How Location Changes Digital Marketing Pt. 2

Hi everyone

Apologies for the late post this week – so I’ll make it brief.

Following up from last week, I wanted to talk about the ways in which marketers are using digital in retail environments.

While we can’t yet do what GAP did in the film Minority Report, there are some big changes going on in the way we can enhance the retail experience and drive sales.

It’s important because research shows that up to 70% of purchase decision are finalized at the point of purchase. If we can use digital tools to deliver more engaging, more customized and more compelling product experiences this can have a big effect on our sales outcomes.

Let’s look at 2 areas that are making a difference at the shop store.

1. Digital Signage/ Product displays: Whether it’s in the shop window to attract people inside, or as part of the signage within the store, digital enables us to localize and customize the content depending on customer type, time of day or seasonal changes. Add to that interactivity, and it starts to become an interesting sales tool.

I love what Samsung are doing in the UK, and you see that digital retail is evolving from just pretty pictures, to far more interactive product experiences that enable people to control what they want to see, even before they get into store and feel the ‘sales pressure’.

Equally powerful but more communication specific is digital signage, like this example from Tesco Europe. The beauty of this signage is its ability to not only give information about products, but give customer/time/location specific offers or information throughout a retail environment, and connect to mobile devices as well.

2. Digital Interactive Sales Tools: Take the above examples and make them even more customized, more sales driven, more involved and you end up with something like this from Nike ID at the Nike store in Fukuoka in Japan.

A great concept which makes the most of a branded destination, by providing and customized sale tool to really put fun back into buying shoes. And isn’t that what we’d love shopping to be all about.

This type of marketing simply evolves from the interactive web site search and explore model that customers already understand. They are in control, and that’s the way they want it.

No matter what industry you are in – technology, automotive, fashion, you name it – there is a relevant retail application that can draw traffic and fast-track the retail sales process for you.

Cheers, Rob

Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com

How Location Changes Digital Marketing: Pt. 1

Hi everyone

One of the fastest growing and most important areas of digital marketing is based on providing ‘distributed digital experiences’.

That is, reaching out to people in the real world with digital experiences and communications, not just trying to reach them at our branded space online.

Mat Honan from Wired wrote in this article recently about how important location is to people’s decisions, and the impact digital services can have. “Simply put, location changes everything. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for, where we go – they all change once we merge location and the web.”

For marketers that means if you aren’t building location-based digital marketing into everything you do, you will lose them, because their choices are increasingly being dictated by their location.

The social networking tools people use, the mobile applications they choose, the stores they visit – are all influenced by digital location specific content and it's changing the way people behave.

This week I want to look at what marketers are doing with digital marketing installations and location-based mobile marketing experiences.

1. Digital Installations: One of the most visible ways of reaching out to customers is through large scale digital installations, often event-style communications, where people can not only experience visual/video/audio communications, but interact with them as well.

HBO’s Voyeur campaign was a great example of this type of communication, and interesting to see they will follow up with a new campaign called HBO Imagine to be launched soon. The reason why this was so powerful was it used the visibility of an installation medium embedded into everyday life, then led people to explore other mediums to interact with the idea further. Using these installations to excite and inspire further exploration is a key to success.

Other interesting examples of different real-world digital installations the fascinating Nike Chalkbot, Puma’s engaging installation Lift, and the interactive billboard experience Nike ID. This last, mobile digital experience we’ll describe further below.

2. Location Based Mobile Experiences: I’ve spoken about mobile a lot lately, and the reason why it is becoming so important – as highlighted in this excellent Ad Age article – is the realization by most markers “that mobile isn’t an ad play, but an extension of the services and products already on offer. And location is one of the most important contextual clues a mobile phone can provide”.

I’ve listed 4 of the most popular ways that marketers are using this added layer of location to enhance services and communications to customers:
- Mobile Applications: This great mobile real estate app from Zillow allows you check out home prices on houses from where you are
- Social Networking: Location specific social networking communities like 4Square add another layer of utility to online relationships
- Interactive Destinations: Combining the attraction of a digital installation and mobile interactivity, Nike ID campaign a good example
- Location Aware Communications: RFID, Blue-tooth, augmented reality and mobile web are allowing us to communicate with customers at a specific location.

Next week we’ll look how digital experiences are transforming the retail environment, creating unique branded destinations and digital shop-fronts.

Cheers, Rob

Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com