HOW TO WOW 21st CENTURY SHOPPER? LINK DIGITAL WITH PHYSICAL!

18 February 2016

Growing popularity of smart mobile devices has made things easier for retailers. With the arrival of such clever devices as QR codes, Near Field Communication and AR, brands became well equipped to successfully merge offline and online shopping experiences. Truly effective shopper marketing means boosting customer engagement. How to do it better than by applying multiple and diverse channels?

Window shopping 2.0

What it all boils down to is encouraging consumers to engage with physical environment in a digital fashion. In November last year, British House of Fraser decided to give augmented reality a try. Shoppers who earlier downloaded the store's app could have fun with shoppable windows. All you needed to do was to scan a vinyl shape within the store window to activate a ‘Scan to Explore’ feature. Result? You got a complete listing of current in-store deals. Judging by the customers' fairly positive feedback, shoppable windows are the way to go. They surely help get the customer-brand interaction right.

Upgrading print brochures with AR

House of Frasier goes even further in its pursuit of a perfect fusion of digital and physical. It has recently digitalized its paper Home Brochure by enriching its app with AR feature called "Scan and Shop". The new addition drives downloads of the app with links to content such as recipes or 3D models of products. Providing consumers with more information and making the whole shopping experience much more fun help improve sales results, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. In a bid to marry bricks with clicks, Guardian has been placing special offers around travel articles in its physical paper as well as online. Another way to make your content more shoppable is to insert QR codes in leaflets, posters or on billboards. These paper-based hyperlinks can serve as a gate from the offline world to the digital reality.

Merging bricks and clicks with RFID

As regards outdoor advertising, new techs are vital in linking up the digital and physical universes. RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags for Battersea Cats and Dogs Home’s #LookingForYou campaign, developed by creative agency OgilvyOne and out of home media owner Exterion Media, are a great example of how the whole idea works. The goal was to persuade people into visiting the foundation's three physical centres so that more animals get adopted. Visitors to Westfield Stratford City in East London were given leaflets featuring an RFID tag. As they passed by the outdoor digital billboards around the shopping mall, the leaflet activated former Battersea dog Barley on the screen, thus provoking an emotional response.

Source: http://www.marketingweek.com