< Previous10 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE ZYLER IN-STORE VIRTUAL TRY-ON EXPERIENCE FOR M&S UK department store Marks & Spencer and technology company Zyler partnered to deliver an in-store virtual try-on experience. M&S brought the technology to their Oxford Circus and Harrogate branches, where the feature was trialled with clothing brand Jaeger. The introduction of this technology provides a personalised shopping journey where customers become the model. Shoppers add a head and shoulders photo and basic measurements to see themselves digitally in the Jaeger collection. Sales assistants guide customers through the process and give style advice. CEO of Zyler, Alexander Berend, described the partnership as “a wonderful opportunity to get customers excited about shopping in- store. Shoppers could see themselves in the entire Jaeger range, including items not in stock at that location, to find the best items for them”. He added, “We are delighted to be working with such an iconic brand as Marks & Spencer to improve the shopping experience.” Fanplayr has announced the launch of its new customer data platform (CDP), Fanplayr 360. Ideal for medium and large sized businesses in the retail and travel sectors, the platform is designed to improve the customer experience, increase new customer acquisitions and improve customer lifetime value and retention. Fanplayr 360 plugs a gap in the market with its CDP platform offering on-demand real-time analytics and insights. Customers now interact with organisations via a variety of different channels, increasing the number of data-driven touchpoints. By unifying data from different sources and having it under the same roof, the platform is able to analyse user behaviours and actions to personalise customer experiences and identify opportunities. This visibility is crucial in understanding customer intent as behaviours change and online competition grows. “CDPs are rising in popularity as businesses look to automate processes such as marketing campaigns and customer segmentation, but many are struggling to gain that elusive 360-degree view of their customers. Knowing your customer is more important than ever during times of economic pressure and shifting buying patterns. Fanplayr 360 is the key to data organisation, audience segmentation, campaign planning, cross-channel marketing orchestration and analytics optimisation,” said Simon Yencken, CEO and Co-Founder, Fanplayr. Users benefit from easy-to-digest and shareable visuals provided by best-in-class analytics. Businesses are able to keep track of all key metrics and trends that are important to them, such as website speed, from the unique perspective of each visitor, and they can quickly visualise what they need to improve and optimise the experience. The platform also allows companies to create insightful reports of how their campaigns and streams are performing, all for a reasonable price and available via flexible plan options based on specific customer requirements. Fanplayr 360 opens up opportunities for personalisation. Businesses can collect all monitored customer data from multiple sources into a unified view of touchpoints, and power end- to-end personalised journeys cross- channel with a catalogue of pre-built integrations. With sensitive customer data also potentially dangerous in the wrong hands, Fanplayr 360 operates in conjunction with best practices in terms of data protection and privacy for optimum security. Alongside compliance with GDPR, strict privacy management and data residency laws are followed with Fanplayr 360. SOC2 compliance is integrated, ensuring optimum security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy of customer data. The platform is also easily incorporated with existing systems such as CRM deployments and marketing tools already used to export and import data, with labelling capabilities making it easily identifiable. Outbound marketing connectors can also join up with email and messaging. . LAUNCH OF FANPLAYR 360 PLATFORM T echnology is constantly changing the way we work, and automation is something business owners will be keeping an eye on in the future. This is definitely the case with artificial intelligence, with the global market for AI predicted to reach $267 billion by 2027. Film and media have warned us that if AI becomes too intelligent, it will take over, and these concerns have fed into real-life fears about technology replacing humans. One study found that around 68.5% of college graduates thought that technology would render them useless or cause them to lose their job in the near future. However, AI can aid human connections and collaborations. In this article, we’ll look at what the results can be, as well as how it can benefit the world of business. AI helps productivity Implementing AI into your business practices can drastically improve employee productivity. As a result, this helps them work more collaboratively. Take meetings for example – you could use an AI program to transcribe the meeting so that you can refer to it later. It could also offer insights on recurring meetings. The customer service industry also has a lot to gain from this tech. Economic Impact and Genesys conducted a survey which found that 65% of customer experience leaders saw an increase in agent productivity. This shows that it isn’t just workplaces benefiting from AI helping their collaborations; it’s connecting employees to customers as well. Is AI going to make us all redundant? Digital signage company Vitec doesn’t think so. Here, the company talks about the benefits to staff and customers 11 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE AI AND YOU – HOW WILL IT AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS?12 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE13 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE AI and inclusivity Over the past few years, remote working has become part of the fabric of working life. In the US alone, more than 4.7 million people are using that option. This is another area where AI can assist in forming and strengthening connections. One of the main pieces of tech used for remote working is video calling, but weak connections can stop work dead in its tracks and slow employees down. However, advancements in AI have seen that it can help boost connections. This lowers the possibility of issues on the call, as well as having the option to make files smaller and keep the collaboration flowing. You could even use it to adjust your lighting and background on the call if you wanted to feel closer to the office. A more personal experience By using AI to give the option of personalisation to customers, you can improve your connection with them as a result. AI tools can take data and use it to learn what a specific audience wants within their experience and tailor the content to meet those needs. When a customer feels catered to, this can have a positive impact on customer engagement and can lead to returning business, establishing loyalty. And if they have any further needs, AI chatbots can be installed so that simpler questions can be answered quickly and efficiently. This is efficient and allows more time for human agents to focus on the more difficult enquiries from customers. Decision-making with precision AI can be useful in finalising decisions. When you have a group of employees collaborating on something creative, it can be hard to pin down all the many ideas that get thrown into the mix. Some AI tools can be programmed to recognise and analyse certain ideas, with a particular focus on isolating them and making a decision based on data. When you have a group of employees collaborating on something creative, it can be hard to pin down all the many ideas that get thrown into the mix. AI can isolate ideas and make a decision based on data 14 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE There are some digital options for sharing the decision-making process with your employees through the likes of IPTV distribution. So no matter whether you’re in the office or working remotely, you can feel part of the collaboration and see the progression. The learning benefits AI can help to boost established training courses. No matter where you land within a business structure, there is always more to learn. AI is being used to track where employees need help in their learning. This can help those who need an extra hand to feel valued and encouraged to maintain their drive to develop. Throughout business structures, there are numerous ways that adding artificial intelligence can help boost your processes. Once you’ve gotten past the idea of AI making humans obsolete, you begin to see how many human aspects, such as connecting with others and overall engagement, would be helped by AI. Keeping your employees and customers on good terms and happy is important as a business leader, and AI can help maintain that. All of this helps in making sure your business sees success both externally and internally.15 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEIn the age of digital transformation, it can sometimes feel as though the success of any project rests entirely upon the tech you adopt to deliver it. It’s true that new tools and developments enable us to achieve greater successes and measure them in ways we could only have dreamed of a few years ago, but it’s important to remember that when it comes to the task of engaging an audience with visual content, the fundamentals are the same as they ever were. Because people are still people. Perhaps that sounds like a rather simple point to make. But, over years of producing visual content – often with the audience looking directly over our shoulders as we do it - we’ve been lucky to learn at first-hand what people value about seeing information visualised; what makes them remember some things and forget others; what makes them feel seen, helped, guided, understood and, crucially, engaged with. What began as a live illustration agency, quickly evolved into a multi-service visual thinking agency, where pictures – in the form of animations, illustrations, infographics, vision maps and interactive installations – do the hard work. The lessons our team learned at the coalface of live event illustration, have stood us in good stead as we have sought to embrace the new technologies and satisfy our clients’ appetite for innovation. Whatever the format, it’s important we remain true to these five very human-centred rules of engagement. The human touch Digital doesn’t have to mean that you lose the human touch in your communications. And, as a company well-known for our hand-drawn content, we’ve really experimented with how to combine our skills with benefits and possibilities of digital formats. Perhaps the simplest interpretation of this brief can be found in a project we did for Kelly OCG, where our team illustrated live content over the top of a bespoke video installation for a unique and phenomenally impactful event experience. Reward them for their attention For us AR has provided a really rich seam of interactive possibilities. There is nothing quite like seeing your audience take a deep dive into your content, via phone or ipad, using beautifully designed AR triggers. And this aligns with a really A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION Rachel Porter is director of content and storytelling at Scriberia, an agency that combines consultancy with creativity to help clients communicate their vision. Here, she offers her top tips for engaging an audience with visuals RACHEL PORTER- DIRECTOR OF CONTENT AND STORYTELLING, SCRIBERIA 16 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE17 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE A customer experience or journey should be visualised end to end or the effects can be incoherent or jarring key principle of good visual content, which is that the more time your audience invests in exploring the content, the more rewarding the experience should be. So, attract them with larger, bolder concepts, and then - through AR or more traditional means - deliver and delight them with the detail. Be coherent When it comes to spoken or written language, we’d probably all agree that it’s a good idea to pick one and stick to it when you’re trying to communicate clearly. Visual language is no different. When a customer experience or journey is not visualised end-to-end, and assets like signage, maps, banners, ticketing and website UX, aren’t considered and commissioned collectively, the effect can be incoherent or even jarring. But when you create a coherent visual language in your branding - through colours, shapes, fonts, animated transitions - which can lend itself to assets of every kind, and appear at every stage of a customer experience or journey - audiences find you far easier to engage with. Let them tell the story The human brain is hard-wired for narrative and seeks it everywhere. It doesn’t demand thousands of words; a single image can contain enough of a narrative morsel to seize the attention of your audience. But an image that requires something of your audience’s imagination to connect the dots, and make a story, generates true engagement. Like a book with a page missing, it presents your audience with the irresistible challenge of creating a complete story. So consider whether your imagery leaves your story-seeking audience with any mental work to do. Make them the hero We all know that tech can help you tailor your message to your audience, but don’t overlook opportunities to ask your audience for more direct input. Inclusion means a great deal to people who rarely find themselves in the picture. Believe it or not, our illustrated capture of conference conversations, have brought delegates to tears over the years! So use whatever means you have at your disposal – surveys, polls, social media hashtags – to canvas their opinions, their thoughts and their feelings, and incorporate them into your content. At Scriberia we’re exploring ways to incorporate this kind of audience- generated content into a projection-mapped animation, suitable for large event spaces. But the principle remains, whatever format or space you’re working in. 18 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE The human brain is hard-wired for narrative and seeks it everywhere. A single image can contain enough of a morsel to seize the attention of your audienceSPONSORED CONTENT 19 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINENext >