O N
TH E MODERN CONSUM ER AN D TH EI R REN EWED EXPECTATIONS HAVE BEEN TH E CATALYST FOR CHANGE I N TH E WORLD WE NOW KNOW AS RETAI L. STRONGER EM PHASIS IS PLACED ON CONVEN I ENCE, PERSONALISATION AN D EFFICI ENCY WH EN AI M I NG TO CR EATE A SEAM LESS CUSTOM ER JOURN EY THAT APPEALS ACROSS ALL CHAN N ELS. The advancement of technology has been the game changer with innovation and technical evolvement having a gradual effect on consumer browsing and buying habits. Retailers have adapted to these trend changes with the implementation of technology into in-store experiences. For technology has offered retailers the opportunity to satisfy modern consumer demand and leverage these innovations in new and engaging methods that have only enhanced the way their customers shop. The progression of retail technology shows no sign of slowing down and consumer’s rapid adoption of it signifies it as a key player in the continual evolvement of the shopper journey. Increasingly we will see retailers concentrating their efforts on how they can improve the consumer experience through technology, particularly at the point of purchase. This step is treated with extreme value and importance by retailers for it represents a more long-term goal with their consumers, when thinking of customer retention and amplifying brand advocacy. There is a constant exploration to how shoppers can become more engaged at point of purchase and technology is guiding the way for a solution to this challenge in multiple ways. Recently we’ve seen beacons become a prominent force in the retail landscape with their technology allowing for a more personalised experience for shoppers. The concept of the technology in a nutshell is small sensors planted throughout a store that can target consumers within close proximity and deliver to them relevant content at an opportune time.
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P H OT O B Y. T I M OT H Y M U Z A
The technology is another progressive step towards creating a retail experience that is tailored and convenient to a shopper’s needs. With beacon technology offering a more granular based awareness in terms of location tracking, retailers can better understand the consumer and deliver to them on a more personal level, and in essence, give their customers what they want. No longer will shoppers, be they mission or browsing, go through their customer journey unaided and disorientated. Beacons have the ability to navigate a shopper through their shopping trip in a far more customised fashion that is more accurate and specific to their needs and preferences. With this type of technology deployed in a bricks and mortar presence, it can provide retailers with better insight into their customers and in-store traffic. Having this type of data available at their disposal, allows them to better their customer service and enhance brand loyalty. This will no doubt have the shopper coming back for more and retailers will then have the ability to generate in-store footfall thanks to real time data, as well as ensuring completion at the point of purchase, by delivering targeted content to a consumer that fits relevantly into shoppers’ habits and lifestyles. Expect more brands to embrace in-store beacon technology going forward in 2015. Apple for instance has led the way with the electronics giant adopting the technology on a wide scale basis. Many other retailers are still only learning about the technology and discovering its workings as well as its benefits. Its long-term success could come down to the influence of brand loyalists who are already ingrained into a brand’s
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messaging and story, by way of already being signed up to a brand’s in-store app. For the technology relies on a level of incentive on the consumer’s behalf with shoppers having to opt-in to receive the benefits to their customer journey. Issues of privacy and annoyance will still, like with any other technology, be an obstacle to get over for retailers. Customers will need to be communicated to them clearly why they should allow themselves to be integrated into this potentially intrusive technology, and what is the real benefit they are getting from it. Once again, consumers will not want to be bombarded with messaging and data will have to be treated with care and consideration or else they will go elsewhere. What’s exciting for the technology is that it has life beyond retail. Expect beacons to be deployed in airports and other public transport locations, where travellers can be informed with real time travel updates and notifications. In-store beacon technology holds huge potential for brands aiming to retain customers at the point of purchase and beyond, retailers must first though ensure they are well informed about the technology’s workings and how they must leverage it properly to create a seamless retail experience for customers that is informative but not intrusive.
___ O N T H E G O : M O B I L E I N R E TA I L Wo rd s : S a m B l a c k m o re PRODUCTION MANAGER, BREED
The enhancement of mobile technology has changed its function in the world today. No longer is a mobile device used for simply calling or texting but it has now elevated itself to a highly sophisticated tool that is an everyday part of consumer’s lives. One that many cannot live without and is an extension of their own self, and something which has dominated their social lives. Their multi-purpose quality has had a profound impact on the way users communicate and manage their lives and this has had an add-on effect to the world of retail. Mobile has naturally found a place in today’s consumer journey and has now become a central part of the end-to-end shopping experience. Mobile has been a disruptive factor to change in human behaviour and this has resulted in today’s shopper and their habits changing drastically. It more importantly has been one of the main driving causes towards a more seamless retail experience with the technology’s immediacy playing into the need for instant gratification on the consumer’s behalf. With 40% of online sales taking place over mobile devices, mobile’s presence in retail is only growing stronger. Retailers must therefore not ignore its increasing influence and continue to make plans to integrate mobile into their retail experiences both online and offline. Retailers are responding to mobile’s effect on the customer journey and embracing the change by seeing how they can improve the mobile experiences they offer their customers. With consumer behaviour constantly evolving and their expectation and needs always changing, brands need to keep pursuing new, innovative and most importantly, convenient ways to utilise mobile’s role in today’s consumer experience and ensure its place in retail is continually pushing sales and is increasingly relevant to the shopper and their lifestyle and habits.
Despite growing consumer usage, the road to a flawlessly optimised mobile presence in retail is one laced with obstacle and trickery. Factors such as technology, consumer engagement, convenience and simplicity, are all reflective of the difficulty involved in achieving an efficiently integrated mobile experience. Retailers need to start thinking more about what their customer wants from a mobile retail experience as opposed to simply assuming what they want and predicting how a potential consumer will interact with their mobile device in the customer journey. With today’s consumer seeking a seamless route to purchase, we’ve seen consumers adapt their habits and choose retailers who have embraced their preferred transactional route by way of mobile payment apps. This direction has worked well in tandem with retailer’s long-term engagement strategies with their consumer and has furthermore given new emphasis to the concept of customer loyalty. Mobile has provided retailers with a perfect tool to leverage loyalty in new and effective ways and allowed for a platform that gives a stronger yet more convenient link between brand and buyer. The implementation of closer proximity payment technology in the mobile set up, has also given retailers deeper insight into their customers and the way they shop via their mobile devices. Understanding how customers are reacting to specific loyalty and coupon redemption offers in real time retail environments, can determine how effective brands’ mobile offerings are. And with this insight, retailers can successfully repurpose and tweak their services to provide a more tailored service to their customer.
Today there is still a sense of discovery on behalf of retailers in that they are always exploring and aiming to understand the inner workings of mobile in retail and overcome the challenges that mobile deployment presents.
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U N D E R S TA N D I N G TH E CONSUM ER AN D A DA P T I N G T O T H E I R N EEDS IS KEY FOR R E T A I L E R S T O D A Y. Brands attempting to anticipate consumer trend will encounter difficulty. When considering mobile in retail, mobile technology cannot simply be thrust upon the consumer. There needs to be more an understanding about what does the consumer need and what technology best serves this need. Taking this into account, a technological obstacle for mobile has been the issue of user compatibility. With a handful of retailer’s mobile payment processes not universally compatible with all mobile platforms, this inevitably has not resulted in mass mobile adoption by consumers. With some retailers taking for granted consumer behaviour on mobile and not catering for every mobile customer, mobile usage in their consumer journey will undoubtedly not grow. Retailers would benefit more from a customer centric approach when looking at mobile technology. Start with the consumer first and work towards the technology, as opposed to the other way round. Looking at the bigger picture and thinking about long-term strategy and offering value to customers and therefore enhancing brand loyalty, Starbucks are proving to be the trailblazers for the mobile revolution. With their highly successful m-payment app, the brand’s strong emphasis on creating long term consumer loyalty as well as appeasing the consumer’s need for fast and convenient payment processes, has proved a winning formula that goes beyond the point of purchase and feeds into the overall customer experience. When adopting mobile successfully into a retail experience, the services retailers offer must go beyond the purchase itself and offer long term value, as well as thinking about what best suits their customers in terms of technology, behaviour and convenience.
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KNOW YOUR BRAN D BUT______ UN DERSTAN D YOUR AUDI ENCE
P H OT O B Y. J A S O N O R T E G O
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HOW LIVE MUSIC CAN ENHANCE THE RETAIL JOURNEY MANY OF TODAY’S BRANDS SUFFER FROM SHORT-TERM SYNDROME. This in its essence means that brands aren’t looking at the big picture and looking at how consumers view their brand beyond the product or the in-store experience. Associations and feelings grow within the consumer from being part of an in-store retail experience be it about their employee service, product quality or level of experience. Whether positive or negative, the journey stops there for some brands.
This night of musical entertainment saw a number of River Island sponsored bands perform to hundreds of fans that were entertained with free refreshments to make it a night to remember.
Consumers may or may not go back despite their experiences being good or bad, but in reality this doesn’t matter anymore. Brand loyalty has evolved beyond the consumer going back for more – there needs to be a sense of pride attached to the brand from the consumer’s behalf and followers want to feel honored to be included in a brand’s story.
Using the SocialSnap technology developed by CreateLondon (Instagram/Twitter printing), attendees were able to produce a memento of their experience that would be a part of them well after the event had finished.
Brands today need to keep honing their overall messaging to consumers and reinforce brand loyalty in exciting ways that instgate passion and gets them talking, be it in-store or even at home away from a retail environment. River Island did such an experience that stayed with their consumer following and presented them as more than just a clothing brand. Working with social amplification company CreateLondon and music magazine CLASH, the creative team produced a series of live music events for River Island.
Utilising these band’s large social followings, social enhancement tools were employed during these live events to deliver River Island’s messaging out to these communities.
Alongside this, we also deployed our BrandPops live video service where Vox-Pops were taken throughout the night from the attending public. These were instantly uploaded to Facebook fully branded and attendees could see and share their story with their friends. This brought live engagement with consumers to a new and increased level for River Island. With these events, they had created a series of experiences that raised discourse significantly amongst a number of communities and had their brand at the center of the story. Using social platforms to capture these experiences, River Island’s messaging achieved a new sense of longevity as the brand’s story was reinforced within their consumer’s mindsets thanks to a memorable live experience.
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MIND
TH E GAP
M
ost marketing ‘game-changers’ in the last decade or so have been technology-driven and increasingly focused on the effect that digital channels and devices will have on consumer behaviour.
In the Retail space particularly, many of the challenges and opportunities presented by technology, both at enterprise and consumer-levels have to a large extent become siloed. From mobile payments to beacons, each potential technology has developed a buzz and value-proposition seemingly all of its own (and has been piloted or deployed accordingly) with the result that the gap between digital and physical Worlds can actually widen rather than be bridged as shoppers view cutting-edge technologies as gimmicks or early-adopter programmes rather than part of their relationship with retailers. Key to bridging this ‘gap’ between tech and customer is recognising that omni-channel is fundamentally different to multi-channel, a potentially semantic distinction but actually key in making channels, location, payment and all the other enablers entirely arbitrary factors.
Stories not headlines Mobile is the ideal ‘always-on’ customer touch-point to access services, enhance in-store experience and (of course) receive direct personalised communications. Ignoring for a moment some of the distracting sub-plots around nativeversus-web, payment solutions, wearable technology and all the other ‘noise’, the key in using mobile to tie customer to brand, as has always been the case, is to observe the holy trinity: Convenience, timeliness and relevance. These are the constant benchmarks we measure our clientwork against here at VMob. Regardless of the specific tactical or strategic performance metrics our customers are score-boarding, from acquisition to basket-size, loyalty to social engagement, what we do makes sense to the customer first and then to the Business. It’s this genuinely customer-centric philosophy that ensures our customers can avoid falling into the trap of simply transferring their ‘big stories’ (advertising campaigns, brand values, promotions) onto mobile and instead make these activities simply a part of their ‘long story’; the on-going conversation they are developing with their customers based on an ever-improving understanding of them as individuals rather than as socio-demographic segments.
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This time, it’s personal When our dynamic profiling platform is identifying which of McDonald’s’ customers would be most interested in Happy Meals, of course the “At-home Mums” and previous buyers will be included, but depending on day, time, weather and location at that precise moment, so too might a “Commuter Dad” (it’s a wet weekend), a “Business Traveller” (a Dad at an airport on a Saturday during school holidays) or simply any customer who is at a specific place at a specific time (within 500m of a zoo for instance). None of these would be guarantees of timeliness or relevance of course but they are key tools through which to a) improve likelihood and b) learn in real-time the accuracy or otherwise of the profiling and to make the necessary update in our knowledge of that particular customer. Social plays a key part too. Where no mobile relationship currently exists, the crucial first several interactions with a mobile app can be made more relevant with even the barest device-based information, including where appropriate, social profiles and conversation. When combined with real-time in-app behaviour we can empower significant and effective personalisation almost from day one; massively reducing uninstall rates. The last part of successfully ‘bridging’ the gap is enabling sales/conversion attribution across all channels. Understanding when ‘web rooming’, locationbased marketing or social sharing and gifting have driven a customer in-store and resulted in a sale is essential if a retailer wants to achieve genuine
Omni-channel effectiveness. Without live capability, the spray-and-pray model of measuring impact through footfall and overall sales alone provides scant insight. The Customer is (still) always right The lines between the physical and digital worlds are blurring for sure and the gradual adoption of exciting and empowering digital experiences will soon become just an accepted part of the in-store experience. Mobile will be at the heart of everything, as the de-facto personal shopping assistant, digital loyalty card, wallet and payment tool, attention-grabber and queue-jumper (among so many other things) but more importantly, it will be there as the reciprocal platform through which customer and retailer better understand and relate to each other. Mind the gap though or your understanding of graham_halling or Graytbear may well not improve your sales to Graham the Time-poor Dad... VMob is an end-to-end mobile personalisation platform. To find out more about the work Graham and VMob do visit www.vmob.com or follow them on Twitter at @vmoblive Wo rd s : G ra h a m H a l l i n g DIRECTOR EMEA, VMOB
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DIGITAL SIGNAGE SOFTWARE POWERS IMMERSIVE REWARD EXPERIENCES IN-STORE
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL SIGNAGE REWARD SOFTWARE Streetlike offers a seamless and more engaging experience when joining a Reward Programme; without having to download an app or carry a loyalty card. Our platform builds a Programme of personalised offers in response to customer preferences selected on-screen. This encourages purchase and incentivises shoppers to invite friends for additional rewards. Contact us today for a demonstration. - 70 -
www.vmoblive.com
Reinventing retail with personalised mobile marketing In-app usage Viewed items Favorites Voucher usage Favourite shops Deals / vouchers shared
Purchase history
External variables
Location data
Point of sale Online ordering
Local weather Local events
Current location Location history Beacon proximity
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TWEET TO TI LL
S HORTE N I NG TH E BUYER’S JOUR N EY WITH TWITTER Wo rd s : A n d y Va l e CONTENT MANAGER, SOCIALBRO
ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH ON MAJOR RETAIL BRANDS FROM GOOGLE, 47% OF BUYERS WILL FIRST ENCOUNTER A BRAND’S SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR BUYING JOURNEY. WITH ALMOST HALF OF A BRAND’S CUSTOMERS ENCOUNTERING THEM AT THIS JUNCTURE, THE QUESTION MUST BE ASKED: HOW CAN THEY BE CONVERTED INTO CUSTOMERS DIRECTLY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA? At the moment, the brands who are excelling in the field of social media marketing are the ones going the extra mile to satisfy the customer’s needs, engaging in two way interactions, and rewarding their followers’ curiosity with inventive content which reinforces their brand story. With Twitter looking ever more likely to expand its in-channel purchasing options, the brands who have invested in a Twitter profile that merits a relevant and engaged following, whilst offering meaningful and valuable Twitter experiences for followers, are set to reap even greater rewards. Why Twitter in particular? With over 300 million active users, 500 million unregistered monthly unique visitors to the platform looking for content, and 700 million monthly consumers of Twitter content through third party sites using syndication, it’s one of the long established major social networks. That’s a start. Its real time nature, and ability to get a strong message out at exhilarating speed across other networks and media channels is also a major plus. In a recent talk at SXSW, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti demonstrated that the trickle down effect from a single Tweet was responsible for over 975,000 clicks to the site across all social networks. This perfectly encapsulates Twitter’s vast potential for influencing conversations a long way outside the initial 140 characters. To get that number of impressions (not clicks) on Facebook, a brand could end up paying tens of thousands of pounds. But for retailers looking to monetise their social activity, Twitter’s open nature provides a goldmine of data for marketers, enabling them to deliver the most personalised experience possible. Simply targeting people based on who they follow, or by specific keywords in their bio, is only the first step. Marketers need to apply traditional marketing methodology to social, drilling down into the mine of Twitter data through segmentation. Brands that invest in the right tools can unearth fine details that will enhance and inform their wider strategy, such as: users following specific Twitter profiles, users discussing particular topics, influential users that exert their influence over a target audience, users more likely to engage with Promoted Tweets or Trends, or even geographic segmentation of Twitter users.
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Equally important, they can also consider factors such as exclusion targeting, customer retargeting, and focus specifically on individuals as opposed to organisations, making sure they avoid targeting competitors. Users can be granularly segmented and advertised to using Twitter’s Tailored Audience feature, where your Promoted Tweets will only appear to the handpicked individuals you selected. Combine this with Twitter Ad’s Objective Based Campaigns, and budgeting for effective campaigns with measurable retail results becomes a far more transparent and accurate process. Furthermore, the segmentation opportunities offered by Twitter enables marketers to listen and research highly targeted groups of users in greater depth, regardless of whether these users are followers of the brand. By studying relevant analytical data, brands can benefit from actionable insight, highlighting what is likely to push the buttons of certain target groups. The public nature of most Tweets also mean that Twitter can act as a giant focus group, providing honest feedback on how your product is used and perceived. Acting on this information can help to solve people’s problems with your brand and drive sales. A simple example of this would be Innocent Drinks constantly seeing posts - 73 -
asking them for smoothies without bananas, so they released a line of drinks without them, opening them up to customers who wouldn’t have spent money on them in the past. But the research doesn’t just go one way. Customers no longer take the brand’s word for how good it is, they want affirmation from other sources. Word of mouth is still one of the most trusted mediums out there, and public displays of approval on Twitter can be leveraged to help with further sales. This is why brands such as ASOS, Primark, River Island, and Black Milk have all made concerted efforts to integrate Twitter based user generated content from happy customers wearing their clothes into their web pages and customer hubs. A consumer can see what’s available and make a decision based on the shared experiences of shoppers like them. To sum up, focussing on uncovering in-depth insights about the target audience on Twitter - not just what they say or who they are, but how they think - will not only help retailers provide more meaningful and valuable experiences, but ultimately enable more accurate targeting and relevant messaging. All of which should help shorten the buyer journey.
IMAGE
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We create connected stores. Customer behaviors are changing faster than the retailers who service them. Increasingly, shoppers are conducting comprehensive research online, going to the store and then buying online or on mobile later. They have increasing expectations of this being a seamlessly connected journey. CloudTags is the data platform for physical stores. Now you can digitally engage your customers, know who they are and what specific products they considered, but didn’t purchase. Whether they buy in the store or later online, we enable you to give credit where it’s due. Visit Cloudtags.com or call (0)7967 491572 for more information.
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Web design
lab.co.uk
Branding
n o ) i ; t y a o n j En al do p y Ecommerce Mobile Digital Marketing PaUX/UI 90 l a a i l r e e b @ sid n m o o c c . o l ai als m e g s a @ i e l l P ful a s i r c dario1
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T H E PA T H T O P U R C H A S E BAT T L E
W0 r d s :
Da
r R e n
J a r
v i s
NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR, SMP GROUP
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P H OT O B Y. D A I S Y B O U L D I N G
With around £1.5bn, being currently spent on in-store marketing in the UK each year, the question we keep hearing is de-clutter or not to de-clutter? Or should it just be as simple as using the correct POS to engage with shoppers? Everyone talks about Apple stores as the retail Mecca, but they can afford to have a minimalistic, clean store. Their products sell themselves; they are a lifestyle choice, a fashion choice you can go as far to say. The high street being regarded as a battleground couldn’t be truer – bricks and mortar stores have to fight for sales and brands need to stand out from the crowd. What better way of doing this than having the most engaging POS. This is the same for inside the store.
Are we de-valuing POS? Throughout my 25 years in the industry, I’ve seen the specification of a lot of in store materials reduced to pretty much paper thickness. This has allowed retailers to stretch their budgets, filling their stores with POS. Let’s make POS more engaging, more enjoyable and better in quality, giving the shopper an all round better experience. We work with our client base on just these things, improving quality, engaging with stores to achieve greater compliance, enhancing the experience through social, digital and visual merchandising. Working in this way, we have been able to prove back to our clients some amazing ROI figures.
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At the end of the day we as humans respond well to being told what we can and can’t do. The same rule applies within the store. Show people what to buy through engaging POS, and they will buy it. So what does the future hold for POS and a POS producer? Well hold fire on any thoughts of de-cluttering and filling your stores with cardboard!! No, on a serious note the future is for us to work closely with our clients, to produce the most engaging experience for the shopper, thus getting them to spend more in your stores.
R E T A I L R E WA R D :
H OW BRAN D L O YA LT Y IS CHANGI NG THE R E TA I L EXPERI ENCE
P H OT O B Y. D A I S Y B O U L D I N G
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The current understanding of loyalty from both brand and consumer has changed drastically. Thanks to the changing nature of shopper behaviour with customers becoming more demanding and expecting more from their retail experience, this has had a natural knock on effect on their perception of customer loyalty. Their habits and expectations have made them yearn for more from their loyalty and reward programmes. With the consumer directing the course of the retail journey, there needs to be a huge re-think on the retailer’s behalf about what they offer their customer to ensure they keep coming back. Brands need to tap into this selfish behaviour that is driving the future of the customer experience. With this in mind brands will need to shift their strategy to show their most valued consumers how loyal they can be to them, as a consumer. With plastic and points based loyalty tiring somewhat and becoming a saturated market, retailers have aimed to inject more personality and reward in their loyalty programmes, ensuring they give something that the consumer really wants and feels rewarded by. Brands must remember that loyalty is a relationship and not a scheme and there needs to be a two-way dialogue in the relationship that goes beyond simple points collection and redemption. There must be a big effort on behalf of the retailer in keeping their customers happy and loyal. Thanks to the innovation of technology and the wide amount of choice that is provided for consumers, loyalty is now more born out of choice as opposed to convenience. And this choice as we touched upon has been driven by selfish behaviour that has only grown thanks to today’s accelerating society. As we venture further into 2015, looking at the concept of loyalty and what role it will play in the whole customer experience, expect retailers to enhance how they reward their customers with ‘surprise and delight’ efforts that give loyal customers back more than just points on a card, and awards them in new and exciting ways and with moments of experience that propel brand fandom to new levels. But it won’t simply be retailers giving into consumer demand like a spoilt child getting their own way. Consumers like in any loyalty programme will have to work for their reward but will do so in a more incentivized way. The prospect of great reward in various forms and through different levels of wow factor will no doubt give consumers the right push to be excited and motivated to participate in these types of reward schemes. Known popularly as tiered programmes, these schemes can be categorized into different levels (bronze, gold, silver as an example) and for a customer reach these tier levels - goals or milestones are set, each time the reward getting bigger and better and the path to these becoming more challenging (and benefitting to the retailer). How retailers define these programmes be it the reward or what has to be done by the consumer in order to attain them - is completely up to them. The idea of different milestones and levels for customers to work to, gives brands a strong lease of creativity and the rewards can be something as small as a free coffee, gift or month’s membership, to something as big as a free one day’s experience or a holiday! Even as something as small as a birthday card or some sort of reward that shows recognition, adds that personal touch customers will appreciate long term. Through the influence of incentive, brands have regained some control over the consumer but still in essence giving them what they want and letting them steer the course of their shopper journey. One retailer in particular showcasing a great example of a tiered loyalty scheme is coffee chain Starbucks and their My Rewards programme. Not only offering an easy and seamless method of transaction with their mobile payment app, but through collecting ‘stars’ via purchases – customers are awarded with free drink rewards, early access to new products and custom offers on items they enjoy when they opt in to receive for My Starbucks Rewards e-mail. Loyalty programmes will have to go that extra mile in 2015 and brands will aim to delight and wow their customers with rewards that get them excited, talking and most importantly returning.
Wo rd s : C h r i s H e n r y
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ADVERT FOR ASICS WIN A PAIR OF ASICS TIGER GEL-LYTE III WHEN WAS THE GEL-LYTE III MODEL FIRST LAUNCHED AND WHO MADE IT HAPPEN?
SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER TO competition@breedcommunications.com AND ENTER THE RAFFLE.
Answers will be considered until 31/07/2015 23:59 (GMT+1). Only UK residents will be considered. Only answers sent to the specified e-mail - 8according 2 address will be considered. Shoes will be sent to the winner(s) to stock availability. Colour can change from the image.
KASH AD
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# A LWA Y S P E O P L E F I R S T Wo rd s : X av i e r D e s c a l e s SALES DIRECTOR, ASICS & ONITSUKA TIGER. B U S I N E S S ST R AT E G Y F O R S PA I N & P O RT U G A L .
WE WOULD ALL AGREE THAT THERE ARE THREE BASIC STAGES: AWARENESS, DECISION MAKING AND PURCHASE. COMPANIES ARE INVESTING A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN AWARENESS AND PURCHASE. TV AND PRINT CAMPAIGNS, SHOP IN SHOPS AND WALLS, ARE CLEAR EXAMPLES OF WHAT IS RECEIVING A BIG PART OF OUR MARKETING BUDGETS. AS A RESULT OF THAT, COMPETITION IS FIERCE AND IT IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO DIFFERENTIATE OURSELVES FROM THE REST. On the other hand, there is a blue ocean in the decision making stage. The most important thing to remember is just that people must be always first. Bear in mind there are three types of People: Employees, Partners and Customers. In order to be successful in this stage (which I like to represent as a bridge) you need to have engaged Employees. They need to be trained and empowered. They must understand their purpose and make it their own. If you have them on your side you are able to compete, if not you will lose the battle. Regarding the Partners, we should take into account that companies are not leak-proof containers anymore. There are a lot of external companies that have relationships with us every day (providers, consultants). They should love to work with us because we respect and listen to them. They must feel they are part of our company. If you have them on your side you will be much stronger, if not you will not be consistent. Finally we have the Customers. They should be our fans. We should sub promise and over deliver to them (so we gain their share of heart). It has to be very easy to do business with us and we have to make them feel special. If you have them on your side you will succeed, if not you will fail. We live in a high tech & speed world, this is a fact. But behind any company and credit card number there is still a person, this is also a fact. We should never forget that and before taking any important decision #AlwaysPeopleFirst.
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Your Waste & Recycling. Sorted.
www.josephjoseph.com - 87 -
T H E S O C I A L C O N S U M E R A N D YO U U S I N G L I V E T O K I C K S TA R T S O C I A L M E D I A S T R A T E G I E S Wo r d s : C h r i s A s t i l l - S m i t h DIRECTOR, NUTRISTRENGTH
L
et’s face it; in today’s economy and technical age you would have to be a total fool not to tie in a social media strategy to any live experience. I would even argue that a social media experience should in turn have a live strategy aligned to it. The collaboration between the two disciplines is a match made in heaven for those wishing to increase consumer interaction, influence ‘pass it on’ sharing and is a perfect way to increase true ‘brand friends’. The very nature of a live event is that it is one moment in time; it’s a physical touch point between brand and consumer. But we must always remember that there are conversations that go on way beyond the experience, and it’s these conversations and interactions that brands need to harness and own in order to amplify consumer engagement. Forward thinking brands are now using these live touch points to kick start social media strategies that not only generate buzz and foster long term interaction and engagement with their audiences but also generate content - that in turn will increase engagement way beyond the live moment.
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Clever brands are dragging social media use out of the home and into the live arena. They are not waiting for consumers to go home and then hope that they then remember to log on and interact. They are giving them the mechanic and also the incentive to do it there and then. We have a culture that responds well to immediate reward and engagement – which is one of the reasons experiential marketing has always worked. Social conversation is a hugely valuable asset for brands to own these days. As more and more social channels go online and the interaction with them is made easier through improved mobile technology, it has never been so important for brands to get their social voice heard amongst the clutter and clatter. Brands also need to have the power to interact with those that are talking about them.
Agencies and brands need to understand from the off that there is only value in a fan if you can turn them into a friend. It didn’t take brands long before they entered into a popularity contest with each other vying for the most ‘Likes’. It seems that companies are often simply content with growing their audience numbers and they’ve been comfortable measuring return on investment by the number of fans they have on social media. They should be questioning the value of such a one-dimensional strategy, and realise that whilst it’s easy to create a social community, it’s much harder to hold on to it. So, whilst some brands are actually buying fans (I’m still baffled at how anyone could think it could ever be worthwhile buying a friendship), or simply measuring ‘success by numbers’, the clever brands are investing their money in live marketing to create an online community with real friends – or advocates. And that’s nothing new.
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P H OT O B Y. D A I S Y B O U L D I N G - 92 -
N UM BERS ARE TH E FUEL WH ICH DRIVES TH E LON DON ECONO M Y. T H E Y A L S O SH ED LIGHT ON TH E C I T Y ’ S H I S TO RY A N D D Y N A M I C A L LY C O S M O P O L I TA N P R E S E N T.
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NEXT GENERATION RETAIL_
THE FU TURE IS
NOW - 94 -
The world of retail is an ever changing landscape disrupted by factors such as economy, competition and technology, the transition from bricks to clicks and vice versa. The digital marketplace has become as important as the live space, buying after we have left the store is the new impulse and today’s mobile economy means that the journey home on the bus or train is still part of the retail environment. OOH (Out Of Home) has adapted to this with consumers pre ordering from posters and billboards.
See Hatch Live for a taste of our community and the approach. The evolutions in ‘shopper marketing’ mean that retailers need to rethink their approach and look at new strategies, products and services to reengage their customers. Finding the solutions needs to come through a collaborative approach, through rigorous testing and trial and then considered implementation. Only then can retailers truly keep up with the pace and evolution of consumer shopping habits.
Retail is now ‘ALWAYS ON’ and brands MUST have a multi platform sales strategy, because if they don’t then they do not have a sales strategy. Consumers are disrupting the notion of a traditional customer journey and Omni-channel solutions are offering them a more immersive and varied shopping experience. The previous idea of a store within a store has progressed to brands using digitally activated ‘IPG’ concepts (Breed’s - Immersive Product Galleries). Stand alone immersive product experience galleries that offer deeper and richer narrative about new products and allow the consumer to digitally interact with the narrative and provenience of the products and then buy later. The economy and financial interrogation means brands are reevaluating their property estate, which in turn dictates the need for a more affordable approach to retail; Breed has been delivering solutions to suit these challenges with our ‘LRE’ proposition (Lean Retail Environments). Breed offers a new approach to solving the challenges faced by retailers and brands in today’s complex shopping environments.
The SMP Group has been at the forefront of consumer point of purchase for decades and this heritage and experience mixed with the insight and creative offered by Breed means we have all of the skillsets required to understand your customer’s behaviours and then design and build experiences and environments that reengage and excite them.
The Breed approach isn’t about ticking off a regulated checklist telling you what you already know about your business, it’s a set of solutions to help you initiate and activate real change in your business. We are partnering with some of the most advanced digital and mobile solutions companies in the market to ensure that we can deliver full 360 solutions to your challenges.
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