On July 28th the who’s who of Aotearoa’s retail marketing world made up a full house at The Cloud, a stunning venue overlooking the Waitematā Harbour, to share and to learn at the Future of Retail Marketing Conference.
Supported by MediaWorks, and tapping into NZ Marketing magazines’ extensive network, the conference brought together retailers, their marketing partners as well as key industry players and service providers to look to the future and workshop strategies that will help the sector recover after a rough couple of years.
Following introductions from broadcaster and MC Trudi Nelson, Greg Harford, Chief Executive of Retail NZ kicked off the morning with a pre-recorded presentation on the ‘State of Retail in NZ’ giving a good foundation to build the rest of the discussions on.
Juanita Neville-Te Rito, Managing Director and Founder of RX, was a crowd favourite and shared what she learnt during her recent travels checking out the innovative ways international retailers are ‘Rethinking Retail Engagement’.
“It was such a pleasure to be at the event. What an awesome bunch of people and wonderful insights from all speakers,” she commented.
Next up was Bruce Gourley, Strategy Director at HYPER who spoke on ‘The Forgotten Medium’ and how stores need to be designed as experiences. His talk addressed how marketing needs to play a greater role in defining the store as a medium to be experienced.
After an insightful question and answer session followed by a delicious morning tea, the conference moved into keynote talks addressing customer-centric retail experiences.
Richard Hale, Managing Director Media at dentsu Aotearoa, shared his insight into some of the findings identified in the agency’s ‘Shopper DNA: The Future of Retail research project’. He offered up some thought provoking trends that marketers should be considering to ensure they are responding to the changing landscape and evolving consumer demand.
Dominic Quin of Foodstuffs, Abby Parkin of PHD Media and Rupert Price from DDB Aotearoa were next up sharing how they go about winning customers in the moments that matter. They spoke on the importance of emotion when connecting with customers on the path to purchase and how they applied this to New World in their approach to comms and media.
Simon Laird of Google kicked things off after a delicious catered lunch speaking on the non-stop nature of online shopping. Retailers are needing to recognise that shopping starts online even if shoppers complete the purchase in-store. To keep up, retailers need to realise the doors that open when a hybrid digital-physical experience is created.
Tyler Condon, Commercial Lead of Stocard ANZ at Klarna offered insight into what the industry expects from retailers and how the shift in consumer behaviour shows no sign of slowing down as the retail space recovers from the pandemic.
Speaking on retail media Liam Crause of Cartology gave a detailed presentation discussing how brands like Cartology can help retailers understand insights and activate across the entire shopper journey and why omnichannel isn’t a bad word as long as you can deliver on it.
The conference concluded with a talk on ‘What happens when media, customer and shopping experiences collide?’ by Nicky Greville of Spark Foundry.
Her presentation explored the role that cultural relevance and popular culture have in people’s purchasing decisions and what might happen when media, customer and shopping come together, using James Dean and Stranger Things to demonstrate this.
She says it was a “wonderful event” and she had “the best time” putting some smiles on people’s faces at the end of the day.
Attendee Wendy Ballard, from financial technology company Zip Co, enjoyed the chance to have face to face time and says the day was “excellent and well run”.
Juliette Lynch, NZ Sales and Marketing Manager for Booster Wine Group, who also attended the one day conference, commented that it was “a great event and fantastic value”.
David Nothling-Demmer, editor of NZ Marketing magazine, thanked all the sponsors for their support and help making this event a success.
“To MediaWorks NZ, our amazing Premier Sponsor – your contribution to the event and indeed the industry is much appreciated,” he said.
“As is the incredible support we received from Event Partners, Google, Cartology New Zealand, Klarna, HYPER NZ and SCG.”
Click here to watch the talks.
