Three Southwest Media Group employees recently returned from the 2015 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. Among the many themes and buzzwords discovered while at the event, a few trends emerged:
- Redefining Retail – With consumer attitudes and behaviors changing in today’s marketplace, brands need to create unified, cohesive experiences across channels to achieve retail success. Mobile should be leveraged as the glue that bridges the gap between digital and physical retail.
- Turning Big Data into Actionable Consumer Insights – The ability for companies to turn impersonal data into personable messages will become competitive advantages for brands. The brands on the forefront of this trend are already finding ways to catalogue their products and message to consumers in ways that are building loyalty and larger baskets.
- Frictionless Consumer Experiences – In the wake of new technology, it is increasingly important to use technology as a solution to a consumer problem. Leading experts urged marketers at SXSW to find ways that ease how consumers interact with a brand.
- Visual Storytelling – This is a trend that has arisen out of the need for marketers to digest complicated data quickly. SXSW was ripe with ideas to streamline the data and storytelling process.