Digital retail experience agency MaxMedia [1], the industry’s leading voice of retail transformation through emotionally-targeted, digital shopper experiences, today celebrates its 20th anniversary. The milestone coincides with the launch of its ‘Long Live Retail’ campaign, which focuses on crafting digital in-store experiences that lure shoppers back to brick and mortar. As part of this celebration, the company will also host a special event at its Retail Lab in January that will allow and encourage students from local educational institutions to create digital solutions for the future retail experience, using the latest and most innovative technology available.
MaxMedia has excelled in brand extension since CEO Keehln Wheeler founded the company in 1996. MaxMedia’s early designs for web and mobile platforms, which ranged from custom apps and animations to corporate videos and interactive social media, has gradually shifted to location-based experiences that today focus almost exclusively on the retail experience.
Along the way, Wheeler’s leadership and eye for innovation has landed projects with Fortune 100 companies like Coca-Cola and AT&T, and professional sports organizations the NBA and NFL—while incrementally adding new talent to broaden the company’s overall skillset.
One common theme has emerged throughout this upward trajectory: MaxMedia has been committed to the future since 1996, and continues to look forward as the company sharpens its focus on transforming how retailers engage shoppers inside stores.
[2]AT&T Store in line for Best Overall Retail or Mall Experience on December 1, 2016
The latest example of this is AT&T’s 24,000-square foot, three-story-tall flagship retail store [3] in San Francisco, where MaxMedia has designed nearly 100% of the digital media content used to power the retail experience and engage shoppers.
This includes an electronic canvas with custom fluid art and an accompanying soundtrack, all of which rotates between three distinct chapters to support AT&T’s brand: Entertainment, San Francisco Arts and Culture, and Connected Life.
Keehln Wheeler told us “We had our strongest year to date in 2014, which was an ideal time to look subjectively at how we could redefine MaxMedia moving forward. We saw an opportunity to apply our digital, interactive media, and brand extension expertise to the retail space, where we felt that brick and mortar businesses were underserved. Simply adding flat screens with advertising in the aisles will not increase brand and shopper loyalty. The expertise we bring appeals directly to the consumer, and inspires return visits through an engaging mix of timed and synchronized content that balances art and science.”
MaxMedia’s strategy for making people fall in love with brick and mortar shopping—and increasing sales for retail clients—is defined through three initiatives. The first involves creating visual, interactive experiences that align with the retailer’s brand, and ultimately transform the retail experience for shoppers.
The second involves the research, development, and design of forward-looking elements like virtual reality, augmented reality, and holograms that are conceptualized and tested in MaxMedia’s Retail Lab, a unique space where MaxMedia artists and scientists apply emerging technologies and innovations to simulated retail environments.
The third and final element focuses exclusively on helping retailers better understand the in-store journey of their customers. Using strategically placed cameras to study facial expressions, detailed analytics and more, MaxMedia accurately tracks and studies shopper emotion and behavior from beginning to end, using scientific data points to understand what works today and what requires attention to improve the retail experience.
Keehln Wheeler added “Our challenge is to not only bring shoppers into the store, but convert those visits into sales. We continue to bring skilled experts in retail experience, brand awareness, creative design, and behavioral science into MaxMedia to further our skillset and innovative spirit. This ensures we remain a forward-looking agency at a time of enormous change in the retail industry, as we anticipate that a growing number of brands will be looking at transforming their in-store experience over the next 12-18 months.”
As part of its 20th Anniversary celebration and Long Live Retail campaign, MaxMedia will host its first Retail Labathon on January 19-20, 2017 at its Atlanta headquarters. MaxMedia will extend invitations to 20 talented students from Atlanta-area educational institutions and invite them to create new digital solutions tailored to bring joy to shopping. The event will feature guest speakers from MaxMedia (including Wheeler) and high-profile corporations, as well as recognize the creative work of students at the end of the 20-hour Labathon. The winning team will receive $5,000 in scholarships from MaxMedia for continuing education as the students prepare to become the retail industry’s next innovators. Click here for more information and/or to apply as a student participant.