Featured image by Danny Gross
On a particularly crisp and sunny Seattle morning, thousands of attendees gathered for the first day of Seattle Interactive Conference 2015, one of the premier technology conferences in the Northwest. Held November 3 – 4 this year, the conference brings together influential individuals and companies from all corners of tech, from vice presidents at major companies like Microsoft to entrepreneurs at small and scrappy start ups. The conference seeks to help attendees identify “the next big thing” in tech, and this year designing products with an obsessive customer focus, the potential of wearables and a dependance on data were common themes. Read on for a recap of day one of the conference, held Tuesday, November 3 at the Washington State Convention Center. Stay tuned for coverage of day two tomorrow!
AOL’s Digital Prophet: David Shing on Creating Context for Creativity
By Samantha Hautea
The sessions kicked off with a keynote from David Shing (@shingy), AOL’s Digital Prophet, who has spoken at SIC previously. In a rapid-fire talk titled “Culture, Code + Creativity,” Shing expounded on how he perceives the landscape of marketing has expanded and changed, taking the audience on a whirlwind tour of modern marketing and brand storytelling.
David Shing, technologist and AOL’s Digital Profit, opened up the Seattle Interactive Conference as the keynote speaker. He touched on the themes of behavior influenced by technology, the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, and how the importance of people has begun to outweigh the importance of brands. Photo by Danny Gross.
Every year brings a new buzzword to the marketing industry, and this time, Shing claimed it was the overused word “disruption.” Every brand wants to be the next AirBnb, Kickstarter, or Uber, and executives are looking for opportunities to “disrupt” the market in their sector. However, Shing says not enough businesses are thinking about how such a disruption would actually affect their business model. Instead of aiming to be disruptive for disruption’s sake, Shing said the key to solving problems is for companies to strive to understand their users.
@shingy: "You have to think about the fact that technology changes behavior…but it doesn’t change need." #SIC2015
— Samantha Hautea (@mannerminded) November 3, 2015
Something to keep in mind, Shing said, is the shifting demographics and changes in social values of consumers in the millennial, who are more socially-minded than ever. Reflecting changes in society in marketing can make it incredibly powerful, like Proctor & Gamble’s #LikeAGirl campaign, which challenges gender stereotypes and self-esteem.
Shing went on to discuss other trends such as wearables and the challenges of adapting content for them. Attracting attention to your product becomes much more difficult when the competition is not other brands, but anyone with their phone in their pocket. For brands to stand out in this space, he said, it’s critical to “align physical and digital products so that they feel like the same ethos,” and brands should take advantage of big data to create predictive, contextual experiences instead of just trying to show the right ad at the right time.
Given that we live in a world of more data, where anyone can become a content creator, are marketers and designers in danger of being replaced by technology? Shing remained optimistic.
.@shingy: We’re in an industry that’s human by design. Technology won’t replace humans. #SIC2015
— Samantha Hautea (@mannerminded) November 3, 2015
Starbucks Forging Ahead to New Frontiers in Customer Experience: Spotify Playlists, NYTimes News and Delivery Service All on the Way
By Elisabeth Naughton
Starbucks VP of Digital Products Ben Straley (@bstraley) spoke to a packed room on Tuesday about the company’s ever-evolving quest to provide outstanding customer experiences both in-store and online.
Key to that effort, says Straley, is the development and seamless integration of Starbucks app-based payment and loyalty programs into the in-store experience. Mobile ordering and payment now account for 21 percent of all Starbucks store transactions. Straley predicts that percentage will grow as the company partners with Spotify and The New York Times in the coming year.
Starbucks VP of Digital Products Ben Straley spoke on day 1 of Seattle Interactive Conference. Photo by Elisabeth Naughton.
Straley says Starbucks is always looking for the North Star of customer experience. Curated Spotify playlists are an update and extension of the company’s long history of integrating and selling music in-store, and Straley says music will remain an important part of the Starbucks brand. Starbucks customers love to read the newspaper, and Straley says bringing The New York Times’ content to their customers will enhance and support what customers already appreciate and associate with their time at the store.
As it did previously with app-payment and online ordering, Starbucks is currently testing delivery service options in limited markets. They’re partnering with Postmates in Seattle and have developed a “green-apron” delivery service in the Empire State Building to bring coffee up the many floors of the high rise. Straley says that should both efforts develop successfully, the services will expand to more markets.
Looking ahead, Straley says Starbucks is looking at Context-Driven Experiences and smart, new uses of data to further enhance customer experience.
The Emerging Opportunity of the Mobile-to Offline Advertisement
By Meena Tang
John Busby on converting online behavior to offline purchases. Photo by Meena Tang.
Over the years, rising smartphone usage has transformed the way people purchase their good and services, and it has become crucial for marketers to understand the mobile consumer path to purchasing. John Busby (@JohnMBusby), Marchex’s senior vice president of marketing and consumer insights, talked the audience through mobile consumers’ purchasing decisions and the challenges marketers are facing in analyzing them in the “The New $2 Trillion Mobile-to Offline Economy: How The Consumer Path to Purchase is Changing” session.
He said consumers spent more than $300 billion at e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com, and five times the amount, $1.5 trillion, at a physical store after making a purchasing decision online. Busby mentioned that Amazon.com just opened its first physical bookstore in University Village, and said it was an example of a company’s response to this consumer behavior pattern. Consumers nowadays don’t just want to buy things online; they also want an offline, in-store experience as well.
The real challenge for marketers in mobile advertising is measuring the effectiveness of an online campaign in offline purchases. Unlike an online purchase, marketers cannot track the ROI of an ad when consumers make a purchase offline. “Offline purchases are still a mystery to marketers” said Busby.
Busby ended the session with his predictions that leading companies are going to focus more on developing and understanding on how online advertising can influence consumers to make an offline purchase. Busby said mobile analytics will become a major point of emphasis for CMO offices in years to come.
Chasing Unicorns: Glowforge and Madrona Ventures on Seattle’s Startup Scene
by Meena Tang
What does it take for a startup entrepreneur to thrive in the eyes of investors? How do you develop a unique, marketable business? Julie Sandler (@juliesandler), a Principal at Madrona Venture Group, Dan Shapiro (@danshapiro), the CEO and Cofounder of Glowforge and Shauna Causey (@ShaunaCausey), the startup advisor have given some valuable advices in the panel “Creating a Unicorn: Exploring Seattle’s Startup and Venture Trends”.
Sandler, who has worked with and supported many startups, started off by discussing some qualities of a startup entrepreneur who impressed her. When asked about one of the top startup companies in Seattle she’s working with right now, Sandler praised an entrepreneur from a startup company called Booster Fuels. She mentioned this person for being thoughtful, having thorough knowledge in his industry and having the determination to overcome obstacles. She also said she loves working with very consumer-focused startups that approach a product market fit through consumer’ eyes.
Left to Right: Julie Sandler (Madrona Ventures), Dan Shapiro (Glowforge), and Shauna Causey (Moderator). Julie Sandler, a principal at Madrona Ventures, said companies spend too much effort trying to be the next billion-dollar unicorn company and lose sight of making truly useful products. Photo by Zhang (Awen) Wen.
Dan Shapiro is a good example of a successful entrepreneur who created an incredible consumer-oriented startup company. He is the man behind Glowforge, the 3D printer that is the biggest 30-day crowd-funding Kickstarter campaign in the history. During the session, he described how passionate he was about the idea of creating an accessible 3D printer when he first started the project in his garage. Another key element in Shapiro’s success was his eagerness to ask for feedback and learn from talented people in different industries.
When trying to find an investor for your products, look at it as a matchmaking process, not a selling process. Try to learn more. #SIC2015
— Samantha Hautea (@mannerminded) November 3, 2015
The three panelists all agreed that what most successful startups have in common is the passion for what they do. Many times, people are too obsessed with trying to be the next “unicorn” company that they end up doing something they don’t enjoy. “What creates a unicorn?”Sandler said. “It’s a thriving, happy, growing, customer-based people who are passionate about their products.”
You can build tremendously impactful companies that are not venture-oriented. Not every entrepreneur needs to be a unicorn. #SIC2015
— Samantha Hautea (@mannerminded) November 3, 2015
A final key takeaway from the panel was Shapiro’s efforts to ensure diversity within his startup. He believes there’s no reason that startups can’t lead in creating diverse workforces. Shapiro said he knew Glowforge would be used by a diverse group of people, so he made a conscious decision to incorporate diversity into his hiring from the beginning, even diversifying their applicant pool by giving people financial incentives to go the extra mile to recruit more diverse applicants.
.@glowforge had a business imperative to hire a diverse team that reflected the audience for their product @danshapiro #SIC2015
— Elisabeth Naughton (@e_naughton) November 3, 2015
Automating the Obvious
By Susan Ralston
Justin Woo (@jzwooo), a.k.a. “payment geek” of Braintree/PayPal, entertained the crowd with his dry humored credit card jokes, while enlightening people on the obvious – making it easy for consumers to make online purchases, especially via mobile apps. In short, he stated that companies always need to think about the “customer experience” for purchasing anything using their mobile apps or via e-commerce, and keep the UI/UX easy for customers to “just buy” vs. worrying about the complexities of the payment process.
Woo provided examples of several companies that are doing it right by eliminating obstacles for the customer to provide credit card information. They focus on customers enjoying the shopping experience and getting instant gratification of what they purchase online. For example, when you sign up for ride-haring service Uber, the site auto detects your type of credit card when you enter in the first 4-digits of the card (e.g. VISA, MasterCard), so you don’t have to. Uber, along with Hotel Tonight, store this information easily so customers can purchase a car or room quickly, and get payment validation on demand.
Want to learn more about improving the user experience and ensure you always get that credit card sale? Woo recommended checking out Creditcard.js to get an idea on how to streamline the credit card experience along with Skeuocard. As Ken Keiter of Skeuocard states in his article Redesigning The Credit Card Input, “Every question a user has to ask themselves during the checkout process is another reason for them not to complete it.”
Designing the User Experience of the Novel
by Marie-Louise Hellensberg
The room is low lit and some country/pop song is playing over the speakers. There are two large screens flanking the stage displaying tweets from the conference. This is my first time at the Seattle Interactive Conference, and I don’t really know what to expect.
After waiting for a few minutes, a young guy walks onto the stage to introduce the speaker of this session – Hillel Cooperman, co-founder of Jackson Fish Market, responsible for the Windows desktop UX and more recently, novelist. His session is “Designing the User Experience of a Novel”, an interesting title that blends the online with the offline.
About half the chairs in the room are occupied and people have spread themselves out pretty evenly. No reason to get too close to other people, surely. Cooperman appeals to people to move closer to the stage, and assures us “I’m super interesting and I smell good!”
So, what does design have to do with a novel? Well, according to Cooperman, design is to teach people how things work, and that is what he sets out to do with this session. He teaches the audience how he wrote a novel, or rather a series of books.
Cooperman believes in writing about what you know, which is why he based his storyline on his own family. As an added twist, he gave his kids superpowers. Armed with the 17 steps of Joseph Cambell’s Monomyth, humor and an abundance of slides, Cooperman takes us through the storyline of his first novel, pointing out the different steps along the way. There is something to be said for his method to plot out the whole novel in an excel sheet. If nothing else, at least he is sure to hit all the steps.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when the session started, and despite having spent 50 minutes being thoroughly entertained, I was just as confused when I left the session. But at least I had a good time.
Channeling da Vinci: The Art and Science of Mobile Marketing
by Zhang (“Awen”) Wen
Mobile marketing has been greatly reshaped in recent years. But how can marketers capitalize on this? Paul Peterman, head of industry, global marketing solutions at Facebook, discussed how the consumer experience has been changing in recent years and following the trend of mobilization. He mentioned a few stats:
Mobile apps are taking center stage, with app usage growing 90 percent over two years.
Mobile is greatly changing how people consume video.
60 percent of people use two or more devices a day.
Consumers do 40 percent of their shopping on a mobile device.
Livetweeting: The art&science of mobile marketing with Amy, Irena, Kari and Paul. #SIC2015 @seattleinteract pic.twitter.com/o2UU30j1jr
— Awen Zhang (@Awen23z) November 3, 2015
Aside from mentioning mobile, every speaker offered some sound advice to the audience based on their working experience, whether it was based on success or failure. Amy Stettler, GM of global media and integrated partnerships at Microsoft, advised that training your consumers to become more adapted to personalized mobile devices, which is part of Microsoft’s strategy. Irena Hsu, director of worldwide display advertising and mobile marketing at Groupon, proposed that companies should work with third parties that own consumers’ data. Kari Marshall, senior media director at T-Mobile, suggested that companies focus on consumer experiences and solve problems from the consumer standpoint. For example, she found people watch mobile videos vertically because of the design of mobile phones, but most videos are filmed in horizontally. Watching a video horizontally, then, is less convenient for many and counter-intuitive to the way they typically hold the device.
In the end, I got a chance to ask a question about the controversial topic about ad blocking, and how the panelist dealt with that challenge. Marshall shared her personal experience: ads are part of her daily life, and offer her choices and products that are usually helpful. She firmly believed that consumers still need ads, and they will turn around sooner or later.
The post The “disruption” hype, unicorn companies and writing novels on Excel sheets: Day 1 at Seattle Interactive Conference appeared first on Flip the Media.