MaxMedia & @Barco To Deliver Connected Customer Experience With Retail Innovations At #NRF16

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Global visualization technology company Barco, in collaboration with digital retail experts MaxMedia, Atlanta, will share its solutions for creating engaging shopping experiences designed to maximize sales and drive brand loyalty at this year’s National Retail Federation ‘Retail’s Big Show 2016’ to be held January 17-20 in New York City.

Barco_logoThere is a widespread belief that online shopping is causing the demise of brick and mortar stores, with more than 6,000 shops closing their doors last year.

But retail experts at MaxMedia and Barco believe that e-commerce isn’t the disruptor; rather, it’s the fact that many retailers have not kept pace with consumers’ changing behaviors.

“A new type of shopper has emerged, and we call them ACES: Always Connected, Experience-seeking Shoppers,” says Ed King, vice-president strategy at MaxMedia. “Of course, they’re never more than an arm’s reach away from their treasured technology, but it’s important to remember that they also crave experiences, stories and share-worthy moments when they shop. Retailers that embrace this phenomenon and connect with their customers on a more visceral, emotional level can drive more meaningful – and profitable – shopping experiences.”

MaxMedia logoWith MaxMedia providing strategic planning and dynamic content creation and Barco supplying the enabling tools and technologies to deliver these compelling experiences, retailers can create, manage, and deliver real-time content from any source to any screen to engage customers in an entertaining, emotionally satisfying shopping experience.

Continual feedback from the system allows retailers to analyze audiences, stores, campaigns and more, adapting content and tailoring messaging to customers in the store.

MaxMedia has designed an Emotional Experience CENTER Model to understand what shoppers truly crave in a shopping experience, identifying six emotional triggers that appeal to the non-conscious brain: Comfortable, Easy, Novel, Tactile, Engaging and Rewarding. These triggers turn disconnected browsers into engaged shoppers, and engaged shoppers into loyal buyers. MaxMedia uses this model to diagnose, prescribe and execute customer digital experiences that live up to the increasing demands of the ACES.

In-store digital signage delivers digital storytelling that activates shoppers’ buying brains by maximizing relevance in the retail environment.

“’Relevance’ is the positive connection resulting from images and/or messages that touch the emotional center of a shopper in the store,” says Bas Van Heek, strategic marketing Manager for retail and advertising at Barco. “With bi-directional digital signage, we can directly appeal to customers’ triggers, engaging them in their own personalized story and predisposing them to purchase a product or feel a sense of brand loyalty.

Barco’s Intelligent Display Network is the end-to-end solution that empowers retailers and brand owners to deliver the ultimate, connected customer experience. IDN employs bi-directional communication to better understand shoppers in the store and respond to them with a constant stream of real-time adaptive content. The backbone of IDN is Barco’s cloud-based X2O platform, the visual communication platform that delivers real-time visual communications to the right audience, at the right time, on the right device, displayed using Barco’s LED, LCD and Projection display solutions.

Visitors can experience Barco IDN, featuring the X2O system and Barco display solutions, presenting MaxMedia’s dynamic content in Booth #246 at Retail’s Big Show 2016.


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