Experience Manifesto

What I Read

You may have noticed that I keep a pretty long "What I Read" list here on this blog and that some of them are kind of old and out of date. Every now and then, I start to go through them all, to eliminate ones that don't exist any more and I always get stuck. It's easy to cut the ones that actually don't exist any more. It's the ones that are still there, with their posts from years ago still up to read, that I have a hard time deleting. It's like having a time capsule that I can look at and go back into a window in time.

Maybe I need to put them in new categories so people can see the current from the nostalgic. But the bigger problem is the time suck that I get into reading those old blogs, remembering the people, the times we met, etc. So, it stays as it is, a window into today and the past. It is kind of fun!

Ready for Members!

Excited to announce that after a few months of working on the infrastructure of the space, we're ready to open our doors to members! We are creating a word-class accelerator for companies working in retail, VR/AR and out-of-home (OOH). As we looked for our own space, we quickly realized that many coworking spaces are great for working, they are usually not very good if you need to do demonstrations of physical technologies.

Our space is just across the river from NYC, a short PATH train ride away in Jersey City. With 14,000 sf (and another 14,000 available if needed!), we have plenty of room to grow; set up your technology for live demos, meetings, seminars and getting work done in a living, breathing, future factory. It allows for you to go from concept to a real-world testing environment and get instantaneous data and feedback. This also allows our members from outside of the United States to have a US office location. We even provide staffing to present your products when you are away. And did I mention that the Cake Boss bakery is in the building too?

What we offer:

• Shared Space working with BEL design team
• Access to tech member network spaces while in NY
• Client support for hosted meetings
• Desks & office furniture 
• Conference room facilities
• Use of the shared space to host up to 4 events per year
• Demonstration area to present products and technology
• Kitchen for your staff and guests
• Wi-fi connectivity throughout premises

In addition, all members can participate in all events hosted on the premises including (based on availability and suitability) client presentations, industry specific events, meet-ups with other entrepreneurs, workshops about general business topics; demonstration events.

For members, BEL is your brand accelerator, helping you grow your business by:

• Demonstrating your technology to key retailers and clients.
• Presenting your technology to Unified/BEL clients and contacts.
• Working with Unified Merchandising LLC for manufacturing support, from prototype through final product.

Lastly, for companies outside of NYC, the BEL staff can act as your local business development staff. We can represent you in all client presentations that are necessary, acting as your staff on the ground in NYC and in the States. This allows you to be able to react quickly to client requests, without incurring last minute travel expenses.

Julian Fisher, CEO of our first member company, jisp said, "We are thrilled to be the first to take our place inside the Brand Experience Lab showing how the simplest, fastest and most seamless route to outstanding customer service lies in the hands of every shopper, their cell phone. And with jisp it is an experience once tried you’ll never want to shop any other way. It maybe a small step for shoppers but it’s a giant leap for retail."

Want to learn more about what we're doing? If you're developing innovative, new tech for the retail industry, click here to learn about our membership program.

If you're looking for space for your company, you can email David or Jim and we can give you additional information. You can also download our presentation if needed.

Here are a few pictures of the space, come visit and see what it looks like in person! You can go to Brand Experience Lab for more information and directions to our space. Hope to see you soon.

Our First Member - Jisp!

We're very excited to introduce Jisp, our first member of the Brand Experience Lab here in Jersey City. jispGO is a secure solution for friction free shopping via mobile - customers are able to browse and shop spaces physically and digitally, completing their purchases within jisp, negating the need for lines and front end cash wraps. Think of it as a way to bring the experience of "Amazon Go" to any retailer. A recent report from Omico Group found:

Most Americans are willing to only wait up to eight minutes in line before abandoning their cart of potential purchases. The report also noted that 77% of consumers are less likely to shop at the retail store again if they experience a long wait in checkout lines. With customers leaving empty handed, retailers have a problem and are losing an estimated $38 billion in potential sales.

jisp solves that problem using NFC and cell phones, eliminating the huge capital expenditure usually needed to deploy a system for cashierless stores. Using NFC also means that everything can be controlled from a central point, allowing for fast updates to prices and information that the consumer needs. It also means that promotions can be launched almost instantaneously, from a central office. With jisp, customers can shop as they go and pay through the app with no frustrating waits at the checkouts. jisp’s solutions are 4x times faster than barcode scanning and are completely adaptable. See the video below to see how it works.

I met the jisp team at a retail conference in London last fall and was very excited about what they're doing. As we started to look for members to join the Lab, they were one of the first ones I recommended. Last month, we showcased jisp at our GlobalShop booth and saw the same very positive reaction from people who saw it there that I witnessed in London when I first saw it.

"We are searching the world for the finest technology companies in retail and jisp is one of them. We are proud to have them join BEL," said Jim Ackerman, CEO of the Unified Brand Experience Lab. "Jisp combines extraordinary technology with a great team behind it that will enable us to introduce them to the US market successfully."

Julian Fisher, CEO of our very first member, jisp said, "We are thrilled to be the first to take our place inside the Brand Experience Lab showing how the simplest, fastest and most seamless route to outstanding customer service lies in the hands of every shopper, their cell phone. And with jisp it is an experience once tried you’ll never want to shop any other way. It maybe a small step for shoppers but it’s a giant leap for retail."

The purpose of the Unified Brand Experience Lab is to help retailers and brands explore the future of retail and technologies like jisp are critical to that future. Thanks to online shopping, consumers are used to instant payment options and not waiting in line. jispGO solves a significant issue for retailers while helping a create a friction-less experience for consumers. We're excited to have them as out first member! You can come visit us here in Jersey City to experience jispGO firsthand!

Want to learn more about what we're doing?

• Click here to learn how brands can use the Brand Experience Lab and create the next generation of retail and brand experiences.
• If you're developing innovative, new tech for the retail industry, click here to learn about our membership program
.

BEL provides integrated solutions for Brands and Retailers utilizing emerging technology, shopper insights and retail industry experts. We also give companies in retail, VR/AR and OOH industries a place to work, showcase and sell the technologies they’re creating.

Explore the Possible - Deliver the Practical - Lead the Future

Unified Brand Experience Lab

We've started work to transform our new home for the Unified Brand Experience Lab! The space is designed to give companies in retail, VR/AR and OOH industries a place to work, showcase and demo the technologies they’re creating. With almost 14,000 sf, we have a great space to experiment, test, hold client meetings and do larger events. It is walking distance from the Hoboken PATH station, so very convenient from the city or NJ.  

If you're looking for space for your company, drop me an email and I can give you additional information. 

You can click here for additional information.

CES 2019, The Year of Being Incremental

Back from another year at CES and the word of the show is incremental. Everyone I spoke to at CES mainly said the same thing. Nothing really blew them away, in a good way at any rate, and everything was just a little better than last year. I still always see some great technology that I think is better out of the home, but

TV

Let me start with this heresy, I'm not a fan of 8K for the house. Sure, it's awesomely pretty and the colors are amazing, but I don't see it being a big winner for the home market for a long time. A few years back when talking about the rise of 4K TV's, we talked about the ripple effect that 4K TV's were driving. You can't have 4K TV's, without also making sure that every content creator had 4K cameras. And the pipes to the house had to be able to deliver 4K. Even make-up and wardrobe might need to be adjusted. For large studios, that capex could be pretty significant. Many of them are probably just finishing the upgrade to 4K, I don't think they're going to jump into 8K all that quickly.

If you think about a standard TV show, 8K also doesn't drive any new value. Would have I liked Sex Education, Bodyguard or Manifest be any better in 8K? Not at all. Live sporting events could be a reason for 8K, but I think it becomes just like 3D at that point. Sure, it'll look good, but there just won't be enough compelling content to justify the upgrade.

For out of home, I think it's a different story. I think 8K in movie theaters or being used for OOH (out of home) advertising could be really interesting and a point of differentiation for those industries. But I just don't see mass consumer adoption for quite a few years.

4K is now pretty ubiquitous, but honestly, what can you do to make a 4K TV better? Thankfully, there weren't many curved screens this year, so maybe that trend has faded a little. We saw a lot of pretty screensavers this year. Afterall, why have such a large thing in your living room that's just black when it's not in use. There were a couple of companies showing transparent TV's, which again, I think are awesome for OOH and events. I don't know about your house, but the space behind the TV at my house rarely gets the cleaning it deserves -- I'm not sure I'd want people to be able to see behind it! The two coolest innovations for me:

• LG's roll-up TV. There's no doubt that this TV was a big hit. And it is both beautiful and cool, no doubt about it! People, myself included, would watch that screen roll up & down over & over again, sort of mesmerized by how it works. The picture quality is obviously excellent and the rolling mechanism worked extremely well. But I wonder how many people really need a TV the rolls away when it's not being watched. Again, it might be cool in certain retail or OOH environments, I think it ultimately creates limited value for the typical home consumer.

LG press picture

• Samsung's Wall system is also a beautiful, interesting take on what a TV is. Using MicroLED tiles, Samsung has created a tool that allows the user to build the TV in different sizes and shapes. Again, truly beautiful and for OOH, as some real practical applications. I think that the ability to create to a specified size, rather then having to build around the set sizes of traditional has value to both home and OOH uses.

Samsung press picture

Connected Cars

As with TV's, this was again a year for incremental growth for the connected car industry. We're still a ways off from everyone being able to use self driving cars, so again, we're still seeing lots of concepts, not actual cars. There's so much that needs to change before self-driving cars are a thing, and the car technology is only a piece of it. During the show, we talked about how the entire eco-system that needs to changed, from car dealerships to insurance companies. For example, for sake of discussion, there are some 150 million or so potential customers for insurance companies today. But, if the car is driving itself, then who needs to have the insurance? It could possibly mean that their potential audience goes from 150 million to maybe less than 100, as only the companies building or delivering self-driving cars would need to be insured. That's just one example of an item that would be a huge change to the insurance industry and all of that needs to be resolved before we see a ubiquitous roll-out of self-driving cars.

One thing that got a lot of attention was the announcement by Audi of holoride, their new experience that turns the car into a mobile gaming platform using VR.

Audi press picture

As they describe:

Audi is demonstrating the immersive futuristic technology with “Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run,” an in-car VR experience for backseat passengers being brought to life by Disney Games and Interactive Experiences. Wearing VR glasses, the passenger in an Audi e-tron is transported into a fantastical depiction of outer space: The Audi e-tron now functions as the ship manned by the Guardians of the Galaxy, as the passenger makes their way through an asteroid field together with Rocket, a character that will appear in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame in spring 2019. Every movement of the car is reflected in the experience in real time. If the car turns a tight corner, the player curves around an opposing spaceship in virtual reality. If the Audi e-tron accelerates, the ship in the experience does the same.

Right now, the system is designed for use by passengers in the back seat and it got good reviews and it will be interesting to see where this technology can go in the future. They clearly made a smart move by partnering with Disney and bringing Marvel characters into the experience.

We had an interesting conversation on the show floor about the future of content in cars and how they would drive car buying decisions in the future. For example, if you had children and you were thinking about buying a luxury car, would knowing that Audi had exclusive Disney game content, would that sway your purchase decision. It also means that our history of content distribution could be very challenged by auto manufactures. Could Ford win the distribution of the Super Bowl broadcast in the future and you could only watch it in a Ford vehicle?

Bell Air Taxi

One of the newest exhibitors in the connected car area was Bell Helicopter, showcasing their Nexus products at CES for the first time. Designed as an air taxi, think Uber in the air. It was certainly very cool and I can see executives using this in crowded environments like NY & LA. It is designed to be flown autonomously, taking guests easily over crowded highway drives. It was designed to be flown without a pilot, but I when I asked how people felt about getting into a helicopter without a pilot, they admitted that the test runs all included one until people's comfort level had increased.

David Polinchock

Connected Home

As with the above items, we're seeing everything getting better with connected home tech, but not really a lot new, at least for me. The biggest press in this category was for connected toilets, so that says something. Homestly, does my toilet need to be Alexa enabled? Is it really that difficult to lift or put down the toilet that I need Alexa to do that for me? Admittedly, I did really enjoy the smart toilet I got to use in my hotel in Seoul. I mean, it's going to be in the single digits here this week, that heated seat would be awesome! But beyond that, I'm not sure the value here for most people. But look at how Kohler describes the "experience" in their press release:

The lighting features on Kohler’s flagship intelligent toilet have been upgraded from static colors to dynamic and interactive multi-colored ambient and surround lighting. Paired with the new speakers in the Numi toilet, these lighting and audio enhancements create a fully-immersive experience for homeowners.

Kohler media kit

They took a lot of grief in social media for talking about the toilet being a fully immersive experience, which they honestly deserved.

There were a few things that I liked, including the Bitdefender Box. With some many connected devices coming into the home, security is becoming a very critical issue. Tools like this protect everything in the house and Bitdefender adds things like parental controls and even cyberbullying protection. As everything becomes connected, expect to see more products like this on the market.

I also really liked the idea behind Walabot Home product. A sensor system designed for the home, it will detect falls and automatically calls for help when detected. With so many seniors living longer and alone, again, I think we'll see a lot more of this kind of tech in the future. What I liked about it was that it was very non-intrusive and seemed pretty easy to set up. I also know many seniors who wouldn't wear one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" bracelets and this is a good alternative.

Lastly, I was a fan on the Nanoleaf lighting system. This personalized and interactive lighting system seems to have more value to me than the traditional connected lights usually seen. I love it for OOH and industrial uses, although there would certainly be people who would use it for their homes as well. With my daughter heading off to college in the fall, we might start a new trend in dorm room design!

David Polinchock

VR/AR

Again the story of VR/AR this year was that everything was getting better. As you may remember from my Google Glass days, one of the biggest complaints was that they really didn't look that good. While I thought they were fine, I can tell you that Sydney always felt uncomfortable wearing them!

Companies like Nreal are working on mixed reality glasses that can deliver both an outstanding mixed reality experience and good looking glasses. So, once again, HMD's got a little better and there were more stand-alone headsets that are expected this year, but honestly, there just wasn't the excitement that there was on the past.

You can see by this list of articles, VR/AR was there, but it didn't generate the hype it was in the past:

• At CES 2019, VR and AR took small but meaningful steps forward
• At CES 2019, VR feels like a dream gathering dust
• Remember virtual reality? Its buzz has faded at CES 2019

Now, that doesn't mean that VR/AR is over or disappearing anytime soon, so don't fret. One of the things that I did like was seeing VR used throughout the floor to demo other products. For example, it was everywhere in the connected car section, so it is being used to tell stories and drive engagement. Expect to see more of that at future CES events.

Future of Retail

One of the challenges with doing these things for a long time, is that you start to see things coming back for a second time. That was the case with a couple of the items at CES this year, but the good news is that they are being done well and that there's usually more acceptance of these technologies today.

For example, JD showed off several technologies at their booth, their first time exhibiting at CES. These technologies, while they've been around before, show off where retail could be heading in the future. One allowed guests to "try" on different outfits by standing in-front of a screen, as seen below.

They also showcased their smart vending machine, something that several exhibitors showed at CES this year.

Yi Tunnel showed off some great image recognition tech, both for checkout and vending machines. I have to admit, the demo of the image recognition check out was pretty impressive. It could recognize things like fruit very effectively. Without a doubt, we'll see a lot more of this kind of tech in the future.

One of my favorite things at the show was Robo-shark, the shark shaped, underwater drone. First of all, it looks damn cool! And the three screen, control system, who wouldn't work use that! Here's how they describe it:

ROBO-SHARK is positioned as a high-speed, low-noise ocean-like bionic underwater robot platform. This product can perform tasks such as fast approach, high-mobility patrol, and high-speed tracking of underwater targets. ROBO-SHARK uses shark as a biomimetic prototype and replaces the propeller propeller with a three-joint bionic tail fin, which can effectively reduce the running noise of the product and save energy consumption. In addition, the outer casing of the product is made of sound absorbing material, which is concealed. The product can be propelled at high speed through the caudal fin and has a speed of up to 10 knots.

I mean, don't you want one right now?? Unfortunately, it's a custom product, so I couldn't get a good price, but I did want one!

There was a lot more there and I may do some additional writing, but I think you get the idea. Lots of good things, just a little better than last year. It's still a fun show to attend and 2020 might still have some surprises in store!

Can You Be an Influencer if You're Not Real?

A recent article in Verge, Virtual creators aren’t AI — but AI is coming for them, talked about the rise of AI influencer, like Lil Miquela:

One of Instagram’s hottest influencers is a 19-year-old intelligent robot. Lil Miquela’s 1.5 million followers watch her eat sherbet on the beach, visit her favorite art galleries, and hang out with other robot models. Except, Lil Miquela isn’t really an artificially intelligent being. She’s also not a robot.

According to the article, there's a lot of VC money going into this space, which I guess is how the world works these days. But, can we really call them influencers when there's absolutely no chance they can use any products at all? Now, the influence business has had challenges and more and more we know that quite often, they are really nothing more than paid spokespeople.

Wikipedia defines an influencer as a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. I would add, and I think most people would as well, that they can influence us because we believe that they have knowledge and experience with the product/service they're talking about. If someone you know recommended something to you and it turns out they have never used it before, that would seriously decrease the influence they had to get us to use that product.

So what's the value of an artificial influencer? If you know they have never, and could never, use the product, aren't they just a commercial? I can certainly see this tech becoming a great tool for customer service and creating better in-store experiences, but I'm not sold on it as an influencer. I may just be old fashioned, but I think in order to influence me, you need to have actually used the product. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Are You Building Your Own Relationships?

Facebook's data issues have been in the headlines the last couple of weeks and honestly, I'm not sure it's going away any time soon. Just today, they announced new rules to try and combat the issues that they've been having with fake news and outside entities being involved in US politics.

Although we've known about the issue of Facebook using our data and building larger databases by "letting" us use their login information across a wide section of the internet, we are still surprised by just how much data they have allowed to leak out of Facebook for such a long time.

But these data issues are nothing new. I first wrote about it in here and almost 8 years ago, I wrote:

So I'm torn right now. I'm not willing to pay for Facebook and that means I have to be willing to give them a revenue path somewhere else. If Facebook offered a paid version where all of your data was kept away from advertisers, would you do that? If so, how much would you pay for that?

I'm not really sure we can continue to complain about lack of privacy when we're unwilling to pay for the service. So maybe that's the solution for Facebook. Give people the option of paying and see how people react then.

In my original piece from 2001, I said:

See, I think we're dealing with the wrong question. While we certainly need to protect privacy online, I think that we should be focusing our efforts on how can we bring a value to the consumer that translates into a better online experience?

Right now, we all know that the focus of gathering information from the consumer online is for our value, not theirs. Sure, we pretend it's for them, but everyone knows better. Is it really a consumer value proposition that we can give them targeted ads? Is getting unsolicited emails about products that are similar to something they've purchased a value proposition for the consumer? No, of course not. It's a value proposition for us. If you look at how we generate revenue online, how much of it comes from the gathering, use and sale of consumer information?

What's amazing to me is that for over 20 years, we've been talking about the tension between the need to protect consumer data and the need for companies to generate revenue. Especially when it's for a service like Facebook they know we won't pay for. And now, thanks to the whole blow-up with Facebook, we're confronting it all over again. But I still don't feel like we're any closer to a solution.

But, this has also created an entirely new issue for brands using social media. I think that for many years now, far too many brands have used all types of social media as a proxy for creating relationships with consumers, rather than actually creating relationships. Again, I asked:

Can you afford to have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of square feet of retail space and all of the expenses that go with it, and just have it act like windows for people to do online shopping? And they may not even shop online at your store! Can you continue to support online social media efforts while creating physical spaces that are almost anti-social? Sure, open up your info so that I can get it on my cell phone. But shouldn't you also hire better people and do more to train them? And create better physical spaces?

Now, possibly really for the first time, consumers are starting to question their relationship with Facebook and we haven't really started talking about how this will impact brands. If you have a real relationship with your consumers, then you'll move to whatever, if anything, comes after Facebook. But if you've put all of your relationship efforts into Facebook, then you're at the mercy of what happens to them. I'm concerned that consumers will feel that all the companies that use Facebook are not trustworthy with their data.

I'm a big fan of the importance of physical place and, as we see when we put our faith in third parties instead of our own efforts, brands can lose very big. Especially when those social media companies fall. Companies that have an authentic relationship with the audience will be fine and will be able to adjust to whatever, if anything, comes next. But brands that have been cutting every other channel and putting their efforts into just social media may be facing some challenges these days.

L.L. Bean Ends Lifetime Warranty

L.L. Bean made some pretty big news when they announced that they were ending their lifetime warranty on their products. This was a cornerstone of their customer experience since they started and I would guess a driver of why people shopped at Bean. It also spoke of why retail needs to be a relationship between the stores and the customers. Both sides have an obligation to be respectful of each other and when it gets out of balance, things like this happen. I would certainly be interested in knowing how much they were losing on these returns, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt that it was having a real impact on their bottom line.

But, rather than just eliminate the lifetime warranty, I think they had a chance to make a different play and maybe even generate some additional revenue to boot. They could've used this as a chance to create a new loyalty program for both one-time and regular shoppers, keeping this important point of differentiation alive, while making sure that it would be very hard for people to game the system.

Here's what I might suggest:

• For single items, they could charge a sliding fee based on the purchase price.
• For people who shop regularly, they could pay a yearly membership in order to keep the lifetime warranty.
• They could also waive the fee for people who shop above a certain spending amount.

I think that L.L. Bean could've really done better here and not just cut the warranty. Even when making choices to eliminate long-standing services, companies should use some creativity and think of how both they and consumers can benefit from the changes. Fortunately, L.L. Bean has a long history of doing right by their customers so it is unlikely that this will have a big impact on their sales. But not every brand has that equity to play with.

Companies should have an obligation to put their customers front & center in their decision process. Customer know that many times, that doesn't happen, hence the lack of brand loyalty we see today. We're very brand promiscuous today. On the other side, customers have an obligation not to abuse the system as well. If they do, then they force companies to make changes like this. When both sides work together, then both sides win.

Here's the letter that was posted to the L.L. Bean Facebook page:

A Letter to Our Customers,

Since 1912, our mission has been to sell high-quality products that inspire and enable people to enjoy the outdoors. Our commitment to customer service has earned us your trust and respect, as has our guarantee, which ensures that we stand behind everything we sell.

Increasingly, a small, but growing number of customers has been interpreting our guarantee well beyond its original intent. Some view it as a lifetime product replacement program, expecting refunds for heavily worn products used over many years. Others seek refunds for products that have been purchased through third parties, such as at yard sales. (Emphasis mine)

Based on these experiences, we have updated our policy. Customers will have one year after purchasing an item to return it, accompanied by proof of purchase. After one year, we will work with our customers to reach a fair solution if a product is defective in any way.

This update adds clarity to our policy and will only affect a small percentage of returns. It will also ensure we can continue to honor one of the best guarantees in retail, with no impact for the vast majority of our customers. To learn more, please view our full return policy at llbean.com.

L.L.Bean has stood for quality, service, trust, and getting people outdoors ever since my great-grandfather founded our company over 100 years ago - and that will never change. Thank you for being a loyal customer and we look forward to continuing to inspire and enable you to Be an Outsider.

Sincerely,

Shawn O. Gorman

L.L.Bean Executive Chairman

L.L.Bean Is Making Changes to Its Longstanding Lifetime Guarantee Policy

L.L. Bean Scraps Legendary Lifetime Return Policy

When a Company Really Stands By Its Products

Propelify 2017 - Think Killer Experiences

The good folks at Propelify have done a great job putting together a highlight of the presentations from the 2017 event over at their Dispatch. I think they did a great job (typo in my name not withstanding!) taking my talk and turning it into a nice, easy to watch, 4 minute video.

I was at my first volunteer planning meeting this week and I'm looking forward to seeing how I can make the 2018 event even better! I've included a brief overview of the piece here and you can read the full piece at Stop Thinking Killer Apps - Propelify 2017.

Stop Thinking Killer App, Start Thinking Killer Experience

David Polinchock has worked in the VR and experiential advertising space since the 1990s, and he’s seen the good, the bad, and the ugly for using VR and AR to create marketing events and experiences. At the Propelify 2017 Innovation Festival he gave a talk about three big ways technologists, marketers, and companies need to improve their use of VR and AR to create amazing experiences in the future:

• Include elements of the real world to create a more engaging VR experience. Instead of just focusing on the tech, Polinchock wants companies to use real-world elements in their VR set-ups to enhance the total experience.
• Possibilities for the Future of AR. To Polinchock, AR is a totally different world that VR. The key to creating a great AR experience? “We don’t want to walk down the world and see virtual billboards jumping at our faces. But, we do want interesting information that helps us get through the day.”
• Complete the Experience. Rather than just plopping a headset on anyone, Polinchock wants companies to educate users in advance on what they should expect to see, hear, and feel from the VR experience – before the experience begins.

The Brand as Experience

It's sometimes fun to look back at pieces I wrote some time ago and see what came true and what didn't. I think that this was originally written in 2006 and what's interesting is that some of these predictions happened, went away and have come back again. For example, Second Life was very popular at the time, but hasn't been as popular for a few years. However, they are now getting ready to launch a whole new experience Project Sansar. Podcasting started to get hot, went a little into a decline and today is hotter than ever.

Now clearly not everything worked. As much as I wanted bluetooth to be a thing in stores, it never really took off. Same thing with QR codes, although now with AR making a big play, we may see a different way for users to engage without needing the QR code at all. In 2006, we were just starting to play with things like mobile price checking & payment tools and now, of course, they're pretty ubiquitous. We now even have Amazon Go stores where you don't even have to stop to check out.

So, as with many predictions of the future, I hit, I missed and I really missed! But it is interesting to see where the world was less than 15 years ago and where we are today. Some of it's pretty amazing!

When you look at the profound changes occurring in both the retail and media spaces it's only logical to explore how they are going to impact each other. The first place to look is the technology that it is driving much of the change on both fronts. And the key to success in harnessing technology for marketing or sales is to realize that technology has to be focused on creating a better experience for the consumer, not for the retailer.

Audiences have come to expect dynamic environments in everything that they do. They watch content when they want to. They receive information when they want it. The have bought into just-in-time marketing. When they are bored with our content, they make their own. So as you look at the technologies on the retail horizon, think about how you could use them to create something more unique for the consumer. Dan Pink, writing for Yahoo Finance, recently had this to say:

"Today, utility is abundant. We have more products and services than we can handle, and most function just fine. To stand out in a crowded marketplace, sellers must make a dramatic leap in utility-or stand out in some other way. They can try to compete on price, but that usually ends in a downward death spiral. So the alternative is to compete not on left-brain attributes like price and functionality, but on right-brain qualities such as emotion, meaning, and look and feel. Case in point: Target sells toilet brushes and vegetable scrubbers designed by superstar architect Michael Graves. Even the most mundane, utilitarian objects in our lives have been turned into objects of desire."

And that applies to technology. Forget trying to just put technology into everything that you do to make your business run more smoothly. Consumers want something easier for them and a more unique environment to shop in. They are very comfortable shopping online, so they need more then just merchandise to bring them into the retail space. Today, it's about creating a compelling, authentic and relevant brand experience.

This is not about wish lists. Some of these technologies and new marketing strategies are already in use; many others we'll be seeing in the not-to-distant future. Here's a look at key developments today:

SOCIALIZATION OF RETAIL SPACE & ONLINE SHOPPING

The impact of socialization of the retail space and the impact of online shopping on retail is growing daily. With the growing impact of Internet shopping, it's critical that the physical retail space adapts to this trend. What is the value of real estate for retailers today? Does a record store really need to exist as it's been for the past 40-plus years? What about banks, grocery stores, fashion retailers? If, thanks to the Internet, people are much more comfortable getting their purchases sent to them, rather then getting them right away, do we need that much space dedicated to merchandise? If we could do away with the inventory portion of most retail spaces today, what else would you do with the space? How could you make it a much more social environment, rather then being a retail environment? After all, this is exactly why places like Starbuck's or the Apple stores have boomed: they created a social space, rather than a retail space.

While people look at Starbuck's or the Apple stores and say "Yea, that's great for them, but it doesn't apply to me," I think that they're missing a huge opportunity. We think there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space. One such retailer plans to open this fall, Epicenter, where not only will you be able to see samples, but purchase using a "Buypod" and have everything shipped to you. They won't carry a deep inventory and may even charge you extra if you want to buy the item in the store. It will be very interesting to see how this concept works.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES & RETAIL

We are significantly behind the rest of the world in using our cell phones for a wider variety of experiences and we are just beginning to see how they can be used here in the U.S.

Some uses currently deployed include:

Cell Phone Shopping. As described on its web site, SCANBUY Shopper enables cell phone users to have the best bargain-hunting tool at their very fingertips. Get the best prices and all the product info you need to make smart and fun purchases. But it does more then that. Type in the barcode for a book or movie and find out all of the reviews as well. Amazon Japan has a similar service that let's you scan the barcode and search through Amazon for best pricing. You can then purchase it directly through Amazon, should you want.

Several companies are developing payment systems using your cell phone, including Paymint, which allows parking meter payments via cell phone—maybe stores in the future will give people cell phone pay coupons to pay for parking in the future. Of course, in Japan systems for items not only in the store, but in vending machines as well. unlicensed short range radio frequency. Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs), also known as IEEE 802.15.1. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 via a secure, globally unlicensed short range radio frequency.

Several companies are starting to deploy Bluetooth in retail, allowing the consumer to gather additional information about products. And right now, technologies like Bluetooth don't have the same privacy issues that are facing RFID, because they require the consumer to opt-in before anything else can happen.

Dody Tsiantar, writing in Time about the use of Bluetooth technology for billboards, had this to say: "Technology, in part, is driving the medium's rebirth. Consumers can now download music, play video games, watch movie trailers or custom-design a pair of sneakers and purchase them-all by interacting with outdoor ads. Signs can send a digital coupon to our cell phones, and soon they may even start addressing us by name, as they did in Steven Spielberg's 2002 futuristic film, Minority Report. "We're almost there," says Stephen Freitas of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, an industry trade group. "Outdoor advertising is evolving to a world of two-way advertising very, very fast."

Nokia came out with its Coolzone technology in 2005, allowing retailers to put a base station in the store and bring specific content to consumers with Bluetooth enabled phones. With CoolZone, retailers like music stores, phone shops and cinemas, can offer promotional or paid content, such as mobile games, wallpapers, videos and music, to consumers in their stores.

"For consumers, CoolZone is a new and easy way to get rich mobile content and information. Every time the consumer visits a store, which has CoolZone service, she or he can easily browse, preview and buy the latest content to his or her phone. When using the service for the first time, the consumer downloads a retailer branded application to the phone in the retail location based on instructions provided in the store. The payment for the downloaded content is done either over the counter using vouchers or using premium text messages," said Sakari Kotola, director, Nokia Ventures Organization. "CoolZone is a truly smooth content download tool for consumers."

U.K. music retailer HMV is attempting to play catch-up in the download market by launching Txt2Buy from July, a service that directs consumers from adverts in magazines to a web-site—accessed via their phone, allowing them buy on the move. The aim is to become a real multi-channel retailer, according to Gideon Lask, head of internet at HMV.

PODCASTING

A 2005 Pew Internet study showed that six million consumers have downloaded podcasts and a visit to the iTunes Music store shows an very wide range of podcasts available for download. Retailers are just beginning to explore how podcasts can be used in the store environment as a marketing tool. Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. (Note: Podcasting does not require the use of an Apple iPod or any particular playback device. The most common way to listen to/view a Podcast is with a PC.)

Ad Age recently reported that Vogue has embraced the podcast, and the first of the magazine's "Fashion on Demand" video podcasts—co-brand-ed programming that gives advice, often sprinkled with celebrity interviews, on everything from hair care to fashion—goes behind the scenes of Gap's new fall campaign in an interview with "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven. Future podcasts in the Gap series include interviews with other new Gap faces: actress Lou Doillon, musician Common and actress Mia Farrow. Old Navy and Redken also have developed Vogue podcasts for the fall, and other advertisers, such as Lexus and Jeep, plan to do so down the line.

NEW DISPLAY EXPERIENCES

From IBM's Everywhere Display to Gesturetek's Holopoint, companies are looking to new technologies to create new visual tools to engage the consumer. Unilever recently launched an in-mall program for the launch of Sunsilk from Unilever. Using directional sound speakers, we were able to create a "sonic blanket" to bring a new dimension into the traditional mall advertising. Sex and the City co-star Mario Cantone, who played the sassy, raspy-voiced "gay friend" Anthony, is the voice of the effort. "The audio and the tone of the campaign is very distinctive, and we looked for a way to incorporate that audio into the media in ways that had never been done before," said Susan Noble, group marketing director at Unilever agency Mindshare. "We've also tested the speakers on billboards six stories up and we've been able to hit the street with a clear audio signal."

Ralph Lauren has received a great deal of press for a new interactive window installation at the compa-ny's flagship store in New York. One very unique aspect is that you can actually purchase items right from the window. They have a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard to handle that. And, if you don't want to purchase right then, you can send the information to yourself via e-mail and complete the transaction at home.

Lexus used a holographic projection system in Times Square to promote its new IS car. According to an article in MediaPost, Robin Pisz, national interactive and relationship marketing manager for Lexus, describes a busy target demographic that demanded a new approach. "This is an audience that is always on," she says, referring to Gen Xers who live on the grid with iPods, cell phones, BlackBerries and more. "They are multitaskers [who] have completely bought into the reality of media fragmentation. They understand that they can get and consume content in multiple platforms at almost any time of day."

Wowing the shoppers of Berlin, MediaZest, together with German media group Axel Springer brought the famous Kurfurstendamm to a virtual standstill with its brilliant holographic displays at C&A's flagship store, promoting a new range of lingerie. In the shop window of the Berlin C&A store in Kurfurstendamm a life size holographic image of a woman modeling the new "Seite 1 Girl" lingerie dances, gesticulates and appears to interact with passersby. MediaZest has used its display technology to create this holographic image and its Whispering Window devices to project sound outside of the store.

Working with Jung Von Matt a website has also been set up to accompany the window display. The model, the lingerie and the reactions of passersby can be viewed on the website and one can vote from a list of 30 options for what the model should do next— options include "blow a kiss," "play the air guitar" and "strip." The web-site periodically aggregates the votes and the model will then act according to the favorite request. The website allows the audience to influence the advertisement and the retailer to gauge interest and reactions in real time.

WHAT'S AHEAD

Multi-touch user interface systems are being developed at a number of research facilities. Microsoft demonstrated a system last year and this year, work being done at NYU has really moved the technology forward. As NYU describes its system:

While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.

The opportunity to have multiple people engaging the system, rather then the one-on-one systems that are currently deployed, will greatly change the way touch screens will be used in the future. They can be larger and more interactive and will bring the technology of Minority Report to retail in the next few years.

We've also seen demonstrations of a "virtual dressing room," projectors that can project on any surface, fog screens and many other technologies that will help create a very different visual landscape. After all, now that you can buy a plasma TV at Wal-Mart, they're not much of an attraction in the store.

One of the most interesting things happening right now is the combining of the real world with the virtual world. Online environments like Second Life have seen a variety of companies create virtual copies of their businesses online. Studies have shown that people are spending approximately $5 million/ month in real dollars buying virtual items.

According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in an analyst call reported by Seeking Alpha, "We look at the amount of hours that are consumed by consumers and let's take 18- to 35-year-old males in the U.S. in front of a video game screen. So last year that was roughly 30 billion hours. Then you compare that to television watching which was to the same demographic roughly 30 billion hours."

According to the stats at Second Life today, there are 573,729 total residents and 257,850 of them have been on line in the last 60 days. More importantly, they've spent $358,699 online in the last 24 hours. One of the first companies to move into Second Life was Wells Fargo, which opened its Stagecoach Island last fall in Second Life. According to the press release disseminated by Wells Fargo:

"Wells Fargo today introduced Stagecoach Island, a free, multi-player, online role-playing game developed to teach young adults important lessons in financial literacy. Wells Fargo is the first financial institution to use an online game of this kind for both financial education and entertainment purposes. Young adults in San Diego and Austin, TX, are the first to experience the Stagecoach Island game in a pilot program that kicked off Labor Day weekend this year and will end in mid-November."

The Stagecoach Island game allows players to select a virtual character and participate in an "island adventure." Participants can choose to explore the virtual islandlush parks, hip cafes, dance clubs, trendy shops, amusement parks, hair salons and more. They can also interact in dozens of virtual, social situations—like skydiving, riding jets-skis or playing games like paintball with other participants. Many activities on the island are "free," but participants gain access to other experiences, such as dancing in a club or purchasing new clothes, by spending, saving and earning virtual money. Players can earn money by visiting the Virtual Learning Lounge and answering trivia questions about banking basics such as budgeting, saving and managing money. The Learning Lounge content is derived from Wells Fargo's signature financial literacy program, Hands on Banking®.

The popularity of online role-playing games is staggering-there are millions of people participating in roleplaying games worldwide and the typical college student spends nearly as much time playing video games (10,000 hours by graduation) as they do in class," said Dr. Rodney Riegle of Illinois State University, developer and teacher of the world's first online Role-Playing Course. "I think that young people who've grown up on computers and video games will embrace the Stagecoach Island experience, which is similar to a video game but actually provides a better opportunity to learn, explore and socialize in an immersive and interactive environment."

British band Duran Duran is creating a virtual island within online game Second Life, on which the musicians will perform actual live concerts. The band is the first major group to announce a virtual world presence in the game. "Since we opened in May, we've sold over 2,000 items to people outfitting their avatars," Raz At the Ralph Lauren flagship store in New York, you can actually purchase items right from the window, using a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard. If you don't want to purchase right then, you can send the information to yourself via e-mail and complete the transaction at home.

Schionning, director of web services for American Apparel, was quoted as saying in a recent article in Ad Age about this phenomenon. In addition, shoppers who buy virtual clothes get 15 percent off the same items in real life. We've barely scratched the surface about what's happening in the retail space. There's more to come.

I'll close with this: There's a big difference between the advertising model and the experience model in terms of making an authentic connection with your audience. It's relatively simple to get people to talk about you; it's much harder to get them to buy you.

Where does "create a better experience" fall on your list of reasons to create your processes and procedures? Remember, your audience is accustomed to using technology in their daily lives. To speak to them in their digital language, to delight them and engage them, you must find relevant new technology that helps tell your brand story more effectively.