Starting with the premise that as much as 30 percent of our industry will be out of business in two to three years—because customer expectations are becoming astonishingly high, technology is becoming commoditized at a rapid rate, and those who don’t keep up with evolving trends will find themselves out of luck (and customers)—Laura Davis-Taylor and Ed King of HighStreet Collective brought some heavy hitters from the world of retail to the Digital Signage Expo to map a path forward to success. The Digital Experience Forum: Winning with DX – A Summit For Future Success, presented by High Street Collective, is taking place all day today, the eve of the show floor opening at DSE 2018 in Las Vegas.
Phillip Raub, president, b8ta kicked off the presentations at the Digital Experience Forum, with the message “Meet Your New Client: The CMO.” According to Raub, the days of pitching digital solutions to the IT team are dwindling, and the CMO is quickly becoming digital signage, DOOH, and experiential providers’ new client, as “experience is the new digital darling and the CMO is quickly becoming your new client.” And to speak in their language, companies will need to reframe their product stories, case studies focused on the customer experience, user engagement, and business outcomes.
Stephane Nasser, strategy and development manager, FΛBERNOVEL, followed with an explanation of the new GAFA’s Galaxy, (referring to Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon) quickly changing culture, habits, and business “at mach speed.”
Probably the most science-based presentation as of midday, was An Emotional Breakdown: Deconstructing Dopamine for Dollars, presented by Neale Martin, CEO, Sublime Behavior Marketing, and was a crash course on “the neuroscience of the brain, and will clarify how sensory engagements drive dopamine, delight, digital opportunity, and dollars.” Bottom line for retail: recent advancements in neuroscience and technology mean that ‘place’ must be multisensory and digital should be seamlessly incorporated to provide a holistic experience. According to Martin, who works with some of the country’s top retailers and brands, companies like b8ta (see session above) are indeed deconstructing dopamine for dollars, i.e. learning how to better guide shoppers through a retail space, turning, for example, a shopper’s first visit to a store from a neuron-driven intimidating experience (based on survival mode instincts as they adapt to unknown stimuli) into a new but unconsciously mapped space with friendly edges, boundaries and relationships. When retail stores don’t do that well, that opens the door for Amazon with their controlled shopper path to step in and take market share.
The Digital Experience Forum continues all afternoon Tuesday, “to give you the insider tools to rise above commodity, to speak the language of the CMO, and to become a consultative partner that not only wins today’s pitch, but tomorrow’s as well.”
One of the highly anticipated sessions scheduled for later this afternoon is The Emerging Engagement Toolbox, to be presented by Nikki Baird, VP Retail Innovation, Aptos, who promises to help you sort through technology tools at your disposal to understand which ones should get your attention and which ones should get a pass.
