Creating A Valuable User Experience

By Kaylyn Bredon, Senior Interactive Designer/UX Specialist

The UX shift

It used to say a lot about your brand if you had any sort of web presence. But now, the world is changing. Today’s web content is infinite—everyone has a website, a subsequent mobile version and there are more apps than we will ever know what to do with. With all these choices, people are flocking to places that provide the best user experience, whether it's to places that make them feel good or to brands that provide them value.

At the South by Southwest festival this year, conversation around the user experience was at the forefront of many discussions. That's because, in the ad world, the campaigns and tools that are resonating the most, are all about the user. They meet the most basic needs, such as functionality working all the way up to delightfully surprising the user with unpretentious amusement.

For retailers, embracing the shift to making the user experience central (or the UX Shift) will result in: increased brand loyalty, repeat transactions, and deeper consumer insight that feeds future brand strategies.

Geo-targeting Consumers: The Potential And The Pitfalls

By Joe Sano, Director, Interactive Services
Marketers and retailers have been grappling with how to best capitalize on “organic” foot traffic near their stores for decades. “The heavy lifting is done! All I need to do is get them in the door!”

Enter geo-targeting (and its other contextually-aware brethren).

The term “geo-targeting” has been around a while, and it’s been used fairly primitively for a number of years. And, by primitive, I mean clunky and/or irrelevant.

But, recent advances in mobile tech have presented some pretty compelling, sophisticated and (surprisingly) user-friendly options that marketers should take notice of. Coincidentally, this is also the reason they were the focus of a LOT of conversation at this year’s South by Southwest.

The importance of adaptation: Evolving agencies

By Steve Agganis, VP Interactive

SXSW is a great place to learn about the existing and upcoming opportunities in the technology/interactive space.  In that regard, the conference is an absolute must and I believe continues to be highly relevant for all marketers. Technology will present itself, apps will emerge and Austin will continue to be weird.

You may have read or heard that this was the year that SXSW “jumped the shark” and was no longer “cool.”

I heard this myself while I was there. And, after a few days, I started to believe that the reason many vets likely felt it wasn’t as “cool” was because marketers have changed the questions they’re asking when presented with new technology.

Re-thinking the in-store experience

By David Smith, Senior Interactive Strategist

In recent months there has been a lot of chatter about the future of brick and mortar retailers. Price-slashing and cost-cutting by online-only retailers, primarily Amazon, has created a shopping environment that encourages consumers to “shop” in store, but buy online.

At SXSW this year, an extensive discussion revolved around this very topic. Here’s our take on the discussion.

Make shopping an experience again

Will most traditional retailers ever be able to compete with the low-overhead, high-volume model of the Amazons of the world? Probably not. But, should they even try?

Four different perspectives from the 2012 SXSW festival

For a week each year, Austin, Texas becomes the center of the tech universe as it plays host to an industry festival that has become unrivaled in terms of size and scope – South by Southwest.

This year’s SXSW was about ‘why.’ Why would a user engage with my product? Why would this experience I’m building inspire someone to make a purchase? Why would a user come back and continue to engage with my brand?

SBC Advertising sent four team members from our interactive team to this year’s festival: Steve Agganis, VP, Interactive Services; Kaylyn Bredon, Senior Interactive Designer, UX Specialist; Joe Sano, Director, Interactive Services; and David Smith, Senior Interactive Strategist.

Dispatches from the Future of Retail: GlobalShop 2012

By Matt Wilson, SBC General Manager

It’s the first week of March, and I’m out in Las Vegas attending GlobalShop 2012, the largest store design and at-retail marketing show in the United States.

DAY 1: Solving the in-store problems of today with the tools of tomorrow

GlobalShop is really two shows in one. Show One: Fixtures, store visualization, display systems, and data systems. Show Two: The Future. What was futuristic last year is now a reality.

Here are a few developments from this year’s show, with more coming at the conclusion.