A forum for Australia’s leading retail and FMCG marketing minds

The head of customer experience design at the UK’s second-largest retailer, Sainsbury’s Clare Muscutt, joins the summit to outline the importance of customer experience design in an ever changing omni-channel world, and the common pitfalls businesses make.

Muscutt will share how great design can not only be used to create a distinctive brand experience based on customer needs, but also drive business decision making. She says the key questions organisations need to ask themselves are: What do we want to be for our customers in 3-5 years’ time? And are we really focussing on the right stuff to get us there?
Muscutt will outline how by designing the touch points in the customer experience, incorporating communications, commerce and customer service and aligning cross functional teams around a customer vision, businesses like Sainsbury’s are achieving their ambition to be a place the ‘most trusted retailer, where people love to work and shop’.

For a multi-product, multi-channel retailer like Sainsbury’s, this means the ambition of consistently delivering a targeted experience at scale to 25 million customers, through 160,000 colleagues, across 1000 stores, 3 contact centres, 2 websites, 6 apps and thousands of collections and home deliveries every single week.

Muscutt is an award-winning, creative customer experience leader with extensive experience in omnichannel customer experience strategy, design and delivery within FTSE 100 organisations. Muscutt’s presentation will bring to life some of the tools used to design CX at Sainsbury’s and share how to break down barriers between channels to join the dots for your customers.

Global research firm, YouGov, will reveal the results of newly-commissioned research into the brand health of the Australia’s major retail and FMCG players. The session will also feature a panel of chief marketers from Unilever, McDonald’s and Luxottica, along with media agency OMD, to discuss the key drivers to building strong brands that wins the trust and loyalty of consumers.

The session combines the latest insights into how consumers perceive and interact with brands and brand influencers, while tapping into the latest thinking from a panel of marketing leaders.

In a year that saw virtual and augmented reality come of age with Oculus, Samsung, Sony, Google, HTC and Microsoft exploring new frontiers and commercial applications for the technology, the growth of this burgeoning industry is forecast to exceed $150bn by 2020, according to a Digi-Capital report.

Don’t get left behind – find out how Australian retailers and brands are utilising VR and AR for social media, tourism, sales, store design, category platforms, training and unique shopper experiences. This session will include a live demonstration of Microsoft’s HoloLens and Oculus Rift platforms, followed by a Q&A on the future of the technology and commercial impact.

While digital marketing activity is often synonymous with online sales, the high penetration of smartphones in Australia means the mobile device is playing an increasingly important role in driving offline sales. In this session, hear from a panel of leading retailers on the progressive steps they have taken with mobile, and their learnings and results from recent mobile marketing initiatives.

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) will outline how its locally-developed user journey model – which puts the consumer, shopper and retailer at the heart of all its business decisions and strategies – is driving growth.

TWE’s new wine relationship journey model, conceived last year in Australia with its agency partner JWT, has since been rolled out across the wine company’s businesses globally after seeing success in the local market.

In this presentation, Angus Lilley, TWE ANZ Marketing Director, and Georgia Bruton, JWT Managing Partner, Shopper, will take delegates through how the application of the bespoke model has delivered results for both their brands such as Wolf Blass and Gentlemen’s Collection, and the overarching business globally.

They will share how this new approach has created a greater and more robust focus on insight gathering from the varying mindsets of the consumer, shopper and retailer.

JWT leads TWE’s brand and shopper marketing strategies and campaigns around the world from its Australian office.

A best practice case study in sponsorship for retailers. Learn how Supercheap Auto turned its sponsorship of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race into the second-largest retail event of the year (behind Christmas).

See how the auto retailer transformed the sponsorship property from a ‘logos on signs’ approach, to a fully immersive customer experience across advertising, social media, pop-up retail and loyalty.

L’Oreal’s digital chief Christophe Eymery will discuss how the beauty company is using technology, including augmented reality and wearable technology, to expand its beauty services and link back to eRetail.

Eymery will outline L’Oreal’s recent digital initiatives and the results so far, including its “Matrix Colour Lounge” which uses AR technology to create a hair colour simulator; the “My UV Patch” which is a wearable electronic device designed to measure users’ exposure to UV and educate them on sun protection; and its “MakeUp Genius” app which uses facial mapping technology that allows consumers to try on products and makeup styles in real time.

Drawing on the latest findings from Ehrenberg-Bass Institute – the world’s largest centre for research into marketing – marketing scientist Dr Bill Page will look at the influence of children on the in-store behaviour of parents, and explore questions such as: Do people visit different parts of the store when kids go with them? How do children wield pester power – do tantrums work?

Dr Page’s presentation will offer practical, evidence-based insights and provide implications for retailers and brand managers. Dr Page is a marketing scientist whose research focuses on shopper behaviour leading to purchase in the grocery environment. His expertise covers in-store navigation patterns, child understanding and response to advertising, and consumer behaviour.

Just over three years ago when Dave Fenlon joined Blackmores as its MD, he and his team set about reviewing how the vitamins company could more effectively reach its customers. In this session, Fenlon and Tim Trumper from data analytics firm Quantium, will provide a holistic view of how they’ve worked to better understand customer behaviour through data and analytics, and leverage data-driven insights to bring about real business results.

Fenlon, who joined Blackmores in 2013, has held key leadership positions in Tesco throughout Europe and Safeway in the UK; while Trumper was previously CEO of Time Inc, Commercial Director at PBL Media and Director at NRMA.

How do you compete with the Topshops and H&Ms of the world if you’re an Australian brand targeting millennials?

For Sportsgirl, it has meant continuing to reinvent and differentiate itself to stay relevant in a highly competitive market. The fashion retailer’s chief marketer, Anna Stevens, will share Sportsgirls’ new brand story which started two and half years ago when it launched a refreshed competitive brand positioning, re-defined what it means to be a uniquely Australian brand, and how it connects with its 16-24 year olds customers in-store, through digital, events and loyalty-driving initiatives.

Meanwhile, Jeanswest’s GM of marketing Belinda Waller and its creative agency Pencil & Pixel managing partner Andrew Williams will outline their six approaches to innovation which has seen the retailer push into a more premium space. From content creation, to powerful collaborations, unique product lines and new-look stores, all these elements are playing a key role in raising brand perceptions and attracting new customers.

Like wildfire, advanced analytics and predictive modelling are penetrating almost every corner of organisational decision making. Sadly, marketing communications is not only far from being at the forefront of this movement, but in many cases it’s nowhere to be seen.

Forethought’s Christopher Barry will set out some key principles for the application of marketing science in communications, followed by a co-presentation with Coles’ Dale Preston on the real-time insights that are enabling the supermarket chain to plot its share-gaining path and side-step competitive initiatives.

If we can predict change in market share and dissect predictive models into their requisite components why then are these scientifically validated drivers of market share not finding their way into creative briefs?

An in-depth view into the complete re-imagining of the Myer Sydney flagship store with the launch of “Wonderland by Myer”. Myer’s Timothy Clark and IdeaWorks’ Danny Lattouf will talk about its role as part of the “New Myer” strategy – the retailer’s five-year transformation plan.

The presentation will include the vision for Wonderland which is centred around storytelling and creating immersive experiences. Clark and Lattouf will take the audience on a detailed journey of how the idea was conceived, developed and executed – which saw the complete transformation of Myer Pitt Street’s level 6 dedicated to childrenswear, toys, gifting and year round event offering. Finally, they’ll provide insights into the learnings and performance so far based on objectives around customer experience and retail performance; as well as the future and ongoing evolution of “Wonderland by Myer”.

Ingrid Maes, Woolworths’ director of loyalty and data, will co-present with Adam Driussi, CEO of data analytics firm Quantium, on the strategic programs they have worked on, including the supermarket giant’s rewards program, which have effectively driven customer loyalty.

SapientNitro’s experience design lead, Cassandra Kelsall and ECD, Paul Taylor will outline the current state of e-commerce and how a relentless focus on transacting alone will not be defensible territory for brands in the future. This session will cover:

– How identifying the ‘Must-Win-Moments’ for your brand can create value, loyalty and growth
– Transactional Experiences vs. Emotional Experiences – why a balance of both is key for brands to succeed
– How a few basic techniques can go a long way to develop emotionally resonant e-commerce experiences
– Tangible steps you can take now to start to create an emotional connection with your consumers

Contemporary marketing theory stresses the distinction between short-term sales activations and long-term brand building – especially in the world of retail.

But what if ‘short’ and ‘long’ are mutually beneficial, not mutually exclusive? What if an over-emphasis on the traditional distinctions between ‘retail’ and ‘brand’ advertising actually hurts more than it helps?

BMF’s planning chiefs, Hugh Munro and Ali Tilling, will share examples of how retail brands have seen success by blinding themselves to these traditional distinctions, including Australia’s fastest-growing major retailer, Aldi.

Aldi case study: After five successful years, Aldi’s “Perfect Aussie Christmas” campaign suggests there may be another model for retail marketing – one where brands don’t just sell products, but products can help build a brand. Munro and Tiling will reveal how in the long run, a company’s most frantic sales period can also have the biggest impact on the perception of the brand.

We all know that the digital revolution has completely transformed the way consumers are interacting with brands, yet the real problem is that most businesses are still struggling to keep up. In this session, Pip Stocks, founder of brand insights agency BrandHook, will:

1. Identify the seven changes in consumer behaviour, from how consumers are researching differently and negotiating a better deal, to how they’re building their own solutions
2. Look into what consumers want from their brand experiences, including an intuitive bond, real-time interaction and proper personalisation
3. Demonstrate how successful FMCG and retail brands are adapting to their needs from new ways to buy, such as through Slyce, or tailoring with Aesop

BrandHook works with clients including Heinz, Coles, County Road, Best & Less, Harris Scarfe, Schweppes, Macquarie Bank and Hyundai.

Tiberio Caetano, chief scientist at machine learning specialist firm Ambiata, will separate the truth from the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) and explore:

• Why AI/machine Learning is relevant to the FMCG and retail sectors, outlining the benefits it can provide
• How to get started with AI/machine learning to improve your company’s bottom line
• Provide a case study in which AI/machine learning was successfully applied

Amazon’s threat to traditional retail has been widely documented as it continues its march to deliver shoppers data-driven, automated, real-time services through its suite of complimentary offerings including Amazon Prime, Amazon Echo, Amazon Dash and Amazon Fresh.

Major bricks-and-mortar retailers in the US such as JCPenney, Sears and Best Buy have been experiencing first hand what it’s like to have their lunch eaten by the online retail behemoth. And now with news of Amazon Go’s imminent arrival to Australian shores – its new concept store which uses sensors and artificial intelligence to eradicate time-consuming check outs – there’s no doubting that it will be a game-changer for the Australian retail industry.

In this session, Accenture’s Nhung Mason will present on Amazon’s expanding retail ecosystem, what it means for consumers, and the impact on retailers. Nhung’s presentation will be followed by a panel discussion on what Australian retailers should be doing to future-proof their businesses.