P2PX 2016 — the annual convention for shopper marketing professionals, held this year in the Donald E. Stephans convention center in Chicago, highlighted the newest trends and innovations to help marketers engage shoppers and drive in-store activation.
The expo floor was filled with the usual array of impressive shelf displays and print offerings, but one thing definitely stood out as very different this year compared to previous events I’ve attended hosted by the Path to Purchase Institute:
Data.
Anyone walking past the rows of exhibitors couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming presence of digital data providers offering to help enhance media targeting by integrating layers of purchase data and email-to-device targeting. For the first time, it truly seems like digital tools and vendors are fully bridging the gap between online advertising and in-store activation.
Michael Becker, former chair of the Mobile Marketing Association and founder of mCordis and the Connected Marketer Insitute, said:
“The P2PX event this year, as always, was a fantastic experience. It is a must attend event for me every year. This year, a major theme of the event was about data. Specifically, small data, the data and insight that can be leveraged help a marketer better understand, engage, simplify experiences and serve individuals, at scale, across channels.”
Becker, who was a featured speaker at the expo, went on to explain how the wide adoption of these new digital tools is ushering in a shift in how shopper marketers must think about their audience:
“I believe it is critical that shopper marketers recognize they are serving individuals, not ‘shoppers,’ ‘consumers,’ or ‘voters’–which are all simply labels we place on the activities individuals engage in to fulfill their needs. Marketers must learn to service the individual, in context within these activities, on the individual’s terms.”
If you’re in the San Franciso Bay area and you’d like to hear more about the role of “small data” in engaging consumers as individuals, make sure to attend Mr. Becker’s TCMI Summit & Awards Ceremony on November 10th, in San Francisco.
FunMobility will be there, too, so if you’d like to get a promotional code for a discount off the event, make sure to contact us.
