ISSUE 5

REIMAGINING BUSINESS IN THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER

 Today's strategic imperative isn't
only to do things right, but also
to do the right things. Now is the
time for leaders to move beyond
incremental change, to reflect and
consider the fundamentals of
value creation in their business.
Nigel Vaz,
Global Chief Strategy Officer & SVP,
Managing Director EMEA, SapientNitro London

194
REIMAGINING BUSINESS
IN THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER
As I meet with business leaders about the most pressing challenges and issues theyre facing, I notice a common angst that
spans all industries and geographies. They know that they need to evolve their businesses, but they dont know precisely how or
where to turn for help. Technology innovation, shifting customer expectations and behaviors, and unforseen disruptors are
creating challenges to existing business models and threats to relevance. The pace of change required feels daunting.

Businesses are responding to the transformation challenge. The organization is changing. Roles that existed three
or four years ago are no longer relevant, and new roles are being created. Silos are breaking down, and how work
gets done is changing. Leading companies, and their partners, are creating transformative experiences and
business models.

It's a pivotal moment in business and, when we look at the ways we've historically prioritized experi-
ence to help our clients realize a better future for their customers and businesses, this feels like a
season purpose-built for our teams.

For example, our recently announced multiyear partnership with James Camerons Light-
storm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox is designed to immerse current and future
fans in the world of Avatar, and ignite and sustain their passion for the franchise
through a next-generation digital experience. These are the types of partner-
ships that are truly reimagining business for the age of the customer.

Another groundbreaking example of reimagining business is our cus-

tomer journey transformation initiative for a leading financial services
client. Weve been partnering with them to transform how customers engage
with the bank and establish a new operating model that can rapidly adapt and
respond to future customer needs.

To that end, in this edition of Insights we offer valuable research, provocations, and obser-
vations. These articles will, we hope, enlighten, guide, and inspire global leaders to reimagine
and rethink the fundamentals of their business. You'll find thinking and analysis on a wide
variety of topics like customer experience, enterprise information technology, artificial intelligence,
digital experience platforms, and more. Don't miss some new research on the retail industry on page
26, and learn from RBSs eye-opening case study. We even explore business lessons that can be learned
from classical art.

I invite you to delve into these fascinating areas and I look forward to partnering with you to help lay the founda-
tion for whats next. If you havent already, I encourage you to download our Insights app, which is available on iOS
and Android. Simply go to the relevant app store and search for SapientNitro Insights.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as we did putting it together.

Alan Wexler
SapientNitro CEO

3
 C
INTRODUCTION
6 Contributors
10 Helping Clients Reimagine Business in the Age of the Customer

RESEARCH

ONT
26 Global Retailing in the Digital Age
48 Banks, Brands, and Consumers: A Vision for Mobile, Payment-Driven Change

OUR PERSPECTIVES
64 Dispelling 5 Myths About Experience Design
78 The Rise of Digital Experience Platforms
94 Enterprise Startup: Tactics for Thriving in Fast-Changing IT Environments

INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS

ENT
110 Case Study: Reimagining Banking at RBS

TABLE
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION
OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
124 Artificial Intelligence: Applying Big Data, Machine Learning, & Causal
Reasoning to Digital Transformation

OF
134 Leveraging Emotion Insights to Drive Experiential Return
146 Conversational UI: Talking Loud and Saying Plenty
158 How Brands Are Changing the Context of Location Marketing

THE EYE-OPENER
170 Picture This: How Art Can Help Digital Find Its Soul

4 5
 Nathan Chmielewski
Senior Associate, Research and Insights,
SapientNitro Chicago
Nate is a researcher focused on customers
interactions with brands across all
touchpoints. He connects experience,
secondary research, and social insights
to understand consumer behavior and
brand positioning, and identify opportuni-
CONTRI
ties to improve the customer experience.
BUTORS
Daniel Harvey
Creative Director & Global Practice
Lead, Experience Design,
SapientNitro London
Daniel is Creative Director & Global
Practice Lead, Experience Design at
SapientNitro in London. Before that,
he was Executive Creative Director at
R/GA in New York. Hes led innovative
work for clients like HBO, NatWest,
and Verizon.
Andre Engberts
Technology Director,
SapientNitro Minneapolis
Andre has worked in digital technology
for over a decade helping transform
global clients such as Dell, Harley-
Davidson, Samsung and a large US-
based quick-service restaurant chain.
Paul Eisen, PhD His technical experience spans web,
Director, Experience Design, mobile, campaign, commerce, and
SapientNitro Toronto personalization technologies.
Paul helps businesses transform by
creating innovative and powerful ex-
periences. To help clients achieve their
goals, he defines experience strategies
and robust frameworks that enable
ongoing optimization of the value ex-
change between brands and customers.
Matthew Maxwell
Associate Creative Director,
SapientNitro London
Matthew originally trained as an artist,
but found the Internet offered a broader
canvas. As a digital creative, his work
has helped sell everything from luxury
cars and sexual health to gaming
Kieron Leppard platforms, long distance flights, and
Creative Director, Experience Design, delivery pizza.
SapientNitro London
At heart, Kieron is an experience de-
signer and a lover of all things digital.
Since joining SapientNitro in 2010, he
has worked for clients like Saks Fifth
Avenue, British Airways, and RBS and
has picked up numerous awards along
the way.
7
Sheldon Monteiro
Global Chief Technology Officer,
SapientNitro Chicago
Sheldon leads global technology capa-
bilities, engineering, quality, methods,
DevOps, and tools. He sponsors and is a
senior faculty member at SapientNitros
CMTO University, an in-house executive
development program to grow Sapient-
Nitros marketing technologists.
David Poole
Financial Services Center of Excellence,
SapientNitro Boston
David Poole leads SapientNitros Finan-
cial Services Center of Excellence which
supports a global network of banking,
insurance, and wealth management cli-
ents in thought leadership, innovation,
and customer insight. A change agent
with over twenty years of experience,
David shares his passion for making it
fun to be financially healthy.
8 9
Zachary Jean Paradis
Vice President, Retail Strategy,
SapientNitro Chicago
Zachary is a strategist, professor, and
writer obsessed with transforming lives
through customer experience. He acts
as co-lead for the firms Experience
Strategy domain, supports the companys
innovation efforts, and teaches at the
IIT Institute of Design.
Melissa Read, PhD
Global Emotion Insights Head,
SapientNitro Atlanta
Melissas practice uses cognitive and
neural science techniques to assess real
emotions in response to brand experi-
ences. Emotion insights help marketers
maximize brand engagement, minimize
pain points, drive creativity, and quan-
tify success.
Scott Petry
Vice President, Technology,
SapientNitro Atlanta
Scott drives effective technology solu-
tions as part of a cross-functional team
helping brands connect with their cus-
tomers through experience, media, and
technology. He works with great brands
like UPS, ADT, MD Anderson, AT&T,
Universal Orlando, and Carnival.
Jemuel Ripley
Vice President, Global Retail Lead,
SapientNitro New York
Jem is responsible for driving key sector
initiatives that include retail innovation,
original research, talent development,
and strategies that guide retailers as
they navigate uncertainty, compete
globally, and connect always-on con-
sumers to their brands.
Ritesh Soni
Vice President, Data Science,
SapientNitro Washington, D.C.
Ritesh focuses on applying methods
in machine learning to opportunities
in retail, e-commerce, marketing, and
operational optimization. His Data
Sciences team combines the latest
methods to develop highly scalable
systems with machine learning at
their core.
Nigel Vaz
Global Chief Strategy Officer & SVP,
Managing Director EMEA,
SapientNitro London
Nigel leads Razorfish and SapientNitro
for EMEA working closely with the
agencies combined leadership team to
partner with clients to help them realize
a better future for their businesses and
improve their customers lives.
Pawan Udernani
Director, Client Services,
SapientNitro London
Over the last 3 years, Pawan has been
leading SapientNitro and RBS experience-
led digital transformation journey.
This successful partnership has resul-
ted in multiple awards, along with
Josh Sutton increases in RBS NPS, digital sales,
Global Head, Artificial and employee engagement.
Intelligence Practice,
Publicis.Sapient
Josh is the Global Head of Publicis.
Sapients Data and Artificial Intelligence
Practice. In this role, he is responsible
for leveraging big data tools as well as
correlation-based and causal-based
AI platforms to help clients transform
their businesses.
Alan Wexler
SapientNitro CEO
Alan is responsible for overall leadership
of SapientNitro globally, Alan has held
a number of key management positions
since joining Sapient in 1998, including
leadership of the North America, Europe,
and Asia-Pacific regions. Alan has also
Pinak Kiran Vedalankar led several industry verticals including
Director of Technology, media, entertainment, telecommuni-
Digital Transformation cation, and healthcare, and launched
SapientNitro London SapientNitros mobile practice in 2000.
Pinak leads digital transformation
engagements from a technology and
engineering standpoint. His specific
focus is on scaling agile and engineer-
ing for enterprise, microservices, auto-
mation, DevOps, commerce, content,
social, mobile, and stores/branches.
HELPING CLIENTS
REIMAGINE
BUSINESS IN
THE AGE OF THE
CUSTOMER
NIGEL VAZ

Successful digital In boardrooms around the world, senior executives are discussing a common
dilemma: how to create transformative experiences and business models that
transformation improve their customers lives, drive growth, and boost profitability and efficiency.
is not a one-off Regardless of industry or location, businesses are facing a new world. By 2026,
activity, but the average Standard & Poor's 500 business will last just fourteen years.2 The
average business model is sustained for roughly half that: just six years.3 What
an ongoing was once a landscape of five-year strategies, long-lived information technology (IT)
commitment to investments, and product line extensions is evolving into a rapid series of digital
business transformation initiatives, platform thinking, and customer experience.
adapt in line The continued evolution of digital capabilities is pushing businesses to rethink their
with changing fundamental views on customers, competitors, products, and partners.

customer needs For most companies, the strategic imperative should not just be doing things right,
and expectations.
1 more efficiently, or optimally. Leaders must also determine the right things to do.
Now is the time to reflect and consider the fundamentals of value creation in the
business to go beyond the immediate, incremental change. How are you serving
your customers? Where do you want to fit into their lives? Are your traditional
ways of generating value sufficient?

1
SapientNitro. Be the Gryphon. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/
be-the-gryphon-digital-business-transformation.
2
Innosight. Corporate Longevity: Turbulence Ahead for Large Organizations. http://www.innosight.com/innovation-
resources/strategy-innovation/upload/Corporate-Longevity-2016-Final.pdf.
3
The Boston Consulting Group. Business Model Innovation. https://www.bcg.com/expertise/capabilities/strategy/
business-model-innovation.aspx.

11
 New digital pure-plays companies
designed expressly for the digital world
have arrived. Faster, simpler, and
Digital business better optimized, these businesses are
in some ways stronger than the legacy
transformation is players. From a category disruptor like
widespread and of Airbnb to a new entrant like Under
Armour, they are challenging the status
urgent importance quo in long-established industries.
among executives.
Todays competitive marketplace
requires a deeper level of change
a reimagining of every part of the
business. More specifically, businesses
must invest in product innovation, the
integration of technology and frame-
works, and open platforms.
In light of this new landscape, senior
leaders have a quandary (see Figure 1).
FIGURE01 Do they defend, build upon, and lock in
their positions as incumbents? Or do
they take risks, disrupt, and potentially
What are businesses ambitions for transforming? expose themselves?
Many large institutions, typically incumbents, start with a defense strategy. Yet To understand companies ambitions
evidence shows that a more aggressive approach one that embraces innovation
for transforming, SapientNitro conducted
and digital business transformation can be more effective.
two pieces of research on the nature of
digital business transformation (DBT)
Digital redefines the
terms of competition over the past two years. In the first, Be
Both studies reinforced the same point:
Digital business transformation is of 6 out of 10
organizations have
urgent importance among executives.
In fact, our 2016 CMTO study deter- made digital business
mined that, while nearly all organiza- transformation a priority
tions (96.9 percent) are addressing Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
digital in some way, just six out of ten
(56 percent) have made DBT a priority
(see Figure 2).
FIGURE02
Comparing and contrasting the adoption and prioritization of transformation
This years CMTO study revealed the stark difference between the percentage of organizations that are addressing digital
and those that prioritize digital business transformation, specifically. It appears from this research that many firms recog-
nize the need to respond to digital, but are failing to make DBT a priority. In fact, nearly 2 of 10 businesses didnt even know
whether DBT is a priority.
Most businesses are responding to digital in some way
96.9% of organizations are transforming their businesses in some way
56.5%
60% 54.3%
49.8% 48.4%
50%
39%
40%
30%

the Gryphon, SapientNitro partnered 20%

with Ovum, a research and consulting 10%

3.1%
firm, to interview fifty global chief execu- 0%
Business benefits Customer experience Operational Customer experience IT capabilities to be more Business No significant initiatives
Disrupt tive officers (CEOs) involved in DBT. holistically across all processes with specific channels agile/continuous models in digital
The second, Digital Business Trans- channels

formation and the CMTO: Leadership Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

in the Digital Age, explores the DBT

perspectives of 223 U.S. and Canadian
The company
Differentiate executives in charge of both marketing But less than 60% have made digital business transformation a top three priority
replatforms
marketing, and technology, a hybrid role called Q: Is digital business transformation a top 3 priority?
sales & service
the chief marketing technology officer
Delivering new value
(CMTO). 17.1%
Defend and experience I don't know

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

56%
Yes

26.9%
No

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

12 13
 To respond, weve developed an ap-
proach called the reimagining impera-
tive (see Figure 3). We define this as
The sentiment is the compelling need for companies to
embrace change across all aspects of
that there's still a their business, including personnel and
lack of attention and leadership, partners, and supply chain.
Key DBT research findings
Effective digital business transformation strategies will become an underlying
survival and success factor in the age of Tesla, Uber, and Airbnb. Rather than
digitizing piecemeal, DBT calls upon business leaders to reimagine their entire
organizations for the digital world. Nothing short of wholesale transformation will
be sufficient to compete.

resources dedicated As executive leaders focus on two Yet our research shows that companies willing to make this leap are rare. We
identified four key research findings across these two studies.
to DBT. priorities the search for further reve-
nue growth and improving profitability

1
SapientNitros Digital
by driving down costs and boosting
Business Transformation
efficiency we believe a reimagining of
and the CMTO: Leadership
fundamental business characteristics
in the Digital Age
and relationships will be necessary.
The size of the gap between these
businesses' aspirations and their reali-
ties is reinforced in this research.
Leading companies are exploring Our second study, completed in FIGURE04
FIGURE03 business transformation, but the the first half of 2016, found that a
majority of businesses (97 percent)
shift is nascent are addressing digital, but this broad What is your digital business
The reimagining imperative Leading companies are exploring language leads us to conclude that it transformation agenda?
Forces from across technology, consumer behavior, and the marketplace are pushing organizations (and their leaders) to business transformation, but the shift is is likely piecemeal innovation and not
recognize, adopt, and prioritize their need to evolve new ways of doing business. nascent just 22 percent have a formal wholesale transformation. 22%
Formal
business document, and 34 percent business
Most commonly, organizations are document
SAAS Any time, anywhere expectations remain in the boardroom discussion
focusing on transforming the customer
Mobile & cloud Content creators & curators phase (see Figure 4).4 Most executives
experiences holistically across all
Wearables Massive data generators are still in their early stages of planning.
Forces Technology New consumer channels or within specific channels.
of change The Internet of Things Empowered consumers In reality, few are advanced and most
Some are also transforming operational
Virtual reality are assessing their strategies.
processes. However, just 56 percent
Artificial intelligence believe that digital business transfor-
Our research revealed three main stages
in DBT concept development: mation is a priority as of mid-2016,
much lower than those who are just
Creating strategic intent responding to digital (see Figures 2a
Marketplace New types New, emerging
New technologies
The Millennial
and 2b on the previous page). This re-
44% 34%
factors of competitors business models Generation A strategic intent
Having a boardroom discussion flects the gap between those creating Boardroom
discussion
and strategy debate short-term, point solutions and those
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
embracing digital business transforma-
Creating a tangible and formal
Give THE REIMAGINING IMPERATIVE tion holistically.5
rise to The fundamental need to evolve new ways of doing business
business document that articulates
the scope of the challenge, along
with the resources and timescale
Source: SapientNitro, 2016. required to execute

SapientNitro. Be the Gryphon. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/be-the-gryphon-digital-business-transformation.

4

SapientNitro. Digital Business Transformation and the CMTO: Leadership in the Digital Age. Research not yet released.
5

14 15
 2 3
(CTO) was nominated, followed by the CMOs bring different strengths: a Over

90%
chief marketing officer (CMO) with 26 tradition of speed-to-market and oppor-
percent of the responses.6 tunistic investment in the fast-moving
digital economy.
In our subsequent U.S. study, we saw
of CMTOs or CDOs feel fully or
a slightly different pattern. We found In fact, some companies are going
somewhat equipped to drive
that executive responsibility for DBT so far as to develop new, hybrid roles
change in their organizations.
resides in the C-suite, although across such as the chief marketing technology
Successful DBT must be led by a broader set of roles. Top categories
Successful DBT means officer (CMTO) or chief digital officer Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

the C-suite and with teams
(not just individuals)
Such is the importance of reimagining
business that among companies with
a DBT agenda, all fifty CEO-level res-
pondents considered themselves to be
the leaders of their companies DBT
agendas. And over two-thirds nomi-
nated a lieutenant to lead the digital
business transformation charge. In
nearly half (47 percent) of these nomi-
native instances, the chief information
officer (CIO) or chief technology officer
were the CMO (25.5 percent) and
CEO (22.5 percent), followed by
other (17.6 percent) and the CIO/
CTO (12.5 percent).7
Our takeaway is that when DBT is
a top strategic priority, it has C-suite
leadership and visibility (either a top
lieutenant or the CEO). The unique
relationships and responsibilities of
these roles across companies, as
well as regional differences, may also
explain some of the variance.
that marketing and IT must (CDO) to oversee both marketing and
collaborate IT. We found that over 90 percent of
these new leaders feel fully or some-
Closer collaboration between CMOs
what equipped to drive change in their
and CTOs is needed to create strong
organizations (see Figure 6).
results for the business.
In the end, both sides the right and
Multiyear, strategic digital business
left brains of an organization must
transformation programs require large
come together to reimagine the business.
and phased capital budgeting manage-
ment familiar to many CIOs/CTOs,
but something that, in the context of IT,
CMOs may struggle with.

FIGURE05 FIGURE06

CMOs and CEOs were most likely to be responsible for DBT
While our research in the previous year showed that CEOs considered themselves
(or the CIO/CTO) most responsible for reimagining their businesses, this years
study revealed that CMOs now lead the pack.
Q: Which executive is responsible for leading digital business transformation in
your organization?
Are CMTOs equipped to reimagine their businesses for the digital age?
When asked whether they feel equipped to drive change in their organizations,
over 90% of CMTOs indicated that they were somewhat or fully equipped to
drive change.
Q: Are you equipped to drive change in your organization?

CMO 25.5%
6.7%
Not at
CEO 22.2% all equipped

Other 17.6%

Not Sure 13.9%

22%
Fully equipped
CIO/CTO 12.5%

CMTO 4.6%
71.3%
CDO 3.7% Somewhat equipped

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

SapientNitro. Be the Gryphon. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/be-the-gryphon-digital-business-transformation.

6

SapientNitro. Digital Business Transformation and the CMTO: Leadership in the Digital Age. Research not yet released.
7

16 17

One surprise?
Just 10%
indicate a lack of clear business
case as a key obstruction to DBT
in which case, why arent businesses
doing it more?
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
18
4
Conflicting priorities, along
with a lack of dedicated
resources and organizational
alignment, are some of the key
obstructions to successful DBT
Our research suggests that having con-
flicting priorities remains the top (39
FIGURE07
Obstacles in implementation
Conflicting priorities, along with a lack of dedicated resources and organizational
alignment, are the top obstacles to digital business transformation. One surprise?
Just 10% indicate a lack of clear business case as a key obstruction in which
case, why arent businesses doing it more?
Q: What are the major obstacles to the successful implementation of your orga-
nization's digital business transformation initiatives?
Conflicting priorities
Lack of dedicated resources
Lack of organizational alignment
Budget concerns/lack of investment
Lack of vision from leadership
Inadequate IT capabilities
Lack of skills
Lack of governance/coordination
Lack of plan
Lack of a clear business case
None
Lack of awareness of market forces
Regulatory/security concerns
Other
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
percent) obstruction to the successful
implementation of an organizations
WHAT IS A GRYPHON?
digital business transformation. This is The Gryphon of legend was half Gryphon-like attributes can be seen
perhaps reflective of the 40 percent of lion, half eagle a dominant preda- in the rapid advances of businesses
organizations that havent made DBT tor among all creatures. Similarly, a such as Uber in transportation,
business Gryphon is also equipped Airbnb in property rentals, Spotify
a top three priority for their company.
with hybrid capabilities. It looks in music (notably, streaming has
and behaves differently from any- already disrupted the emergent
Similarly, the next three obstacles
thing seen before. It causes tradi- download market), and BuzzFeed
a lack of dedicated resources (35
percent), organizational alignment
tional predators to struggle to adapt
to the new rules of the ecosystem.
in media.
(30 percent), and investment (26 Being a Gryphon organization is not
Gryphons are born every day. about age or size, but rather about
percent) suggest a lack of vision
They disrupt our understanding state of mind. Apple is an example
around the comprehensive organiza- of the world and instinctively break of a large organization that conti-
tional change required for successful previously-assumed boundaries to nually reinvents itself by creating
business transformation (see Figure 7). combine the best technologies, ser- product lines like the Apple Watch
vices, and experiences (see Figure 8). and iPhone that supplant previously
successful lines such as the iPod
itself a byproduct of Apples con-
quest of the music industry.
FIGURE08
The characteristics of a Gryphon organization
A Gryphon organization is one that reimagines its business across the board covering aspects such as
leadership, customer experience, digital integration, internal structure, agility, and talent.
COLLABORATIVE STRUCTURE
Organizational culture and/or dened
processes by which key executive
stakeholders and functions unite be-
38.0% hind digital business transformation
ALL-EMBRACING APPROACH DIGITAL CORE
35.2% A holistic, company-wide Digital as a core competence
commitment to reshape and not a bolt-on
29.6% retool for a digital future
26.4%
18.5% ONGOING COMMITMENT CUSTOMER-CENTRIC
TO CHANGE Business is built around the
17.1% Recognize that change is belief that consumers and rapid
iterative and permanent uptake of technology are the
14.8%
drivers of change
13.9%
10.6%
DISRUPTIVE CULTURE AGILITY AND SPEED
10.6%
A willingness to challenge norms The ability to pivot and the
and disrupt itself in order to enter notion of speed itself being a
9.7%
new markets and categories competitive advantage
8.8%
3.7% VISIONARY LEADERSHIP HYBRID SKILLS
A CEO and leadership team that leads Marketing and technology skills
0.9% digital business transformation within and roles are increasingly hybrid
the organization and drives ongoing
change and improvements
19
 Key steps to successful reimagining
1 2
LARGE ORGANIZATIONS
URGENTLY NEED TO BEGIN A
BOARD-LEVEL REIMAGINING
DISCUSSION
The data is stark: Just 22 percent of
companies have a formal plan for digital
business transformation. And just 56 per-
cent have made DBT a top three priority.
To create a digital business trans-
formation strategy and intent, large
incumbents (in most industries) need
to move faster to embrace digitally-led
transformation. Defend, differentiate,
or disrupt: Regardless of strategy,
the transformation priority affects
every aspect of businesses, including
business strategy, the business model,
data, internal processes, and culture.
All of these are materially influenced by
the digital priority.
Furthermore, for many companies,
quality board-level discussions around
reimagining the business may not
be possible without a new level of
executive digital savvy and awareness,
even as organizations cultivate these
skills throughout their ranks. People
and talent, as ever, are key pieces of
the puzzle.
20
RETHINK HOW THE BUSI-
NESS GENERATES VALUE
FOR ITS CUSTOMERS
For many organizations grappling
with its potential, digital business
transformation represents a once in
a decade opportunity to rethink the
core levers involved in generating value
for customers.
Contextualizing your business and its
value not based on where it has been
in the past, but rather where it should
be in the future is an urgent priority.
In our experience, a focus on the cus-
tomer journey and your part in it is
a good place to start.
Ultimately, though, DBT involves re-
thinking the entire value proposition of
the enterprise. To that end, successful
DBT initiatives should be focused on
the customer journey, should be owned
by the CEO, and must be supported
and implemented by an executive team
or task force. For most organizations,
this means close involvement and colla-
boration between the CTO and CMO.
3 4
ENABLE THE RIGHT CULTURE
AND INCENTIVES
To thrive in this fast-changing, technolo-
gy intensive environment, leaders need
to ensure that their organizations rein-
force values that will help them succeed.
To that end, organizations should
endeavor to build and maintain cultures
that prize innovation, constant change,
and evolution. Rather than being
process-oriented, organizations must
select and train for flexibility and agility.
Executives should ensure peoples
incentives and alignment, evaluate
systems and structures, and design a
culture consistent with these traits.
Culture too often is viewed as an out-
come of business transformation. On
the contrary, culture should be an input
in the transformation process one as
important as organizational changes
or the value-generating aspects of the
business model.
EMBRACE INNOVATION
AND CONSTANT CHANGE
There is no steady state. Forward-
thinking leaders know that constant
reinvention is the key to medium- and
long-term success. There is no one
and done in business transformation
today. Consider Netflixs continued evo-
lution from DVDs to streaming services,
and now content production. They have
used technology as an enabler with
every step.
For most companies, a strategic
reimagining is becoming ever more
urgent given the current pace of
disruption, new entrants, and changing
consumer behaviors.
5
TECHNOLOGY & MARKETING
ARE DIFFERENTIATORS, NOT
SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
In this new era, both technology and
marketing are playing new roles in
generating value. Technology is no
longer just supporting the business
or enabling operations. Rather, it is a
strategic weapon and differentiator.
Similarly, forward-looking companies
think of marketing not as a broadcast
center or passive lead generation ma-
chine, but rather as an area to generate
insights and define the proposition to
the customer.
21
 WHAT S-CURVES TELL US ABOUT REIMAGINING
BUSINESS
Theories of disruptive innovation have
long been used in technology intensive
businesses to understand the dynamics
of competition. But as all businesses
become technology intensive, the
models applications and relevance
have broadened.8
In particular, weve found the s-curve
model of technology diffusion helpful
to both reinforce the need for constant
reinvention and to spot inbound disrup-
tions from other industries.
Several characteristics of the theory of
disruptive innovation, and its associated
s-curve model, are relevant to the boards
and executives that are reimagining
their businesses:
FIGURE09
Success in a non-linear business environment means forcing your
business from the status quo onto new, fast-growing platforms
before they're mainstream.
Path of a Gryphon
organization
The nature of competition is that a
technology or company, not initially
seen as a direct threat, will evolve
over time and possibly outperform
an existing technology. There are
many examples in the history of
business, including the development
of mini-mills in the steel industry;
the growth of Amazon in the retail
industry; Airbnbs innovation in
the hospitality industry; and the
software disruption brought on by
Apples iTunes Store.
With todays competition being
based on platforms, technology, and
agility, it is evident that we live in
an increasingly non-linear world.
Non-linear functions reward early
adopters and fast-movers, while
punishing large, slow-paced orga-
nizations that can see the ground
beneath them shifting dramatically.
To ride these repeating waves of
innovation, companies must rein-
vent themselves continuously, often
through strategic partnerships or
acquisition strategies. A case-in-
point is Facebooks aggressive acqui-
sition of WhatsApp and Oculus.
Conclusion Now, the need
The world has shifted from allowing for leaders is to
brands to simply state their missions,
visions, and promises, to requiring them
consider how
to demonstrate their intentions through they go about
tangible and sustainable actions.
transforming
There are several organizations in their entire
particular that have reimagined their
business to remain relevant in the organization for
digital age. Lightstorm Entertainment a digital world.
is in the process of transforming the
entire world of Avatar into a multiyear, By reimagining
multichannel digital platform for fan
engagement a platform that uses
the business and
advanced analytics to evolve with each embracing
sequel release. And in financial ser-
vices, RBS embraced digital business
technology, its
transformation to deliver on its promise possible for every
of Helpful Banking.10
company to
Now, the need for leaders is to consider become a Gryphon.
how they go about transforming their
entire organization for a digital world.
By reimagining the business and embra-
cing technology, its possible for every
company to become a Gryphon.

Studying the s-curves in other Nigel Vaz

industries particularly ones with Global Chief Strategy Officer & SVP,
a greater competitive intensity and Managing Director EMEA,
more technology can provide the SapientNitro London
opportunity to spot new disruptions
nvaz@sapient.com
before they hit your market. For
Performance

example, the digital shift of both the

music and publishing industries pre-
Transition saged that of telecoms and financial
Harness services, as well as the automotive
industrys leap toward autonomous
and electric vehicles.

By understanding s-curves and their

Prepare
Switch associated theories, business leaders can
mitigate some of the risk of operating in
a modern landscape one where (as we
noted in the introduction) the average
Time lifespan of the S&P 500 is fourteen
years, and business models need to be
reinvented in half that time.9

8
Clayton M. Christensen. The Innovators Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business. 2011. See Case Study: Reimagining Banking at RBS on page 110.
10

9
Innosight. Creative Destruction Whips through Corporate America. http://www.innosight.com/innovation-resources/strategy-innovation/upload/creative-de-
struction-whips-through-corporate-america_final2015.pdf.
22 23
26 Global Retailing in the Digital Age
Jemuel Ripley, Zachary Paradis, Hilding Anderson
& Nathan Chmielewski

48 Banks, Brands, and Consumers: A Vision for Mobile,

Payment-Driven Change
David Poole

RESEARCH
GLOBAL RETAILING
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
JEMUEL RIPLEY, ZACHARY PARADIS, HILDING ANDERSON
& NATHAN CHMIELEWSKI

The third annual study of retailers use of mobile, e-commerce,

and in-store experiences

Current state
The retail industry remains poised on a knifes edge. Dropping foot traffic, new
online-only competitors, and profound changes in customer preferences have
buffeted the industry for a decade or more.

Yet the same technology disrupting retail may also be its salvation. Click and
collect in-store. Mobile apps. E-commerce. Instagram. Beacons.

In this, our third annual retail study, weve tried to take a fairly comprehensive look
at how retailers are responding to this new environment. How effectively are retail-
ers weaving together mobile apps, e-commerce platforms, and in-store innova-
tions? What does the current state of retailing tell us about the future?

RESEARCH 27
Retail stores are seeing roughly half of the foot traffic they saw 6 years ago.1 Key findings3 These steps include rethinking the role
of the store, IT operations, merchandis-
Four leaders: This year, we selected ing, and even the supply chain. The
34.3 billion four retailers as our leaders, based on fundamentals of competition are changing.
visits the strength and quality of their cus-
tomer experience. Apple, Sephora, For marketers and retailers, this is no
Argos, and Home Depot earned longer the challenge of digitalizing
2010 Dropping foot traffic their spots by integrating digital and retailing. It is the challenge of retailing
rethinking their store environments in a digital age.
more significantly than any others in
15.1 billion our study.
visits Stores are increasingly focused FIGURE01
on the entire customer journey,
with new innovations in the pre-visit
MORE DIGITAL2 As part of Publicis.Sapient, SapientNitro works with our partners Digitas,
24.6 billion and post-visit stages. Starbucks
visits Razorfish, Rosetta, and Sapient Consulting to drive digital-at-the-core thinking.

33%
pre-purchase, Walmarts Savings Together, the P.S platform offers a digital transformation platform purpose-built
Catcher, and John Lewis click and for today's digital world, helping companies transform existing business
2011 collect were notable. activities from digital as an extension to digital as the core of the enterprise.
shop online
20.6 billion every week
Mobile payments continued
Experience

69%
visits to be a hot topic this year, with Customer-focused > Experience-led
widespread use in the UK and slower Organization
2012 17.6 billion shop online at adoption in the U.S.4 Just three Silos > Collaborative
visits least monthly retailers in our study enabled sales Commerce
16.1 billion associates to check out customers Point solution > Omnichannel
visits
2013 remotely, however.

14.2 billion
2014 visits
Reimagining the store: Were still
early in the reinvention of the store.
2015 Argos, Sephora, and Apple were
2016 among the notables that have truly
rethought the store.

Future opportunities
This crucible of consumer change and Enterprise IT
Industrial > Multispeed
technology transformation must be met Data
Backward-looking > Real-time impact
with a similar transformation amongst
retailers. For most retailers, the easy
steps of pilots, testing, and point
Products & services
solutions are largely done. What is left Individual projects > Service ecosystems
is more fundamental retailers must
reimagine their business in the age of
Marketing
the customer (see Figure 1). Mass > Precision
Source: Publicis.Sapient, 2016.

For full details, see About our research at the end of this article.
3

SapientNitro estimates based on data reported by the Wall Street Journal, RetailNext.net, and Shoppertrax.com.
1
4
For more on mobile payments, see SapientNitros Banks, Brands, and Consumers: A Vision for Mobile, Payment-Driven Change. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspec-
Mintel. Online Shopping US 2015 Report. http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/nearly-70-of-americans-shop-online-regularly-with-close-to-50-taking-advantage-of-free-shipping.
2 tive/insights/insights-articles/banks-brands-and-consumers-a-vision-for-mobile-payment-driven-change.

28 RESEARCH 29
 Introduction to the research Our big realization
To assess retailing in the digital age, is that retailing
we studied retailers with physical
stores to see how the use of mobile, in the digital age
e-commerce, and in-store technology doesnt mean
has evolved (see Figure 2). Our hypo-
thesis was that retailers were already introducing
adapting to this changing environment. digital to the
We wanted to understand how they
were adapting and explore how sub- physical space.
segments (luxury, apparel, mass mer- Instead, it means
chandisers, etc.) have developed and
were competing. redefining your
We covered four major global cities
entire business
around operating
OUR
during the research: New York, Chicago,
Toronto, and London (see About the
in a digital world.
RESEARCH
research for details).

In reviewing ninety-nine retailers, we,

of course, discovered major variances
in competitive intent, degree of vision, FIGURE02
and quality of execution. There is no
one-size-fits-all here, and not every
We evaluated three categories of retail experiences: mobile, e-commerce,
innovation is appropriate for every busi-
and in-store.
ness. Each marketer has to evaluate the
fit to their specific business to learn
from the best and decide what makes 25%
the most sense for their needs. Mobile app
effectiveness
overall and
In fact, our big realization is that 20% in-store
retailing in the digital age doesnt mean E-commerce
introducing digital (e.g., kiosks or effectivness
tablets) to the physical space. Instead, (BOPIS/ROPIS,
ratings & reviews,
it means redefining your entire business
store location
around operating in a digital world. finder, etc.)

Brands must follow the customers

journey across touchpoints only
some of which will include digital tools 55%
at all. A touchpoint might be defined Store experience
by a smile or the feel of a linen shirt.
A mirror image of you dressed in the
new style of the iconic Burberry trench
coat. The smell of a store as you enter. 12.5% 15% 15% 12.5%
Operating in a digital world requires
integrating the physical and digital,
Visibility Content Functionality Brand
hand in hand.

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

30 RESEARCH 31

Rules for creating retail experiences
How do you go about defining the best combination of physical and
digital for your brand? Our research uncovered five overarching rules
to keep in mind when designing the future of your retail experience.
1
Retailers must become
more flexible, immersive,
and fit for purpose
Digital extensions a great interactive
kiosk, mobile app, or sales associate
tool are no longer enough. Retail
brands must reimagine their business
in the age of the customer.
Digital transformation is on the agenda
of retailers and their boardrooms.
According to a 2015 International
Data Corporation (IDC) study, nearly
two-thirds (64 percent) of Western
European retailers are currently under-
taking a formal digital transformation
5
IDC. 64% of Western European Retailers Currently Undergoing Formal Digital Transformation Effort, While Further 21% About to Start by End of the Year, Says IDC.
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUK25829515.
32
program, while a further 21 percent
were expected to have started one by
the end of 2015. They note that a race
to digitize [is] taking place among the
largest retailers in Europe.5
Our research shows that more trans-
formation is sorely needed. If there is
one overarching finding from our study
it is this: The examples that we saw in
market do not go far enough toward
rethinking the retail business for the
digital age.
Based on our research, we see the top
reimagining priorities to be centered
around three main questions:
1 3
HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE
FLEXIBILITY?
Retailing in the digital age should be
more flexible than in the past. This
means omnichannel and visibility; click
and collect; mobile ordering; ship-to-
home; and all the permutations. Our
leaders Apple, Argos, and Sephora
have all made significant progress in
this area (see Figure 3). In the UK, spe-
cifically in the cities, click and collect/
reserve has been credited with stalling
the decline in footfall. In fact, at one
leading UK retailer, it accounts for the
majority of orders via online platforms.
2
HOW CAN YOU MAKE
THE EXPERIENCE MORE
IMMERSIVE?
On the less frequent occasions that
customers do go to the store, they
need to be greeted by great experiences.
Museum quality if youre selling tech
hardware. Dynamic changing rooms
and great customer service if youre in
apparel. Smaller spaces. Better tools.
Faster service.
RESEARCH
HOW CAN YOU MAKE
YOUR RETAILING PROPER-
TIES FIT FOR PURPOSE?
Retailing properties (mobile, e-com-
merce, and physical) should be fit for
purpose. Retailers in the digital age
need inventory, but they dont need as
much inventory. Endless aisle tools,
smartphones, visibility of inventory, and
sales associates (You do have visibility,
right?) all mean more flexibility. Reduce
square footage, invest in community
events, and make the store and brand
be more connected to humans. Look
to recent trends in bookstores and
banks fewer, smaller, and more
beautiful examples with higher sales
per square foot.
FIGURE03
Sephoras ColorIQ measures skin color, sets up follow-up purchases of
various foundations, and also offers a hands-on experience in the store.
Youve been matched:
the output of the ColorIQ process
33
 2
Think experience-led and mobile
first: Mobile as the gateway to
the brand
If experience is the combination of
interactions (the tools that you use)
and perceptions (how you feel about
the brand), then the leaders in our
study thought more deeply about both.
We observed multiple techniques to
enhance the experiences of guests,
as each retailer made choices for their
discrete target audience.
FIGURE04
With a buy button on more digital platforms, m-commerce is more widespread
than ever.
Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter
Mobile as the gateway to the brand Among grocers, Walmart packs an For most retailers,
industry-leading mobile app with
For most retailers, smartphones are notable tools including the Savings smartphones are
now the gateway to the brand. Mobile
is how they start and sustain customer
Catcher, items aisle locations, pharma- now gateways
cies, registries, wish lists, weekly ads
relationships. and rollbacks, m-commerce with click to the brand.
Forty-four percent of smartphone-
and collect, and Apple Watch support Mobile is how
owning U.S. online adults (ages 18+)
for grocery lists. Waitrose has taken a
they start and
contrasting approach to Walmart with
have used their phone to research
products online while shopping in a
a single-task mobile app. The Pick sustain customer
Your Own Offers mobile app puts
physical store in the past three months.
The most common, reported activities
the customer in control of couponing: relationships.
Customers choose ten items to link to
include comparing prices (48 percent),
their myWaitrose card and automatical-
looking up product information (41
ly save 20 percent every time they buy
percent), and searching for coupons
them, both in-store and online.
(37 percent).6
FIGURE05
In North America, features like Macys
It is how people find their local store,
image search, Home Depots voice-
explore the inventory, reserve the pro-
based search, and Apples EasyPay Mobile is becoming an essential channel in the store, with image search, wayfin-
duct that they want (30 percent of
make the phone a more powerful ding, mobile payments, and voice-based search being offered. As we'll see in later
Sams Clubs e-commerce sales in sections, it is also a key channel pre- and post-visit.
tool in the store, and reduce the
2015 involved in-store pickup), and,
workload in-store (see Figure 5).
increasingly, pay for their products.7
Mobile is now a primary touchpoint In the UK, we found fewer smartphone
for retailers. innovations. Waitrose and John Lewis
impressed with their mobile payment
In our study, we commonly noted
app and price match claim request,
WeChat barcode scanners (to pull up reviews/
respectively, discussed elsewhere.
ratings and place orders), store loca-
Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, and Boots
tors, the ability to shop (m-commerce),
all supported Apple Pay.
and wish list/save-for-later features
(see Figure 4). Top-scoring retailers are
pushing the boundaries even further Macys image Home Depots Apples Waitroses
search voice-based EasyPay mobile payment
with voice capabilities, image search, search app
live chat, and mobile in-store maps.

Buy button

Forrester. Consumer Technographics North American Retail And Travel Online Benchmark Recontact Survey 1, Q3 2016 (US). https://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=SUS3275.
6

eMarketer. In-Store Pickups Account for Significant Ecommerce Sales. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/In-Store-Pickups-Account-Significant-Ecommerce-Sales/1013503.

7

34 RESEARCH 35
 Mobile payments
By 2018
60%
Both retailers and mobile providers are
entering the mobile payment space.
We noted a few stores which offer their
of omnichannel retailers own payment technologies Neiman
will have launched Marcus, Apple, and Starbucks, for
customer mobile example. In the UK, the touch-to-pay
payment initiatives8 function (NFC) for small purchases
under thirty pounds was nearly ubiqui-
tous in London.
And mobile payments are growing
more widespread. By 2018, IDC pre-
dicts that 60 percent of omnichannel
FIGURE06 retailers will have launched customer
mobile payment initiatives.9
Neiman Marcus offers a novel in-store According to NFC World, over 10
payment mechanism with QR codes
percent of UK card payments are
tied to cards on file and their loyalty
contactless, up over 300 percent from
program. This allows an easy mobile
checkout process. the previous year.10 Grocery in the UK
leads the way, with 30 percent of all
transactions paid through some form
of contactless payment.11 According to
research from Barclaycard, one in three
merchants in the UK accepts contact-
less payments.
Contactless payment options in the
U.S. are just being introduced by the
likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay,
but banks and retailers have yet to buy
in only 23 percent of big box retailers
offer Apple Pay in-store.12
IDC. IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail 2015 Predictions It's All About Participation Now. http://www.idc.com/research/viewtoc.jsp?containerId=252327.
8
Ibid.
9
10
NFC World. One in Ten UK Card Payments Now Contactless. http://www.nfcworld.com/2016/01/04/340840/one-in-10-uk-card-payments-are-now-contactless/.
11
Barclays Bank. Reluctance to Introduce Contactless Payments for Christmas Leaves Merchants Out in the Cold. https://www.home.barclaycard/news/reluctance-to-introduce-con-
tactless-payments-for-christmas-leaves-merchants-out-in-the-cold.html.
12
NFC World. One in 10 UK Card Payments Where Contactless in 2015. http://www.nfcworld.com/2016/05/23/344954/one-10-uk-card-payments-contactless-2015/.
36
Walmart recently introduced Walmart FIGURE07
Pay, a new feature on their existing app
that lets shoppers pay in-store using
their smartphones replacing a tradi- Sephora offers a clienteling app, allowing
sales associates to check out customers
tional credit card swipe or writing
in the aisle.
a check.13 Joining Apple, Samsung,
PayPal, and Google, Walmart is posi-
tioning itself for a stake in the growing
U.S. mobile payment market, which,
according to Forrester Research, is
anticipated to handle $142 billion in
transactions by 2019.14
We also saw some new innovations in
payments. Neiman Marcuss app offers
a QR code feature, linked to an existing
card or account, which allows you to
use your smartphone to check out (see FIGURE08
Figure 6). And effective use of mobile
payments by Apple and Sephora
Argos a UK variety store replaced their traditional catalogs with tablets and
helped bolster their scores.
enabled mobile-based payments for click-and-collect.
Sales-associate-based mobile check-
out in the U.S. was also noted, but only
at Apple, Sephora, and Neiman Marcus
(see Figure 7).
In the UK, the story is more compelling.
Self-checkout is now common across
all supermarkets in the UK and also in
home improvement stores, large news
agents, and chemists/pharmacies.
Leaders in our study include Tesco,
Argos, John Lewis, and Waitrose (see
Figure 8).
The Argos mobile app
allows you to pay now
or pay when you pick up
an item.
13
Fortune. Walmart Launches its Own Mobile Payment System. http://fortune.com/2015/12/10/walmart-mobile-payment/.
Forrester. Five Payment Trends North American eBusiness Professionals Should Watch: 2016 To 2018. April 2016. https://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES129571.
14
RESEARCH 37

FIGURE09 Experience-led, community-oriented,
and subtly enhanced by digital
The Samsung store had a dedicated In our study, it was clear that the store
kids play area. has become, in turns, a distribution
hub, customer service zone, training
area, and community spot. Stores are
being reconceptualized. For example,
Waitrose is the click and collect leader
in the UK. Microsoft and Samsung
stores offer training areas and cus-
tomer service (as well as a bar, in
Samsungs case). Under Armour has
a treadmill and jump zone to let you try
out their shoes and outfits on the move.
H&M even has a virtual runway that
lets you strut in front of cameras and a
green screen, and then lets you post
the finished product online. Increas-
ingly, new experience-led versions of
FIGURE10 stores are being built within the context
of the digital age.
Samsung/Best Buy virtual reality promotion Community orientation was also
evident. Samsung, in its store in New
For example, in our testing, Best Buy's Gear VR demo (left image) was unavailable
in our first three visits to stores. And, when we did ultimately sit down with the Yorks Village, has a kids section with tion in the process.15
headset, several elements were missing: no secondary screen (for friends to watch a low table, comfortable seats, and
the headset video), a non-swiveling chair, and a lack of separation from the noisy apps preloaded on their devices (see
environment. The Samsung store (right image) had all of these elements, which Figure 9).
resulted in a better experience.
Digital should be a subtle experience
enhancer, rather than in your face
screens and kiosks. For example,
Sephoras use of beacons one of the
few in our study is done well. Warby
Parkers only digital solution their
photobooth provides entertainment,
drives mobile activity, and adds to the
try-on and store experience.
3
Focus on the full customer
journey
By broadening the aperture of expe-
rience beyond its traditional focus in
retail the store leading brands are
creating a new competitive battle-
ground and winning sales before some-
one even arrives at a physical property
(see Figure 11).
According to Forrester, 41 percent of
U.S. online adults (ages 18+) discove-
red a retail product that they recently
purchased through an online source.
And 68 percent of online adults who
did research prior to a recent purchase
used two or more sources of informa-
And these customers are more valuable.
According to a study by IDC, omni-
channel shoppers have a 30 percent
higher lifetime value than those who
shop using only one channel.16
Pre-visit FIGURE11
Starbucks was a highlight of capturing
pre-visit sales. Pre-orders (with their Foot Locker allows shoe fans to send
Mobile Order and Pay app) account for emoji versions of the latest sneaker
10 percent of all U.S. store transactions, releases to their friends.
jumping to 20 percent of transactions
during peak hours.17 Twenty-four per-
cent of all transactions are paid using
Starbucks mobile app.18 This presents
multiple benefits: reduced wait time for
the customer, higher throughput, and
improved working capital for the store.
It also buttresses their loyalty program.
Starbucks is not alone in this, how-
ever. About one-third of U.S. retailers
covered in the study have click and
collect (BOPIS/ROPIS), while about
three-quarters of the UK retailers that
we reviewed had click and collect (see
Figure 12). Click and collect is prac-
tically ubiquitous in UK, with retailers
investing in operations for next-day FIGURE12
pickup (e.g., at TopShop, order in-store
by 5 PM and pick up from 12 PM the
Waitrose offers self-checkout and click
next day; or at John Lewis, order by
and to collect in their London stores.
8 PM and collect after 2 PM the
next day).

In the end, retailers are growing wiser

in their investments into the customer
experience. Gone are the Me-Ality
full-body scanners that occupied valu-
able floor space.

Retail should be the center of your cus- 15

tomers passion points (see Figure 10).
Provide the customers more reasons to
increase their dwell time.
Forrester. Consumer Technographics North American Retail And Travel Customer Life Cycle Survey, Q1 2016 (US). https://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=SUS3172.
16
IDC. IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail 2015 Predictions It's All About Participation Now. http://www.idc.com/research/viewtoc.jsp?containerId=252327.
17
Mobile Commerce Daily. Starbucks Mobile Ordering Program Drives 20 percent of Transactions During Peak Hours. http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/starbucks-earnings-
call-shows-significant-adoption-rates-for-mobile-order-and-pay.
18
GeekWire. Starbucks Mobile Order-Ahead Usage Doubles from Last Year, Now Up to 8M Transactions per Month. http://www.geekwire.com/2016/starbucks-mobile-order-ahead-
usage-doubles-last-year-now-8m-transactions-per-month/.

38 RESEARCH 39
 50%
As we noted earlier, click and collect
has been credited with forestalling a
decline in footfall in major UK cities.
of those who opted to
Click and collect accounts for a majori-
buy online and pick up
ty of orders placed via online platforms
in store encountered
at one large retail store, as well as
problems in 2015.19
helps drive revenue growth, according
to Matt Bradbeer, UK Retail Executive.
Over the past two years, there have
been signs of similar levels of invest-
ment by U.S. retailers. In 2015, Target
invested $1 billion in strengthening its
FIGURE13 e-commerce offerings, which include
everything from grocery delivery, to
ship from store, and click and collect.20
Much of the click to collect infrastructure Home Depot claims that over 40 per-
in the U.S. is still under development,
cent of online sales involves physical
as we saw in our site visits. Shown
stores.21 Walmarts click and collect
below is an in-store pickup booth at
was used the most during the holiday
a major retailer.
period in the U.S., followed by Best
Buy, Target, Kmart, and Macys.22
Yet, by some measures, North Ameri-
can stores underperformed with their
pre-purchase experiences during the
latest holiday season (2015-2016).
One study found that 50 percent of
those who opted to buy online and pick
up in store encountered problems in
2015.23 Throughout our study, we wit-
nessed this first-hand. Missing signage,
poorly organized, poorly located, and
too-small pickup rooms were common
at least in some stores. Click and
collect only works if stores are ready for
it (see Figure 13).
19
JDA Software Group 2015 Study, as cited in Fortune. Why Buy Online, Pickup in Store Isnt Working for Retailers. http://fortune.com/2015/11/05/online-store-pickup/.
20
Fortune. How Target Fended off Walmart and Amazon During the Holiday Season. http://fortune.com/2016/02/24/target-ecommerce-holidays/.
Internet Retailer. Mobile sparks Q4 sales at Home Depot. https://www.internetretailer.com/2016/02/24/mobile-sparks-q4-sales-home-depot.
21
Yahoo Finance. This Growing Trend is Changing the Retail Business. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/growing-trend-changing-retail-business-172004348.html.
22
JDA Software Group 2015 Study, as cited in Fortune. Why Buy Online, Pickup in Store Isnt Working for Retailers. http://fortune.com/2015/11/05/online-store-pickup/.
23
40
Try-on and tryout option innovation
Another pre-visit aspect is try-on. Inno-
vative examples include Warby Parkers
Home Try-on program which is also
one of the best advertising platforms
for the brand. It lets customers try on
five pairs of eyeglasses at home, and
encourages them to post images of
their experiences on social networks.
Trunk Club enables an in-person
meeting with your personal stylist, but
also has a video conferencing option.
BMWs i3 Extended Test Drive extends
the period you can try your new car
on the roads you know best, thereby
matching Teslas offer.
Post-visit innovation
But even more important, in our opinion,
is post-visit activity. This is important
because it drives repeat visits from
someone who is a known purchaser,
and adds value for both the customer
and the store.
Post-visit, we saw innovation in our
study from three companies in particu-
lar the UKs John Lewis price match
claim in their mobile app, Target with
their Cartwheel App, and Walmart with
the Savings Catcher (see Figure 14).
24
Money Nation. How to Save Money With Walmart Savings Catcher. http://moneynation.com/save-money-walmart-savings-catcher/.
RESEARCH
FIGURE14
The Savings Catcher app lets you scan
your receipt with your mobile phone
camera, and Walmart will automatically
John Lewis Never Knowingly
send you a gift card (that can only be
Undersold promise extends to their
used at Walmart) with the difference in
mobile app with a feature that allows
price between what you paid and any customers to submit a request for
lower price offered by competitors in matching another retailers price for
the area. It has generated over $2M in an item. The competing retailer must
customer savings and also collected have a high-street shop, and cannot
a wealth of customer data.24 This be online only (no price-matching
Amazon).
supports the retailers low price posi-
tioning and drives increased store
foot traffic.
Neiman Marcus also impressed in the
post-visit phase with its mobile app.
The app identifies sales associates with
FaceTime, email, text, and voice options
for immediate contact (see Figure 15).
Again, making it easy for someone to
restart the purchase process.
Designing for the post-visit stage of
the journey whether with follow-up
emails, texts, savings catchers, or other
communications is a significant op-
portunity missed, or poorly executed, by FIGURE15
many retailers in our study. And since
it requires close coordination across Neiman Marcus mobile app provides
all three of the core channels mobile, visibility into employees at your local
e-commerce, and in-store it is an store. You can FaceTime, text, email, or
excellent measure of whether a firm call them during their working hours.
has embraced digital-at-the-core in
its operations.
41

4
Move from data and reports to
intelligence about performance
and your customers
A fourth area of innovation is the
growth of new instrumented sensors.
These sensors are used to optimize
endcap performance and overall traffic
flow throughout the store (typically
monitored via infrared) (see Figure 16).
FIGURE16
Instrumented sensors are placed throughout a store to enable the measurement
and optimization of foot traffic.
Forrester. Analyze This: Web Style Analytics Enters the Retail Store. March, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES115390.
25
Brickstream. Retail Analytics: Whats In Store? http://www.ics.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/In-Store-Analytics-Survey-Report.pdf.
26
42
In fact, a March 2016 Forrester Report
noted that in-store analytics are gain-
FIGURE17
ing a foothold.25 Indeed, technology
firm Brickstream noted that 71 percent
of retailers said that they use or plan to SapientNitros IONOS solution combines in-venue wayfinding with
use people-counting technology in their real-time analytics, facial recognition, and touch-screen functionality.
stores, while 68 percent said that they
are looking to introduce in-store Wi-Fi
and loyalty systems.26
Facial recognition (which can reliably
identify gender and age) carts with
GPS trackers, and smartphone mo-
nitoring systems are additional inputs
into a network of measurement and
analytics (see Figure 17).
In our study, the only obvious exam-
ples of data and analytical awareness
occurred during our visits to Apple and
Sephora both welcomed the visitor
to the store on their mobile phones and
prompted the use of the beacon tech-
nology. We saw no examples in the UK.
All told, these sensors can generate huge
quantities of performance and analytics
FIGURE18
data. For example, the evaluation of
these data can lead to major revisions Optimization of store layouts and flow using real-time analytics
in an understanding of customer beha- is now possible and affordable. In one study, an innovative endcap
vior. Executives might find that store received fewer visits, but had 10 times the total dwell time than
dwell time was significantly different the adjacent, unlit endcap.
than they thought, or that smartphone
usage was primarily for entertainment,
not showrooming, or that it was used
primarily as a communication tool.
These and other insights can lead
brands to increase (or decrease)
investment into mobile apps, as well
as in-store use of digital endcaps (see
Figure 18).
Retail in the digital age requires optimi-
zation of store environments.
RESEARCH 43

FIGURE19
Made.com, a furniture showroom,
uses digital projectors and store tablets
to merchandise and sell products. In
Palo Alto, California, digital tools offer
wayfinding, voice recognition, and
product information.
44
5
Keep in mind that stores are far
from irrelevant
Our study confirmed that the role of
the store is changing. And you cant
contemplate the changing retail envi-
ronment without noting Amazon and its
recent opening of digitally-enhanced
bookstores.
Innovations in store format
One of the big surprises from brands
in our study was that online pure-play
leaders Bonobos, Warby Parker, and
Trunk Club didnt weave together their
physical and digital experiences. For
example, none offer click and collect
functions or in-store inventory visibility.
In the UK, we saw in-store innovations
from mass merchandiser Argos, which
is in the process of revitalizing its 700+
stores with tablets replacing traditional
print catalogs, LED screens placed
on the walls for dynamic signage, and
dedicated counters for fast click and
collect service. Argos delivers larger
hub store stock to nearby smaller
stores, enabling customer access to
the full range of stock in a few hours
or overnight.
A second example in the UK was
Made.com, a small-footprint furniture
showroom, which includes Instagram-
ready markers on the floor, self-service
tablets with scanners for in-store
shopping, and the collection of emails
through the tablet tool (see Figure 19).
In addition, projectors are used for FIGURE20
in-store signage, the store has a startup
feel (with glass walls to peer behind the
scenes at Made.com employees), and Samsung's pop-up experience at the
Westfield Mall includes multiple VR
private consulting rooms are available.
demonstrations and a white-glove,
high-quality experience.
The Samsung pop-up shop in the UKs
Westfield Mall ably showcases future
technology with hands-on demonstra-
tions of mobile, virtual reality (VR),
and wearables. They offer Gear VR
roller coaster, ski jump, and surfing
sections. A premium experience with
white-gloved employees allows try-on
of wearables and experimentation with
mobile devices (see Figure 20).
Bonobos mobile experience, on the
other hand, is a responsive website,
not an app, preventing any in-store
functions. In addition, the Bonobos
store checkout was handled through
their consumer e-commerce site on
a standard Apple laptop placed on
a table.
Is this due to a belief that those experi-
ences arent relevant? Or reflective
of the difficulty in getting them right?
Or maybe theyre more in tune with
the needs of the Millennial shopper.
(If this is the case, it suggests a bleak FIGURE21
world indeed for stores with large
physical locations.)
Lowe's experimental robot, shown here
On balance, we believe the cause to in its test store in Palo Alto, California,
be that retailers have only just started offers wayfinding, voice recognition,
and product information.
to develop their in-store channels. The
value of the store experience tactile
engagement, a full 360-degree expe-
rience, and of course a sales force
makes it a difficult channel to replace
or shut off. In fact, retailers in our study
are seeing more uses in more ways
than ever before: human interaction,
tactile engagement, entertainment, and
fulfillment flexibility (see Figure 21).
Stores remain just a part of the total
retail experience. Great companies are
broadening the aperture of experience.
RESEARCH 45
 Conclusion
Retailers are on the verge. Too few
retailers successfully blend the three
main channels mobile, e-commerce,
and stores together in a way that is
optimized for customer experience.
Instead, like many legacy organizations,
retailers have focused on point solutions
and worked within channel silos.
The brands that succeed in this environ-
ment will be the ones that transition and
evolve quickly enough to get ahead of
the changes in their core business.
Jemuel Ripley
Vice President, Global Retail Lead,
SapientNitro New York
jripley@sapient.com

The time for this type of thinking has

Zachary Jean Paradis
passed. Retailers must now consider
Vice President, Retail Strategy,
a wholesale reimagining of their busi- SapientNitro Chicago
ness. To succeed over the next decade, zparadis@sapient.com
retailers must fundamentally transform
themselves, touching every area from Hilding Anderson
organizational structure to the products Director, Research & Insights,
and services that they offer. SapientNitro Washington, D.C.
handerson@sapient.com
Our research reveals five main points:
The need for a vision of a future retailer; Nathan Chmielewski
the importance of mobile; the opportu- Senior Associate, Research and Insights,
nities in the pre- and post-visit phases SapientNitro Chicago
of the purchase cycle; the importance nchmielewski@sapient.com
of analytics and optimization; and,
finally, the continued, central role of
the physical store.

About the research

The intent of this survey was to evaluate the full retail experience created by
major U.S., Canadian, and UK retailers. To what extent were they offering an
effective and intertwined customer platform for business in the digital age?

To that end, we conducted unannounced visits to online, mobile, and in-store

properties of ninety-nine U.S., UK, and Canadian retailers. We audited English-
language mobile apps and websites, stores in at least one location, and primarily
flagship stores in London, New York City, Chicago, and Toronto. The research was
conducted over a full year, starting in the second half of 2015 and concluding in
the first half of 2016.

We evaluated three main areas: mobile app effectiveness overall and in-store
(25 percent of the weighting), the store experience (55 percent), and e-commerce
effectiveness (including click and collect, and ratings and reviews) (20 percent) to
determine our top performing brands overall.

We also compared our results to our previous evaluations conducted in 2012 and 2013.

46
BANKS, BRANDS,
AND CONSUMERS:
A VISION FOR MOBILE,
PAYMENT-DRIVEN
CHANGE
DAVID POOLE
With contributions from Greg Boullin

Retail banks, financial technology startups, and merchants have all been caught in
a whirlwind of new technology and shifting consumer preferences. Bitcoin. Alipay.
Apple Watch. NFC. Google Wallet. Payment options are changing. And the trends
driving the change in payments are powerful:

Substantial funding: $3 billion+ in venture capital (VC) funding drives a

massive proliferation of startups1

Shifting technologies and their applications: mobile, cloud, artificial

intelligence (AI), software as a service

Evolving consumer behavior: empowered, smartphone-equipped, with

anytime and anywhere expectations

For banking executives, these changes represent a profound transformation, and,

we believe, a profound opportunity.

1
$3.8B in 2015. CB Insights. Financing to Payments Startups on Track for a Second-Straight Record Year.
https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/payments-tech-funding-statistics-and-growth/.

RESEARCH 49
 2015 2016 The evolving consumer is perhaps the
36% 80% biggest single driver for change. This
new, global consumer connected,
of consumers use mobile smartwatch-wielding, and always on
payments at least a few is having a profound impact on the
times a month
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
banking ecosystem. To better under-
stand this new behavior, we surveyed
approximately 500 U.S. smartphone-
using consumers to understand how
frequency, convenience, and security
are playing a role in reshaping the
In Europe, Italy (with 27 percent) leads Section 1
in mobile payment users, while Spain
and France are tied for second (with 17 RESEARCH FINDINGS:
HOW CONSUMERS ARE
percent). Germany and the UK stand in
third place at 15 percent.7
According to our research, banks
with higher consumer trust (43
USING MOBILE PAYMENTS
percent) than any other player in the
ecosystem hold strong potential In early 2016, we surveyed nearly 500 smartphone users in the U.S. to under-
for growth and leadership. Despite stand the evolving usage of mobile payments.8 We also looked at secondary

704 million mobile payment market. the proliferation of payment startups, data from markets in Europe and Asia Pacific to see how similar findings
most transactions still run through the varied in other regions.
Our research reveals extensive usage traditional bank networks of Automated

Chinese mobile payment
of mobile payments. The survey found
users in 20182
that mobile payment usage continues
to grow year after year, with more than
half of respondents (56 percent) now
using mobile payments. More signifi-
cant, consumers are using mobile
payments more than ever before.
Eighty percent of mobile payment users
engage this technology in-store at least
a few times a month, up from just 36
percent a year earlier.3
This is a global phenomenon. Asia
Pacific is set to lead mobile payment
growth.4 For example, Chinas mobile
payment users increased from 216
million to 276 million in the first half of
2015.5 This represents about half of
mobile Internet users in that country.
And according to China Central Bank,
the total value of mobile payments
stood at $4.2 trillion in the second
quarter of 2015 up 445 percent
(2014 to 2015).6
1
Clearing House, wire, and cards
thereby directly compensating banks in
the process.
To avoid being sidestepped by novel
players (e.g., technology startups)
entering this lucrative space, banks will
need to take several steps. They must: Todays consumers use mobile FIGURE01
Partner more closely with retailers
payments more frequently
As was noted in the introduction, Among respondents who say that theyve used mobile payments, we saw a large
and technology companies who offer
mobile payment usage has increased increase in usage from 36 percent to 80 percent (for those who use it a few
direct payments.
significantly. Among the 56 percent times a month or more). The percentage of respondents who rarely use mobile
payments, on the other hand, dropped to just 6 percent.
Develop unified payments, integrated who now use mobile payments, in-store
reward and loyalty programs, per- adoption jumped from 36 percent to
Q: How often would you say that you currently use your mobile phone to pay for
sonalized offers, and even GPS and 80 percent from 2015 to 2016 a things in physical stores? 9
in-venue navigation, all in a single growth that is most likely linked to
49%
and compelling payment experience. increasing feasibility, access, and
50%
comfort (see Figure 1).
Place the customer in the center 45%
39%
when designing user experiences More important, the percentage of 40%
and be more agile in order to people who rarely use mobile payments 35%
better engage new generations in physical stores decreased drastically. 30% 27%
of payment customers. The figure, which stood at 49 percent 25%
only a year before, dropped to just 6
20%
19%
percent in 2016. 15% 14%
15% 13% 12%
10%
5% 6%
5%

0%
2
CNBC. Tencents Charges for WeChat Pay Users Kick in Amid Fight for Mobile Payment Market Share. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/01/tencents-charges-for-wechat-pay-users-
Very Frequently Occasionally Seldom Rarely
kick-in-amid-fight-for-mobile-payment-marketshare.html.
frequently (2-3 times (a few times (every few (a few times
3
SapientNitro. Informing The Mobile Banking Experience with Behavioral Data. February, 2016. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/inform- (daily) a week) a month) months) a year)
ing-the-mobile-banking-experience-with-behavioral-data.
Source: SapientNitro, 2016. 2015 2016
yStats.com. Mobile Payments Continue to Grow Worldwide. https://www.ystats.com/mobile-payments-continue-to-grow-worldwide/.
4

5
yStats.com. Security Remains the Main Concern of Global Mobile Payment Users. https://www.ystats.com/ystats-com-security-remains-the-main-concern-of-global-mobile-payment-
users/.
The study data was collected in February 2016 and February 2015. See About the survey on page 61.
8

China Internet Watch. China Mobile Payment Reached $4.19 Trillion, up by 445% in Q2 2015. http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/14808/mobile-payment-q2-2015/.
6
9
Among respondents who say that theyve used mobile payments. The survey had 498 respondents, of which 56% (276) reported using mobile payments. Only those who have
yStats.com. Infographic: Global Mobile Payment Methods: First Half of 2015. https://www.ystats.com/infographic-global-mobile-payment-methods-first-half-2015/.
7
used mobile payments could answer the question around how often they used their smartphones for in-store payments. N = 276.

50 RESEARCH 51
 2 3
Convenience is the key usage driver
According to our survey, convenience
is the number one reason why respon-
dents use mobile payments (see Figure
2). As a new alternative, developers
and merchants must increase the
accessibility and acceptance of mobile
payments if they want to capture those
consumers looking to make the switch
from their traditional cash and credit
methods. This may be more evident in
FIGURE02
Convenience was the number one reason to use mobile payments, garnering a
mention from 77% of respondents.
Q: What motivates you to use mobile payments instead of other forms of pay-
ments, like cash or credit cards?
Convenience
Rewards, discounts,
or promotions
Security
Other (specify) 2%
the U.S. where the albeit perceived
slower transaction time of chip cards is
highlighting the convenience of mobile
payment alternatives.10 A secondary
motivation (after convenience) was
rewards, discounts, or promotions.
The U.S. findings are largely mirrored
globally. For example, in Europe, ING
International reported that 50 percent
of consumers use mobile payment
apps because its quicker, while 42
percent cite ease-of-use as another
driver.11 Similarly, in China, 54 percent
of users who tried mobile payments
did so because of convenience, while
49 percent also cited promotions as
another major reason for use.12
77%
45%
31%
At MasterCard, we are looking at
innovative ways to balance security with
consumer engagement. Selfie Pay does just
Security is the leading barrier that, allowing the consumer to securely
to adoption
identify themselves for mobile payments.
While some of our survey respondents
understand that mobile payments have Karen Pascoe,
arguably better security, other consumers Group Head for Experience Design, Digital
do not. Security is often cited as a Payments & Labs at MasterCard Worldwide
major barrier to mobile payment adop-
tion, and it was the most frequently
cited barrier in our study, followed by FIGURE03
acceptance/availability (see Figure 3).
Global preferences are generally Mobile payment users prioritize security, with 53% of respondents citing the
aligned to what we found in our study, importance of this factor.
with Ipsos Chinese surveys finding that
Q: Finish this sentence: I will use mobile payments more if...
more than two-thirds of smartphone us-
ers, including both those who were and
were not using mobile payments, had It is secure 53%
security concerns.13 Similarly, TSYSs More retailers accept mobile payments 43%
survey of Germanys smartphone-owning
consumers indicated that security and I receive exclusive offers and discounts 40%
fraud protection would attract them to
using mobile payments.14 All of my payment cards, loyalty cards, and coupons are in one app 36%
My purchase details are kept private 34%
It is easy to use 31%
None of these 8%
It has social features, like being able to share my purchases 3%

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

The New York Times. Why Apple Pay and Other Mobile Wallets Beat Chip Cards. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/technology/personaltech/in-the-race-to-pay-mobile-wallets-
10

win.html.
11
ING International Survey. The Rise of Mobile Banking and the Changing Face of Payments in the Digital Age. April 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/ING/ing-mobile-banking-2015-
report.
13
Ipsos. Ideas: Ipsos in China. Sep, 2014. http://www.ipsos.com.cn/sites/default/files/09.2014EN_1.pdf.
Tencent Penguin Intelligence, as quoted in eMarketer. Convenience, Promotions Drive Mobile Payments in China. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Convenience-Promotions-Drive-
12

Mobile-Payments-China/1013081. TSYS. 2015 German Consumer Mobile Payment Study. http://tsys.com/Assets/TSYS/downloads/rs_2015-german-consumer-mobile-payments(English).pdf.

14

52 RESEARCH 53
 4
respondents cited retailers as the most Section 2
A LOOK AT MOBILE PAYMENTS
trusted, while banks led the pack with
43 percent, followed by alternate pay-

IN THE RETAIL EXPERIENCE

ment service providers (such as PayPal
and Square) (see Figure 4).

This holds true in Europe also. Among

Europeans who have not used a mobile
Consumers trust banks more Consumers are using mobile payments and stay on top of what each consumer
payments app, 42 percent say the
than retailers reason is lack of trust. And banks are
more than ever before, but it is helpful can afford. Furthermore, consumers
to explore a few examples from retailers will be rewarded in line with their
Our survey found trust to be the major trusted the most by Europeans to offer
to understand the future (see Figure 5). preferences and in real time every time
impediment to retailers and technology mobile payment solutions. In fact, 84
they engage in a transaction not to
companies becoming go-to sources percent of Europeans would trust their The typical retail payment app leaves mention having automatically-organized
for mobile payments. Only 1 percent of banks the most to offer mobile payments.15 much room for improvement. However, records of each payment.
selected retailers have overcome trust
FIGURE04 and complexity challenges to deliver Mobile apps play a strong role in the
great payment experiences. These post-visit consumer experience, as well.
retailers are increasingly offering For example, were seeing retailers
For retailers and technology companies, trust has proven to be one of the leading barriers to consumers acceptance and rewards integration, valuable in-store such as Walmart and Target sustain
usage of their bespoke mobile payment options.
tools (e.g., product reviews and auto- significant digital engagement activity
matic payment method selection), and with their Savings Catcher and Cart-
Q: Who do you trust the most to provide mobile payment services?
post-visit features. wheel apps, respectively.
43%
Rewards represent one of the top
drivers for using retail apps and one FIGURE05
of the top motivators for using mobile
payments (consider revisiting Figure 2).
Therefore, the integration of rewards Waitrose supports Apple Pay and also offers rewards/promotions on ten products
of your choosing as part of their Waitrose: Pick Your Own Offers app (pictured
programs and mobile payments is
on the left). The Starbucks app (pictured on the right) offers mobile ordering and
critical. Wallets themselves represent payments, integrated with rewards. In fact, it is the #1 retailer app for mobile
a powerful marketing platform, with the payments and accounts for 25% of the companys transactions.
14% add to wallet features of mobile ads
11% 10% making it easy to store personalized
offers a notion further supported by
6% 5% 4% 3% the nine-in-ten mobile wallet users who
2%
1% 1% are likely to save them.16

Future retail payment experiences will

Credit card A retailer, like Walmart, automatically recognize when consum-
providers Google Target, or Starbucks ers enter the store, allowing them to
Alternate payment browse peer reviews, shop, wayfind,
No one A mobile phone carrier, Other
service providers, connect socially, manage coupons and
like PayPal, Square, etc. like Verizon, AT&T,
Amazon or Sprint rewards, and of course pay for
goods and services through bespoke
My bank or other It doesnt matter Device manufacturers,
established financial who provides the like Apple, Samsung, mobile apps. The device itself will de-
institutions service as long as I or Motorola termine the right payment method and
get what I want currency, ensure the highest security,
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

15
ING International Survey. The Rise of Mobile Banking and the Changing Face of Payments in the Digital Age. April, 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/ING/ing-mobile-banking-2015-
report. Vibes. 2016 Mobile Consumer Report. http://www.vibes.com/resources/2016-mobile-consumer-report/.
16

54 RESEARCH 55
 1
Section 3 In early 2014, Amazon patented an-

FOUR WAYS THAT BRANDS

ticipatory shipping shipping goods
to a warehouse before consumers buy

CAN PREPARE FOR THE

them.17 Google continues to invest in
Anticipate needs and provide its predictive Now technology. While
contextual experiences
PAYMENT (R)EVOLUTION YESTERDAY
using data and algorithms to better
serve customers is nothing new, the
field of predictive analytics represents
Reactive and generic financial advice a potential holy grail for the businesses
No single brand has solved for every Banks can learn from leaders in each was provided to customers based on and brands that crack the code on pre-
aspect of the payment experience. category, and integrate those features preconfigured spending thresholds dicting what customers actually want
But, as technology and business model that matter the most to their customers (e.g., a low balance alert). before they know it themselves. Proac-
innovation change, bank executives in a way thats true to their brands (see tively serving up payment experiences
must develop solutions that prioritize Figure 6). that help steward customers to make
more real-time, convenient, contextual, smarter decisions in real time would
Here we highlight four key trends from TODAY
and intelligent functionalities. represent a valuable concierge service.
across the board. Personalized financial guidance and
product offerings focus on disinter-
Indeed, triggering contextual experi-
mediating core financial activities by
FIGURE06 being better, faster, and cheaper than
ences based on where and who people
are, and what and how they are doing,
traditional banks (e.g., investments
will elevate the value that payment
The following is a Fantasy Payment Team made up of the best-in-class payment solutions from each category. focused on robo-advisors, tax and fee
solutions can provide. For example,
harvesting, and peer-to-peer lending).
contextual mobile intelligence can be
leveraged to automatically send restau-
FANTASY PAYMENT TEAM rant recommendations and promotional
TOMORROW offers to customers visiting new cities.
Financial experiences will leverage
artificial intelligence to learn customer The largest opportunity is for brands to
needs, adapt over time, and provide target a behavior we call down-timing,
proactive personalized shortcuts when customers transition between
WeChat Venmo Square Wallaby Samsung Pay PayPal
Visa that help maximize customers lives experiences, whether captive on a
Developer
in real time. bus or simply unwinding at the airport.
This could involve serving up welcome
Messaging Social Point of Sale Wallet Compatible Brand Open API reminders to complete financial tasks
and make the most of dead travel time,
triggered as a location-based service.
Danske Bank Starbucks Stripe M-Pesa MasterCard Bitcoin Alipay

Bank Merchant E-commerce Inclusive Selfie Pay Transparency Empire

17
Forbes. Why Amazons Anticipatory Shipping is Pure Genius. http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarket-
ing/2014/01/28/why-amazons-anticipatory-shipping-is-pure-genius/#6d5bf9c42fac.

56 RESEARCH 57
 2 3
THE HALO OF APPLE PAY
Banks in the U.S. jumped on board with
Apple Pay.19 User experiences on the
iPhone, the Apple Watch, and in-app are
elegant and easy. Banks partnering with
Apple benefited from the halo effect of
being associated with a beloved lifestyle
brand, and one that conveyed innovation.
The challenge with Apples closed sys-
tem, however, is the lack of merchant
acceptance, with just 23% of big box
merchants accepting payments as of
January, 2016.20 While the list of mer-
chants and apps is growing, consumers
European Commission. Payment Services Directive: Frequently Asked Questions. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-5793_en.htm?locale=en.
18
Over 1,100 banks have partnered with Apple Pay in the U.S. as of March 2016. Apple. Apple Pay Participating Banks and Store Cards. https://support.apple.com/en-us/
19
HT204916.
20
L2 INC. Retail Innovations: Mobile Payments. January, 2016. https://www.l2inc.com/research/retail-innovations-mobile-payments.
21
Apple. Apple Pay. https://developer.apple.com/apple-pay/.
58
Move faster and be nimbler
with payment investments
YESTERDAY
A multistep, payment process that was
hard to complete on mobile.
TODAY
A mobile-first, app-based approach that
is more social.
TOMORROW
An invisible user interface that will
be facilitated by voice payments or
seamless integration with third-party
apps or sites to enable contextual
payments (e.g., Pinterest's buy now
button or Facebook's buy feature on
the News Feed.)
cannot practically rely on the iPhone
for all payments. Banks in China may
see even more challenges with Apple
Pay, given how much further along their
market is in mobile payments.
With Apple Pay available in the Safari
browser across devices in September
2016, Apple will compete directly with
PayPal when the consumer checks
out online, with the added security of
authentication using the nearby iPhone
Touch ID. Apples closed system makes
it at best one more option, rather than
Fueled by venture capital investment,
payment apps today are better, faster,
and cheaper than generic white label
payment solutions.
For example, banks must make
payments easier with fewer steps and
less attention required. Potential tactics
include biometric authentication (e.g.,
fingerprint, voice, or facial), conver-
sational interfaces like chat bots and
natural language recognition, and
predicting needs through machine
learning and saved preferences to
automate decisions and make
better recommendations.
Lastly, we expect more payments
innovation spurred by recent regulatory
changes in Europe like the Payments
Services Directive (PSD2) and the
global banking trend toward open
payment application programming
interfaces (APIs). Both make it easier
for banks to collaborate with nimble
fintechs and merchants.18
a PayPal replacement working across
browsers. In contrast, Apples effort
to open up Messages to external deve-
lopers like Square promises to make
payments within the Apple ecosystem
increasingly viable.21
The other leading consideration for
consumers is the store rewards card
with Walgreens being the first to fully
integrate Apple Pay so that when
they pay, consumers have the peace
of mind that they are rewarded.
Join the conversation
YESTERDAY
Physical banking and trusting an
advisor (more than a secure AI bot)
to make payments on your behalf.
TODAY
The emergence of cashless payments,
with Apple and Android Pay identifying
the best card for each transaction
(like the Wallaby app does based on
rewards, fees, interest rates, and other
financial data), and integrating coupons
and loyalty programs into a unified
wallet (as Walmart has done).
TOMORROW
Messaging platforms (like Facebook
Messenger) delivered through voice
interfaces (like Amazon Alexa and Viv)
that consumers trust enough to make
payment transactions on their behalf.
Voice payments could combine two
steps, serving as both the interface and
the method of authentication with the
security of voice biometrics.
22
Forbes. Kik Battles Facebook with Bots in the New Messaging Wars. http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/10/kik-bots-messaging-facebook-
wechat/#52923d8c2571.
23
Andreessen Horowitz. When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China. http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/.
RESEARCH
What if, instead of investing all that time
and energy in persuading customers
to download your app, you could have
an instantaneous, seamless, and per-
sonalized way to engage them in con-
versation? With over 2.1 billion active
users on messaging apps like Facebook
Messenger, Line, and WeChat, the
promise of a conversational user inter-
face is already here.22
Indeed, Facebook has just launched
M its bold answer to Siri and
Cortana that augments its AI algorithm
with actual people to provide your very
own conversational personal assistant.23
WeChat, on the other hand, is the
pioneer of messaging payments with at
least one-in-five active users already set
up for WeChat payments. In fact, its
growing so quickly that WeChat is now
experimenting with offline payments, bill
payments, the splitting of bills, shopping,
wealth management, and Bitcoin trans-
fers all through the messaging app.
As messaging platforms threaten to
become the new operating system
the one app to rule them all other
payment providers need to quickly
decide how they will partner, compete,
or integrate these new (and inevitably
dominant) payment distribution channels.
59
 4
FIGURE07
More than money
In its advertisements, PayPal uses YESTERDAY
humor to highlight the flexibility of
A focus on commoditized payment
its digital payment tools. Peer-to-peer
payments and easy bill-sharing are services, with loyalty partnerships in
emphasized. select areas.
TODAY
Intelligence-driven recommendations
provided by third parties.
CLICK FOR MONEY YOU
CAN SHARE WITHOUT
DESTROYING IT
TOMORROW
Dynamic pricing functions and other
value-added services for the empow-
ered customer.
FIGURE08
Have you ever browsed for a flight only
to later return and see that the price
The Wallaby app identifies the best card
has increased? Many retailers employ
for each transaction for example, the
card that offers 2% back at restaurants. dynamic pricing tactics to either charge
certain consumers more than others
or to respond to fluctuations in supply
and demand (i.e., returning to view the
same product/service a second time).
To fight back against this hidden price
discrimination, a new startup, Paribus,
has launched with the mission to get
consumers' money back when prices
drop post-purchase. The service con-
nects to the email address that you use
for shopping online and, as it scans
your receipts, it monitors prices. If the
price of your purchase drops, Paribus
negotiates for a refund, while keeping a
cut of about 25 percent.24
24
Paribus. Frequently Asked Questions. https://paribus.co/faq.
Bank of America. Bank of America Cardless ATM Technology Featured at Google IO Conference. http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-releases/consumer-banking/
25
bank-america-cardless-atm-technology-featured-google-io-conference.
Samsung. Samsung Pay Accelerates Growth with Three New Markets in Three Weeks. https://www.samsungmobilepress.com/press/Samsung-Pay-Accelerates-Growth-with-
26
Three-New-Markets-in-Three-Weeks?2016-06-21.
60
With such rising competition from inno-
vative startups, payment providers also
need to ask themselves how they can
provide value beyond the transaction
and in the context of the end-to-end
customer journey.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments are a
significant opportunity area. Banks can
help customers spend more time on
relationships, rather than transactions,
by offering the automated splitting of
bills in P2P payments (see Figure 7).
Another form of added value is that
delivered by Bank of America, which
recently announced the launch of
its cardless-enabled ATMs at 2,400
locations across the U.S. In coopera-
tion with partners such as Google,
these ATMs utilize near field commu-
nication (NFC) to streamline the cash
withdrawal process by allowing Android
Pay users (and other mobile wallet
customers) to access their accounts by
simply tapping their smartphones.25
Rewards are another opportunity area.
By aligning themselves with the likes of
Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung
Pay (whose Gift Card program is now
supported by hundreds of merchants
and retailers), banks can integrate
themselves seamlessly into the vast
network of consumer gift cards, mem-
berships, and loyalty features.26
Banks can even use technology like
artificial intelligence. A simple example
is a digital wallet, like Wallaby, that
automatically selects which credit card
maximizes rewards at the point of sale,
avoiding the need to remember which
category accrues the most points (see
Figure 8).
Conclusion remember that ATMs took a decade to Nearly
To summarize, our research found that
the frequency of using mobile pay-
take off. Consumers have been paying
with cash and credit cards for several 2-in-5
respondents want payments
decades. A full transition to mobile
ments in-store has increased signifi- payments is going to take a while, integrated into their banking apps
cantly. Eighty percent of consumers especially since we are all creatures
make mobile payments at least a few of habit. Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
times a month, compared to just 36
percent last year. Yet it is still an emerg- To be the primary way that we pay, mo-
ing behavior. U.S. mobile payments bile payments need to become easier
remain a growing niche; even the pro- and more top-of-mind than pulling out
jected $210 billion in mobile payments cash or a card. Indeed, while com-
by 2019 is only 1 percent of the $16 paring data from 2015 to 2016, we
trillion total consumer spend.27 Globally, discovered that convenience remains
the trends are similar. the biggest motivator, with one of the
biggest deterrents being that few retail-
Amid evolving consumer behavior, and ers even accept mobile payments.
the shifting technology landscape,
banks have one unique advantage: The vision of a unified, cashless, global
trust. In our study, U.S. consumers payment experience is a long way off,
voted for banks as the most trusted but banks need to make progress
providers of mobile payment solutions. toward that goal if they wish to remain
Nearly two-in-five respondents want relevant in the eyes of future, ever-
payments integrated into their banking smarter shoppers.
apps. And we see the same degree
of trust in Europe, with 84 percent of
Europeans saying that they would trust David Poole
their banks the most to offer mobile Financial Services Center of Excellence,
payment solutions.28 SapientNitro Boston
dpoole@sapient.com
The financial services industry is
impatient to proclaim the mainstream A special thanks to Greg Boullin for his
adoption of mobile payments, yet lets contribution to this article.
About the survey
SapientNitro conducted the 2016 Mobile Payment Study to better understand the
mobile payment behaviors of U.S. smartphone users. We conducted a survey of
our U.S.-based panel on February 2016, and received 493 responses.
The panel consists of over 800 U.S.-based smartphone users, and is directionally
accurate for modeling the U.S.-based, smartphone-empowered population. It is a
non-random sample that skews slightly younger, higher-income, and more female
than the population as a whole. Full details of gender, ethnicity, education, age,
and income are available upon request.
27
eMarketer. Mobile Payments Will Triple in the US in 2016. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Payments-Will-Triple-US-2016/1013147.
ING International Survey. The Rise of Mobile Banking and the Changing Face of Payments in the Digital Age. April, 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/ING/ing-mobile-banking-
28
2015-report.
RESEARCH 61
64 Dispelling 5 Myths About Experience Design
Paul Eisen, PhD

78 The Rise of Digital Experience Platforms

Andre Engberts

94 Enterprise Startup: Tactics for Thriving in

Fast-Changing IT Environments

OUR PERSPECTIVES
Pinak Kiran Vedalankar
DISPELLING
5 MYTHS ABOUT
EXPERIENCE DESIGN
PAUL EISEN, PhD

Customer experience (CX) has finally reached prime time. It is being recognized
broadly as a key differentiator of the products and services that businesses offer,
no matter what the industry. Business leaders get it: The environments they create
and interactions they foster for their customers define their brands. As such, they
need to pay closer attention to experience design and related disciplines [in-
cluding user experience (UX), customer experience (CX), and human computer
interactions (HCI)].

Along with the aforementioned C-level epiphany, experience designers and product
managers are being inundated with (often contradictory) advice from bloggers,
analysts, and self-proclaimed experts on how to achieve breakthrough experiences.
And, among this rabble, those same product managers have also formed their own
opinions about experience design opinions which are often heavily influenced by
idiosyncratic brand loyalties.

In a world where digital interactions pervade almost every experience that custom-
ers have with a brand, business leaders cant afford to get UX wrong. But how can
they get it right when design opinions are endless, design patterns are seemingly
infinite, and consumer interactions and expectations are ever-evolving?

We recommend starting by taking a step back, understanding the foundations of

experience design, and debunking some of the contemporary, mainstream myths.

OUR PERSPECTIVES 65
 UCD capitalized on psychology and
FIGURE01 How did we get here? bilities of end users. This resulted
systems design to establish practical
The user experience is the brand.4
in some staggering inefficiencies that
Just as architecture emerged from often totally offset the processing methods for building usable products Historically, many brands got away
How far we have come the convoluted designer-builder role speed improvements brought by (i.e., products that are useful, efficient, with shoddy experiences due to low
(known as the master builder) of automation.2 And users, who typically and satisfying). consumer expectations. Today, with
traditional craftsmen, user experience took the blame for their lack of under- global access to creating memorable
was borne as a distinct software design standing, were forgiving not charitably, Furthermore, the overarching field of ex- and effective user experiences, this is
discipline in the 1980s.1 As personal but out of ignorance. perience design which encompasses no longer the case.
computers and digital technologies UX, HCI, and other related disciplines
were making their way into the hands of Out of these dark days of inattention was developed and refined on a core Through our work, SapientNitro devel-
consumers and employees, technology to UX (cue the blinking 12:00 on the premise: Only by studying how real oped five dimensions that brands need
developers were woefully negligent in home VCR), the field of user-centered people experience real products can to focus on in order to create experi-
addressing the basic needs and capa- design (UCD) appeared (see Figure 1).3 we create innovative product concepts ences that customers will value (see
and services. This idea, to this day, still Figure 2). We use these five dimen-
serves as a challenge to the world of sions of the user experience to quantify
FIGURE02 focus groups, consumer surveys, and relative areas of strength and weakness
test markets that have, historically, do- for each brand. The five dimensions
minated much of the product innovation are control, access, fit, sense, and
A three-decade-long commitment to experience and marketing landscape. continuity (see Figure 3). To enable
effective user experiences, brands must
SapientNitro has long focused on the importance of experience, dating back to our 1998 acquisition of the design firm Studio attend to each of these dimensions in
Archetype, and the hiring of Clement Mok as Sapients first chief creative officer. Subsequent acquisitions of the consumer
intelligence firm eLab in 1999, and the purchase of IOTA in 2012, reinforce our commitment to design and the role of experi-
What is user experience? the stories that they shape.5
ence in our work. User experience is the sum total of
And, in achieving such effective UX, a
2009 all impressions formed by customers
Sapient becomes first major digitally- critical success factor is to avoid falling
when experiencing a brand, across all
led firm to acquire a traditional agency prey to the following five myths regard-
(Nitro Group), improving the reach 2015 touchpoints a blend of perceptions
of our experience-led thinking. One Sapient acquired by ing user experience.
year later, SapientNitro is born. Publicis Group for $3.7
and interactions. How does this differ from
billion, creating a digital the brand itself? Well, frankly, it doesnt.
1998 platform grounded in
Acquisition of Studio 2011 experience thinking
Archetype, an early Acquisition of agencies
Clanmo, a mobile
pioneer in experience
specialist, and D&D FIGURE03
design
Holdings, a physical
and digital direct expert 2017

2015
2016
SapientNitros Return on Experience (RoX) DimensionsTM
2000 These five dimensions define the key characteristics of user experience that brands must consider when shaping their stories.
Acquisition of 2013
1995 Human Code 2014
2011
First website 2010 Acquisition of Campfire,
created 2007 2008
2004 2005 an award-winning boutique
2002 2003 specializing in transmedia
2001
storytelling
2012 CONTROL ACCESS FIT SENSE CONTINUITY
1999 2006 Acquisition of IOTA, a leader in How well my com- How well my com- How well my com- How pleasurable my How easily users can
1997 Acquisition of design Acquisition of PGI (Plan-
1996
using the Internet of Things to panys digital experi- panys digital experi- panys digital expe- companys digital expe- stop what theyre
experience leader ning Group sense people, places and things
Adjacency International), a digital
ences allow users to ences give users full, riences fit into users riences feel; how much doing and then pick
marketing agency accomplish what they unfettered access to all lives, whenever users users look forward to up where they left
Acquisition of Second Story, a
Acquisition of eLab, standout in blending physical
intend without being of the information and need them, at any using them. off later without any
a visionary consumer and digital experiences in spaces restricted by policies, resources they need to time, on any device difficulty when using
intelligence firm procedures, or bureau- make decisions and get which users wish to my company's digital
Acquisition of mPhasize, a spe- cracy. things done. use to access them. experiences.
cialist in multichannel attribution
modeling
Davis, Howard. The Culture of Building. Oxford University Press. 2006. P 108.
1

Landauer, Thomas. The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity. MIT Press. 1995.
2
Mok, Clement. Designing Business: Multiple Media, Multiple Disciplines. Adobe Press. 1996.
4

Norman, Don and Stephen Draper. User-Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction. Laurence Erlbaum Assoc. 1986.
3
McColl, Darren Daz. Our Storyscaping Approach. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/our-storyscaping-approach.
5

66 OUR PERSPECTIVES 67
 MYTH
You cant really measure
experience
A typical assumption that we run
across is that experience design is
about touchy-feely impressions and,
therefore, is hard to measure.
Busting the myth
There are many sound ways to
measure experience
The reality is that all it takes is a clear
understanding of solution goals, and
a selection of metrics and targets that
are good indicators of those goals. We
then measure experience design effec-
tiveness by examining the outcomes of
these goals. We refer to this business
return-on-investment (ROI) in user
experience as the return on expe-
rience, or RoX.
In addition to business outcomes,
UX professionals employ a host of
direct metrics to better diagnose
experience design flaws and prioritize
areas to improve. These range from
behavioral metrics quantifying con-
sumer activity through instrumentation
and observation to subjective metrics
that quantify end-user reactions to
the experience.
These all come together in a long-term
measurement approach that connects
the RoX dimensions to various aspects
of the digital experience (such as con-
text) and allows for clearer evaluation
and optimization (see Figure 4).
For example, for one client we used WAYS TO
our proprietary RoX methodology from
MEASURE UX
Figure 3 to score experiences by quar-
ter (see Figure 5).
Here are some common areas
In fact, in 2015, SapientNitro worked where UX metrics can be defined.
with a large U.S. bank to re-envision They apply both to customer-facing
the user experience for online account and employee-facing solutions.
opening (OAO) of retail banking
deposit products. We streamlined the
process; extended customer access
to mobile devices through responsive
design; and tuned the interactions, visual OPERATIONAL METRICS
design, and copy to remove barriers. Organizational learning costs
Our redesign resulted in an immediate Organizational efficiency
and sustained lift in conversion of over Organizational effectiveness
300 percent. The product set didnt
Support costs
change, nor did the bank offer. Rather,
it was the new experience that led to Sales volume and revenue
this outcome. Hence, the RoX was cal-
culated as the revenue lift divided by the
investment in this new OAO solution.

END-USER IMPACT METRICS

FIGURE04 FIGURE05
Adoption

Usage frequency and duration

A long-term digital experience measurement approach Applying the Continuous Experience Tracking Study (CETS) for a client
Wait time
Our digital brand approach takes various elements into consideration elements including context, scale, measurement, As part of our CETS (see Figure 4 for details on the overall process), we
optimization, and long-term analysis. conducted quarterly assessments of each aspect of client engagement. Satisfaction
For example, we tracked how the on-boarding process changed with
Loyalty (propensity to re-engage)
the introduction of a new mobile app, additional training, and improved
in-store capabilities.
SITUATE & SCALE MEASURE & RECOMMEND CAPTURE NEXT-GEN
UNDERSTAND EXPERIENCE EVALUATE EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE
CONTEXT Scoring based on our RoX dimensions
DIMENSIONS CURRENT STATE OPTIMIZATION METRICS
Q1-Q2 Q3 Q4

Experience channels Understand and Understand perceived Prioritize digital Continuous Experience
CONTROL 3.2 4.3 4.4
articulate the RoX performances of projects and invest- Tracking Study (CETS) ACCESS 3.3 4.3 4.3
Segments dimensions against your company vs. ments that drive
Calculate trajectories FIT 3.6 4.4 4.4
the needs of the end the competition positive impacts on
Intent user on a 1 to 5 scale RoX dimensions using predictive SENSE 3.0 4.3 4.3
Generate composite modeling
Typical digital scores Forecast desired CONTINUITY 2.9 4.3 4.4
journey (and other performance metrics Agile refinement of
applicable channels) Size the revenue based upon anticipated go-to-market approach
opportunity in each returns
Core user experience individual RoX Predictive model 16.0 21.6 21.8
implications dimension movement Allocate budgets equals (or exceeds)
based on ability to traditional channel
move RoX models
Overall CETS score (out of 30)

68 OUR PERSPECTIVES 69
 MYTH
Design standards yield success
We commonly refer to a product experi-
ence as usable when the process
to use it is intuitive.6 With this goal in
mind, brands standardize their design
patterns based on conventions and
user expectations, adhering to the core
UX principle of consistency. These
consistent patterns address the visual
appearance (the look) and interac-
tions (the feel). Many brands feel that
this will ensure a good user experience.
Busting the myth
Standards are necessary, but
not sufficient
Theres no question that sticking to a
set of well-crafted design standards is
an important part of usability. However,
what is unclear is that compliance with
a set of well-crafted design standards
is simply not sufficient. In fact, its not
even remotely sufficient.
We regularly review and analyze digital
solutions whose user interfaces comply
with well-regarded standards. Yet many
of these solutions offer extremely poor
user experiences. These solutions
might superficially look familiar, but
Compliance with a set of well-crafted
design standards is simply not sufficient.
In fact, its not even remotely sufficient.
Usability maps roughly to the control and fit dimensions of SapientNitros model of user experience.
6
70
where the rubber meets the road
with actual usage they just dont do
the job. Why is this? Imagine a hotel
bed with a cozy, attractive blanket,
but a worn, lumpy mattress. Your first
impression upon entering the hotel
room might be positive, but once
the lights are out, that soft, attractive
blanket will do little to offset the inade-
quate support.
In addition to consistency, effective
user experiences rely on a deep
understanding of the user model
that is, how end users think about the
world, and their associated needs and
motivations. Smart brands acquire this
understanding through a combination
of direct research and know-how, and
then choose where to improve the
experience by building well-crafted
experience frameworks and content
taxonomies reflective of the user model.
These two activities understanding
the user model and creating an
appropriate framework and taxonomy
form the mandatory underpinnings of
effective user experiences like a strong,
supportive mattress. Alone, design
standards (like cozy blankets) are
not enough.
MYTH
Analytics alone reveal user needs
As analytics specialists become de
rigueur in most large organizations to-
day, brands might assume that forming
insights about user needs and motiva-
tions follows naturally from activity
and site-log analysis (by monitoring
click-paths, for example). In our own
experience, weve had many conversa-
tions with brand managers who show
little interest in delving into qualitative
ethnographic research, feeling that all
they need is the quantitative tracking of
customer behavior.7
Busting the myth
Analytics need to be supplemented
with qualitative research
Activity and site logs illustrate what
end users are doing, but not why.
User behavior is a response to what
users encounter in the current solution
ecosystem. For example, if users are
following ineffective or misleading
content and navigational cues, or
neglecting to follow potentially valuable
but visually obscure links, then the site
logs could be merely reflecting these
poor design choices. Or, if users tend
to use a mobile phone inside a store to
learn about a specific product on the
shelf, then it may be due to the lack of
Slobin, Adrian and Todd Cherkasky. Ethnography in the Age of Analytics. EPIC 2010 Proceedings. American Anthropological Association (2010).
7
UserTesting Blog. Hangry UserTesting: Dominos Pizza Mobile Site and App. https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2015/06/02/hangry-usertesting-dominos/.
8
OUR PERSPECTIVES
effective in-venue digital support, rather
than an explicit desire to do product
research on a mobile device.
Dominos Pizza has an elaborate
program in analytics, and has published
several case studies about how the
vast data they capture informs their
business strategy. Still, with the host
of metrics tracked across customer
touchpoints, it took a qualitative,
observational study of usage to
uncover multiple and fundamental
shortcomings (related to tasks as basic
as applying a coupon or scheduling
a delivery) in their mobile app and
website experiences.8
To gather valid insights about user
needs and motivations, analytics need
to be supplemented with consumer
research and insights methods, such as
contextual inquiry, digital ethnography,
and participatory design. These methods
are structured to elicit design-relevant
input from end users that, in combi-
nation with quantitative analytics, can
lead to deep insights that will improve
the overall experience as well as specific,
tactical UX elements.
An organization should gather insights
because it wants to improve the overall
experience, not just users interactions
with a touchpoint.
71
 MYTH
Consistency = the same
With the explosion of consumer
device types and sizes ranging
from traditional desktop monitors to
watches, and extending to a growing
list of unconventional products within
the Internet of Things brands are
challenged by content presentation.
FIGURE06
An example of sameness
In the spirit of consistency and under
the assumption that this approach will
lead to good UX brands often use
responsive design to provide the same
design across devices, adjusting only
layout and images, and abbreviating
copy for smaller screens.
Busting the myth
Consistent does not mean
the same
Propagating look and feel, as well as
tone and voice, across devices makes
sense.9 But a consistent experience
across devices also entails explicitly
tuning the interactions to the device,
CASE STUDY: LUFTHANSA
SapientNitro designed Lufthansa's
mobile cross-device experience by not
Lufthansa's
only tuning the presentation to the
device, but also by emphasizing access
approach
to features based on the context of usage optimizes the
and optimization of the interactions for
touch input. This approach optimizes the experience across
experience across the customer journey,
avoiding the trap of sameness (see Fi- the customer
gure 7). The continuous optimization and
personalization of the Lufthansa mobile
journey, avoiding
experience led to a constant 4+ star
rating in the iOS app store, and contributed
the trap of
significantly to an increase in the volume sameness.
of bookings made with smartphones and
a considerable decrease in drop-offs.

The hamburger menu (top left showing it closed and top right showing it opened) and further varying the experience to
is often considered to be an effective design option on a narrow screen, but repli- address the changing context of usage.
cating that browsing menu experience onto a wider screen (bottom) may not be
FIGURE07
the best design choice. Many brands (even high-traffic brands
like Netflix) inappropriately apply same-
ness to various design elements on
Design across Lufthansas connected devices
Hamburger menu their websites, one being the browsing SapientNitro designed this cross-platform experience to be tailored to each channel, while still
Home
function. The hamburger menu icon achieving the desired level of consistency.
GENRES

TV Shows (referring to the three horizontal lines

Action & Adventure iconography) is arguably an effective
Anime design element for access to a main
Children & Family Movies menu on a narrow screen, but propa-
Comedies gating that design choice to a wide
screen unnecessarily buries useful
navigational cues (see Figure 6).
Responsive design can be more effec-
tively applied by tuning these important
Home TV Shows Comedies
My List
New Arrivals
Action
Anime
Documentaries
Drama
design elements to each layout.
Ways to Watch Children Faith
Classics Horror

Nielsen-Norman Group. Consistency in the Cross-Channel Experience. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/cross-channel-consistency/.

9

72 OUR PERSPECTIVES 73
 MYTH effectiveness, ease, and emotion
CX leaders create great across all touchpoints and including
traditional customer-service channels
user experiences (see Figure 8). Still, with the tremendous
In their customer experience index, emphasis on digital and cross-channel
Forrester Research found strong experiences, one would expect that provi-
positive correlations between CX and ding great digital user experiences would
revenue growth.10 This Forrester CX be a prerequisite for a high CX ranking,
Index addresses customer experiences especially among technology companies.
that extend beyond UX, considering
In our own work, weve evaluated
numerous brands on their level of CX,
FIGURE08 as well. Two that we have identified as
U.S. leaders, in particular, are Apple
and National Car Rental (a large, U.S.-
The distribution of industry scores in Forresters CX index11 based car rental chain). Since UX is
a key part of CX, these brands must
Very poor Poor OK Good Excellent
provide great UX, right? And these
Traditional retail banks
rankings are consistent with public
Digital-only retailers sentiment. Since UX is a key part of
Auto and home insurance providers CX, these brands must provide great
Direct banks UX, right?
Wireless service providers
Full-service investment firms
Busting the myth
UX is still wanting in CX leaders
Credit card providers
Auto manufacturers
Well, not necessarily. Leading in user
Direct or discount brokerages experience demands a focus on learn-
OTT service providers ability, ease of use, and productivity.
Traditional retailers (stores and digital) The key principles of interaction design
Hotels also include ensuring that users are
Mobile device manufacturers aware of what actions are possible and
PC manufacturers how to select those actions. Yet the
Parcel shipping/delivery providers
leaders arent always delivering against
these best practices.
Rental car providers
Health insurance providers
Lets start with a sample UX from
Airlines Apple, the widely proclaimed master of
TV service providers consumer product design. Apple leads
Internet service providers the way in balancing form and function
US federal government agencies to appeal to both the core needs and
emotional drivers of its customers. This
Industry average Individual company score
is obvious in the relatively high prices
that Apple products command com-
Base: 122,500 US online adult customers (ages 18+) of at least one industry who interacted with that industry
within the past 12 months (bases vary by industry) pared to their competitors.
Unfortunately, in the past several years, To some, this is just a momentary con-
Apple, according to several leaders in fusion; however, to security-minded
the UX field, has sacrificed the user customers, this may prove to be a deal
experience in favor of design simplicity breaker for usage. The bottom line:
and visual elegance attributes that Even leaders in CX scores still have
influence purchase decisions while many opportunities to improve their
negatively impacting learnability, ease digital user experiences.
of use, and productivity.
The founding fathers of Apples human FIGURE09 FIGURE10
interface design guidelines recently
published a critical review of how
Apple has abandoned user-centered Apple continues to move away from National Car Rental's iPhone app
design principles in favor of aesthetics user-centered design principles12 login screen
like flat design and over-simplification
(such as not providing a universal back
The New Event screen on Apples National Car Rental iPhone screen
iOS 9 uses flat design, obscuring the includes an ambiguous Keep me
button).12 Where Apple products once
separation of fields.13 signed in switch, and also fails to pull
embodied key principles of interaction in existing reservations even in the
design, they now seem to be heading logged-in state.
in a different direction (see Figure 9).
Many websites still lack UX basics.
For example, one car rental website
didn't allow authenticated customers
the ability to see their list of upcoming
reservations. This treats customers as
anonymous, requiring them to enter a
reservation number to view or modify
an existing reservation.
In another example, National Rental
Car's iPhone app, while functionally
very effective, includes a common
design flaw that can hamper the
experience. On login, the visual style
chosen for the Keep me signed in
switch is ambiguous, due to the dark
background of the off state.

10
Forrester. Customer Experience Drives Revenue Growth, 2016. June, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/report/Does+Customer+Experience+Really+Drive+Business+Success/
-/E-RES125102. Norman, Don and Bruce Tognazzini. How Apple is Giving Design a Bad Name. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name.
12

Forrester. The US Customer Experience Index, 2016. July, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES131003.

11 Wikipedia. Flat Design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_design.
13

74 OUR PERSPECTIVES 75
 MYTH
Place important content
above the fold
The fold is a term adopted from news-
print media, referring to the physical
crease of a folded newspaper. In its
face-up position, only the content above
the fold is visible and can initially catch
the attention of the viewer. This term
and design philosophy was adopted
by digital media in the 1990s for the
default view of a webpage, without
scrolling. And rightfully so, as initially
there were only a few standard monitor
resolutions, and few people would nat-
urally scroll. As a result, content below
the fold was less likely to be seen. For
long lists, techniques like pagination
have been employed to keep content
above the fold.14
Busting the myth
The fold is nonexistent or irrelevant
In our studies over the years, weve
noticed a dramatic behavioral shift
from clicking to scrolling. The inflection
point was roughly 2006. At that point,
consumers electing to view lists of con-
tent (such as e-commerce search results)
in a single page outnumbered those
preferring pagination.
In addition to consumers growing
familiarity with scrolling, input devices
with scrolling buttons became wide-
ly available. These days, we observe
scrolling as a reflexive action on page
load. As a result, the imperative to place
important content above the fold no
longer holds true a new reality
supported by research.15
14
Pagination was also used to reduce the time required to load content onto the page.
CXPartners. The Myth of the Page Fold: Evidence from User Testing. https://www.cxpartners.co.uk/our-thinking/the_myth_of_the_page_fold_evidence_from_
15
user_testing/.
McColl, Darren Daz. Our Storyscaping Approach. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/our-storyscaping-approach.
16
76
MYTH
Long scrolling home pages
are effective
So, if people are now scrolling reflex-
ively, then surely the recent trend of
long scrolling home pages makes sense,
right? Many brands are jumping at the
idea of presenting all of their primary
content on a single, long home page.
In this design approach, the user scrolls
down the page to encounter the main
content, rather than clicking on links
to various pages. In its extreme, all of
the website content (other than privacy
notices and the like) is housed on this
one long page.
Busting the myth
Long scrolling pages tell a
linear story
Long scrolling pages control the sequence
of the messages to be communicated to
the user. For linear storytelling, this is
warranted. However, as weve described
with our Storyscaping approach, linear
storytelling is rarely effective in the
creation of web experiences.16 To support
peoples need to be a part of and in
control of the story, sites should be
structured to allow users to decide
how and when they encounter content.
Usually, the classic web hierarchy
enables this control.
In an attempt to address this need for
control, some long scrolling home pages
provide section headings that link to
content lower on the page. However,
these section headings usually introduce
disorientation and inefficiency in navi-
gation. The bottom line: The traditional
web structure generally should be used
for access to online content.
The way forward Apply ruthless attention to
Achieving breakthrough experience
detail to ensure that all material
design flaws are addressed
design relies on a strong, flexible,
Even minor, seemingly trivial experi-
user-centered research and strategy
ence issues and missed opportuni-
process, and the right mix of talent.
ties can easily undermine a brands
Avoid falling prey to the above myths
image. While avoiding chasing
by embracing the following three
perfection, experience designers
key ingredients:
should focus on tuning each design
element and their collective interac-
Identify metrics of success that
tie directly to business goals tions to achieve breakthrough
Brands should consider creating user experiences.
specific experience metrics that
The long-overdue, broad desire of
align directly to established goals
brands to deliver great experiences is
for the solution. Next, brands should
very heartening. There is still, unfortu-
set targets against these metrics
nately, a general lack of understanding
and track progress toward these
of how great experiences are achieved.
targets during development and
With users continuing to be forgiving
after deployment.
of a lack of user-centricity, the field of
Extend well beyond design experience design still has a long way
standards and analytics, before full maturity. Avoiding the pitfalls
ensuring early and continual of the aforementioned myths is a very
positive step forward.
involvement of target users
through objective research
and insights practices
Brands should select and shape Paul Eisen, PhD
cost-effective research activities to Director, Experience Design,
gather customer needs and experi- SapientNitro Toronto
ence opportunities, and to validate peisen@sapient.com
solution approaches. Brands
should also consider identifying
and recruiting customers from their
target audiences to participate in
this research.
OUR PERSPECTIVES 77
THE RISE
OF DIGITAL
EXPERIENCE
PLATFORMS
ANDRE ENGBERTS

Digital marketing planning has permanently changed. What was once a focus on
banner ads, microsites, and website optimization is now a platform approach that
emphasizes the multichannel experience.

And in a digital marketing world replete with new data sources mobile phones,
connected cars, and in-store beacons, to name a few managing the customer
experience is more challenging than ever.

To respond, leading companies are now realizing that they need to integrate their
marketing systems and create a new marketing operating system, if you will, that
bridges and enables customer outreach at scale.

OUR PERSPECTIVES 79
 These new platforms, called Digital
Experience Platforms (DEPs) by many
industry players (see the Whats in a
name? sidebar), can be deeply inte-
grated into any customer touchpoint,
including the Internet of Things (IoT),
and are even getting into the world of
transactions. They create, optimize,
and orchestrate the multiple elements
of modern marketing (like digital ads,
mobile tools, e-commerce pricing, in-
store signage). And with improvements
in workflow, project management, and
business processes, DEPs are helping
marketers streamline operations, as well
as manage and optimize creative assets.
These systems have evolved from be-
ing focused on basic efficiency and re-
use, to becoming integral parts of their
companies enterprise architectures.
For example, at one global consumer
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
A Digital Experience Platform (DEP)
is the technology that links multi-
Digital Experience Platform
(SapientNitro and Forrester)
ple marketing technologies into one
marketing platform. Forrester defines User Experience Platform (Gartner)
this technology as software to manage,
Marketing Cloud (Adobe, Oracle,
deliver, and optimize digital experiences
consistently across every phase of the Salesforce, etc.)
customer life cycle.1
Marketing Operating System
(Razorfish and now Forrester)
Different organizations have applied
different names to this concept and
Marketing Technology Platform
approach. SapientNitro uses DEP, as does
Forrester, but others include: (Forrester, as a subset of the Market-
ing Operating System)
1
Forrester. Vendor Landscape: Digital Experience Platforms, 2016. May, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/report/Vendor+Landscape+Digital+Experience+Platforms/
-/E-RES104302.
80
packaged goods (CPG) firm, DEPs
are used to streamline the process of
creating and approving website, social,
mobile, and in-store content, and
then tracking its relative performance
globally (see How to do it: a CPG
case study on page 91). Assets are
centrally stored to maximize reuse, and
clear handoffs improve efficiency.
The successful use of DEPs depends
on recognizing their new surprisingly
strategic role. How do you coordinate
your marketing in a very complex digital
world? How do you plan and measure
experiences?
In this article, we propose a new
approach to the challenge of planning,
defining, and building digital experience
platforms, built on our hard-won experi-
ence implementing these platforms.
A Digital Experience
Platform is the
technology that
links multiple
marketing techno-
logies into one
marketing platform.
Factors driving the evolution
of the DEP
The increasing complexity of marketing
The latest wave of consumer tech-
nologies including conversational
user interfaces, chatbots, virtual reality,
and beacons is forcing Chief Mar-
keting Officers (CMOs) to update their
tools. One study found that the average
U.S. online adult uses more than four
connected devices, and 75 percent
use a smartphone.2
The result is that the DEPs are evolving
from a hub-and-spoke architecture
supporting a few channels and using
single sources of data collection to
a network of touchpoints that support
more complex user scenarios (see
Figure 1). Part of the evolution is that
these have moved from nice to have
initiatives, which were primarily done
for technology rationalization, to now
being enterprise-critical systems (along
the lines of ERP) in many organizations.
The winners in this space will be the
ones who can shift their thinking to
making these initiatives mission-critical.
A changing technology strategy
Digital marketing planning has now per-
manently shifted from focusing on initial
user experiences on the web update
the website, enable analytics and SEO,
and then measure the results to a
platform approach that defines a data
plan and comprehensive, multichannel
experience around the customer (see
Figure 2).
2
Forrester. The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2016, US. August, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/report/The+State+Of+Consumers+And+Technology+Bench-
mark+2016+US/-/E-RES136088.
OUR PERSPECTIVES
FIGURE01
What is changing with the platform?
DEPs in the last few years have evolved from centralized, command and control
systems to more distributed, networked systems that support more data sources
and flexibility.
FROM
Hub-and-spoke platform
Few channels web and mobile
with slow life-cycles
Few peripheral systems connected to the hub as
single sources of data collection: web analytics
extended to mobile + SEO
FIGURE02
What is changing with the strategy?
A strategy of combining marketing channels has driven the development of this
new breed of digital marketing platforms.
FROM
A company asks, Can you build the web-
site, analytics, and SEO?
Focus on an initial user experience on
the web and mobile sites
Focus on showing how you can deliver the project
with quality platform implementation
TO
A network of digital touchpoints
Interconnecting mainstream media: web/mobile,
TV, and print
New data sources and easier integration with
online and offline channels
Channel explosion: iBeacon, Wi-Fi, wearables,
RFID, and in-venue interactive kiosks that can
push content and collect data
TO
A company asks, What do we do once we
have the platform? Whats the vision? How
do we get to the marketing work as soon as
possible? And what does our digital world
look like?
Paint a concrete vision, rooted in industry domain
expertise and fresh ideas from the consumer
world, of the digital roadmap for the client. Begin
the implementation with table stakes experiences:
web + mobile.
Quickly set up the platform and define a compre-
hensive, multichannel experience and data plan
around the consumer
81
 Marketing and business strategies,
accordingly, are changing. CMOs
now work with their technologists
to articulate a vision first, and then
create a corresponding business
roadmap and technology architecture
blueprint for deploying available solu-
tions productively.
The new leadership expectations
of the CMO
The third area driving the evolution of
the DEP is the new role of the CMO.
The marketing department, which used
to be a cost center, is taking more
responsibility for revenue generation,
with marketers priorities now including
FIGURE03
CMOs manage a portfolio of objectives3
CMOs focus on a balanced scorecard.
Q: To which business drivers are your goals or objectives most directly aligned?
Revenue targets
Profit targets 41%
Brand health 37%
Customer satisfaction 27%
CX increases in importance
Percent reporting customer experience to be higher priority than it was two years ago.
B2C 72%
B2B
63%
Base: 219 senior most marketing leaders
Forrester. The Evolved CMO in 2016: CMOs Broaden Their Influence and Leadership. July, 2016. https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Evolved+CMO+In+2016/-/E-RES119909.
3
82
achieving positive business outcomes,
like qualified leads, closed deals, and
accurate measurements (see Figure 3).
How to plan, define, and build
a top-performing DEP solution
Today, implementing a DEP solution is
more about optimizing, rebuilding, and
reconnecting than it is about deploying
large, new chunks of software. Most
organizations already have the individual
pieces of technology, but are missing
the connections and hand-offs between
them. And knitting together software
must also be combined with steps to
align the organizations processes
and technology roadmaps. To help
close these gaps, we start with the
following steps:
Identifying immediate opportunity
areas to improve and create a
business case
Defining customer journeys and
associated experiences
82%
Planning for supporting experiences
with data
Defining an architecture blueprint
Developing a prioritization matrix
and roadmap
Step 1: Identify immediate opportunity that stores and tracks in-store market-
areas to improve and create a ing messages sent via iBeacon), we
are often able to deliver an immediate
business case success for the program (see Figure 4).
It is usually unnecessary for a brand
to need to start from scratch to build With this, the development of a
a DEP, though most organizations comprehensive customer journey and
are usually aware of their most severe experience optimization strategy can
become a natural Whats next? story
gaps. Addressing some of these gaps
early with a couple of small to medium to be sold by the CMO.
efforts can create momentum.
Then, in order to identify success metrics
For many clients, enabling mobile us- and value and ultimately prioritize the
age in multiple locations is an obvious roadmap a business case for the plat-
first step. By defining a simple multi- form investment should be developed
channel user experience, collecting in parallel with the quick-win activities.
channel performance data, and then
rolling out an update (for example, one
FIGURE04
Typical channels for a Digital Experience Platform
We identified a set of seven common areas to optimize and coordinate as we build DEPs.
CHANNEL IMPLEMENTATION MARKETING IMPACT
Web Cloud, on-premise, or managed hosting, Content Web is the architecture backbone for all other
Delivery Network channels
Mobile Hybrid: native (iOS + Android) + PhoneGap for The most effective channel to connect with
content management integration shoppers in the store
Integration Hosted service layer for server-side integration The way to extend DEP capabilities with external
layer with internal and external services service providers
SSO
Email and Cloud service for email campaign configuration, Message that a new feature has been launched.
SMS delivery, and data collection Retail or event marketing. Measure interest in
campaign topics.
Wi-Fi Third-party service provider for access to Wi-Fi Entice shoppers to use the app in the store and
router landing page receive messages in context
iBeacon Third-party service provider to push messages to Push promotional content, messaging, and
mobile users in proximity of iBeacon iBeacon device configuration in very local
context. Track who is going where and when.
Social Media Media-specific APIs and framework for content Understand sentiment about the brand and
publishing broaden outreach
Third-party service provider for social sentiment
extraction across multiple social platforms
OUR PERSPECTIVES 83
 Step 2: Defining customer journeys
and associated experiences
Brands should frame opportunities
along the dimensions (acquire, engage,
etc.) of the customer journey (see
Figure 5). Scenarios, use cases, sto-
ries, and epics are practical notations
for documenting and understanding
consumer behavior, and the specific
opportunities surrounding each. For ex-
ample, at a large automotive client, we
developed a set of journeys including
upgrading an existing vehicle, maintain-
ing a vehicle, buying a vehicle for the
first time, and buying a vehicle again.
For each journey, something digital
is happening that must be planned,
measured, and optimized. It might be a
touchpoint at the dealership or on the
FIGURE05
The buy for the first time customer journey
One client managed all of their digital touchpoints across generations of cam-
paigns through their DEP. Different brands have their own stories, but in general,
we see that mobile is moving past desktop web as the leading digital influence.
BUILDING
AWARENESS ACQUIRE ENGAGE
Corp sites
Ads
Paid media
In-store
digital
Mobile web
+ app
Games
Campaign
Offers
84
car club's website, or a live demo, TV Step 3: Planning for supporting FIGURE06
ad, or mobile app download. experiences with data
Prioritizing these journeys is the first Experiences defined along the customer The personalization and experimental dimension
step in the optimization of a DEP journey are then paired with a measure-
Data-driven personalization is a key aspect of the latest DEP technology.
investment. Content for each of these ment plan and approach, which can Enriching a customer profile over time helps drive key business outcomes.
touchpoints must be developed and evolve into an optimization strategy.
then managed over generations of What is the impact of DEP-managed
marketing campaigns. user experiences? And how do we Data
make these experiences achieve
As content proliferates across cha- better results? Experience
analytics Demographic Transactional
nnels, DEPs have focused more on
rationalizing and optimizing content Using the latest DEP technology
assets. Part of the value of DEPs is to deliver a continuously-updated cus-
that channel experiences can (and tomer profile is key, as it informs which 2nd and 3rd
Social trends
content types are delivered through the party
should) be designed to transition from
one stage to the next in the customer data-driven personalization mechanism Customer
(see Figure 6). All sources of data, profile
journey. For instance, product explora-
tion should carry its context to the store whether online, offline, generated Location Event/survey
history participation
or dealership visit. in-house, or acquired by a third party
should be leveraged to build a rich
customer profile that can be segmented Used for
for targeting.
Personalization requires experimenta- Content and experience optimization
tion and ongoing testing. Even simple
forms should be tried early to build
an understanding of influence on the A/B and Offer and promotion
customer, and A/B testing should be multivariate testing targeting
included in the roadmap to test person-
alization scenarios.
OPTIMIZE Product Content and asset
TRANSACT RELATIONSHIP RETAIN
recommendation optimization
Commerce
Low Medium High
OUR PERSPECTIVES 85
 Step 4: Defining an architecture FIGURE07
blueprint
Todays vendor platforms come with Exemplary building blocks of architecture patterns
powerful building blocks, but you also
This simplified logical diagram is used to drive discussions around the what and how of the marketing strategy
need to understand how these blocks implementation. These architecture patterns should be created independently of product packages. Package selection
interact with each other. At SapientNitro, is best done later in the process, once requirements and budgets are better defined.
we define and communicate those inter-
actions through architecture patterns.

Architecture patterns are simplified

logical representations of a system that
are used to drive discussions around
the what and how of marketing
strategy implementation. For instance,
we use architecture patterns to describe
how to implement multichannel
user experiences for international
markets, in-store digital experiences,
or content management.

When building architecture patterns,

we usually start with a list of building
blocks a collection of technology
capabilities that are integrated with
either existing or future systems. For
illustrative purposes, Figure 7 shows
a list of building blocks used to create
architecture patterns. These building
blocks have been organized into several
enablement categories: data, business
logic, experiences, and measurement.

Source: Razorfish Cosmos Reference Model.

86 OUR PERSPECTIVES 87
 After identifying the major technology A collection of architecture patterns Step 5: Developing a prioritization an architecture blueprint (defined as
systems, we then connect these build- that cover the execution of all business matrix and roadmap a collection of patterns) are the two
ing blocks with data flows and user or use cases creates an architecture blue- key inputs.
system interactions to create patterns print for the marketing platform. The final step in developing and
that fulfill one or more business use implementing a strategic DEP is to Using these assets, one can now
cases (see Figure 8). prioritize these new areas of scope assess both value and complexity.
now informed by the customer journey In addition, the fact that simple
FIGURE08 and architectural documents and lay patterns can be assembled to form
them out on a long-term roadmap to more complex systems allows brands
maximize business value. to better prioritize the work.
An example of an offer management architecture pattern
This is an example of a pattern with data flows between system capability blocks to represent the implementation of an offer We typically prioritize business sce- For illustration, the roadmap in Figure
management service on the DEP. This pattern is specific to a particular business context. narios and corresponding technology 9 proposes simple use cases that
solutions as functions of strategic value, result in the early activation of a
complexity, dependencies, and align- marketing platform. From there, we
Offer Creation Data ment with a companys business objec- plan for additional capability launches
(Data Transfers Through Middleware)
tives. The set of customer journeys and at regular intervals.
Data From
Creative Discount Campaign 3rd Party Consumer Data Data Warehouse Transitional
Product
Selection
+ + Term
Target
Specification
Systems FIGURE09
Content Pricing Specification Segmentation Database Customer Profile Data Export
Registration

A roadmap across multiple use cases

Export Offer Export Export Import Offer Profile
Specification Segment Data Customer Data Campaign Statistics
To Analytics
Service Layer Data Transfer Middleware
From first activation all the way to launch, this DEP roadmap pairs business objectives with capabilities in order to
prioritize efforts and track progress.
Export Offer
Export Offer Specification Campaign FIRST ACTIVATION SECOND ACTIVATION MAJOR LAUNCH
(Creative, Content, Targeting,..) Statistics Refinement of first one + mobile Followed by iterative launch and learn

Campaign Engine for Push Channels R/T Targeting Rules Engine Consolidate all sites to a single CMS platform with a unified design, branding,

User Experience
for Pull Channels template, and component system

Campaign Message to Enable CMS-driven email campaign Build campaign Build campaign microsites Global multichannel user experience
Message Delivery
Parameter Audience Rule Definition Rules Engine Export
Setup Mapping
Delivery Tracking Registration experiences microsites evolution under data-driven governance
Profile
Build a mobile app for interaction between brand, customer, Build in-venue user
Data: Audience + Offer Description + Contextual Info Data: Audience + Offer Description + Contextual Info and environment experiences

API Layer API Layer

Analytics setup on current-state UX Measure customer Capture mobile analytics Iterative reporting and planning next
Message Delivery
interest. Get insights. moves based on analytics insights.
Enable mutual feeds between analytics
Service Layer and CRM.
Generate 2D Get Available
Barcode Offers Campaign enablement on Run campaign on broad Run campaign on refined Extend campaigns to different channels

Marketing
Offer current-state UX user segments user segments and modes: web, mobile push, in-venue,
Redemption SSO
product offers + 3rd party offers,
Push User Experience Pull User Experience Notification and
loyalty program
Registration
Email Message SMS Get 2nd & 3rd party data Merge with CRM data Merge with CRM data Iterative customer data augmentation,
Push Notification Web Responsive
in Email Client Message on Mobile App Kiosk refinement, and segmentation
on Mobile Phone or Adaptive
(e.g., Outlook) Mobile Phone

Develop targeting strategy Analyze campaign Plan personalization Iterative plan + activate + analyze
and learn
Login and
Registration
Transaction System Foundational technology enablement close the gap on strategic capabilities: Adding new capabilities over time:
Data

Technology
Scan Offer Code Data CRM and analysis E-commerce integration
Business Logic on Mobile Device
Store Point of Sales
Commerce App
Content and assets management + site search 3rd party solutions
Experiences Scan Offer Code + Scanner Infrastructure Loyalty program
on Paper Campaign Extended in-venue infrastructure for
Analytics Service layer for back-end integration contextualized experiences

88 OUR PERSPECTIVES 89
Keys to success How to do it: A CPG case study The platform components with high-
priority investments included core
Once you pass the planning stage, We worked with a large CPG company content management, social and
the implementation of a few notable that was looking to consolidate its tech- community marketing management,
best practices will ensure early and nologies, processes, and teams in an analytics, digital asset management,
continuous delivery of value. effort to manage the digital experiences and consumer data management.
Start Fast: Delivering measurable of its many brands. This consolidation
value early would result in cost savings that would A common platform fostered cross-
then be redirected toward innovating brand reuse, allowing marketers to
Most organizations have websites, mobile around consumers engagement with do more, both faster and more eco-
apps, and some form of outbound marketing the brands. nomically. In turn, a strong focus on
in place. As such, it is unlikely that everything analytics and data-enabled measure-
needs to be built from scratch. Your existing Initial approach ments upfront brought spending in
systems can be used to improve on the cur- line with effectiveness.
For the rapid activation of a digital
rent situation and deliver measurable value
landscape, our approach was to
early by integrating them with the DEP.
quickly build out multiple channels and
Business results
corresponding customer touchpoints The results? Our approach achieved
to achieve both internal and external major digital transformations for the
benefits. Internally, this would activate brand across the board:
the necessary digital organization
within the company. Externally, this Over 100 websites migrated to the
would test the impact of different types shared marketing platform, including
Buy vs. build: Reflect before building your own Invest in key infrastructure components brand relaunches, with ongoing work
of experiences.
Most industries have a growing number of niche vendors in 16 countries.
In addition to the content management
who have created integrated, proven solutions for new, After an initial experiment and seeding
platform, additional infrastructure elements The reuse of marketing assets and
digital business models. stage, an architecture rationalization
need to be considered upfront in the solu- platform capabilities increased
and blueprinting exercise was conducted
In the real estate industry, you will find vendors enabling tion. To shorten infrastructure setup timelines efficiency.
to build a set of enterprise-wide, scala-
indoor building maps and wayfinding tools. In the fast and increase flexibility, consider using SaaS
ble, and extensible system capabilities.
food industry, there are out-of-the-box solutions for con- solutions or cloud deployment. Another best Time-to-market for new digital cam-
Infrastructure, hosting, and platforms
tent distribution on digital panels at the store level. These practice involves investing in a service layer to paigns became shorter and brand
were consolidated for the immediate
solutions are usually thought through from a capability ease integration. Finally, be sure to set up data consistency improved.
reduction of costs, while digital expe-
and usability standpoint, and often come in a software and analytics tools upfront. These should be
riences that proved an instant return The greater coverage and consis-
as a service (SaaS) or cloud configuration (for faster used early for data collection, optimization, and
on customer interactions were left with tency of data improved customer
deployment and lower maintenance costs). analytics reports in order to generate insights
more freedom of action. insights.
and, eventually, personalization.
These solutions are powerful from a customer experience Moving along a progressive roadmap Website performance and security
standpoint, but they are also complex to deploy in physi-
cal locations at a large scale. Third-party vendors have
of investments improved significantly.

resolved these challenges. In fact, they enable high-value The platform was following an evolu- With technology requiring less
interactions between the brand, customers, and envi- tionary path where new capabilities attention, more time was freed up
ronment (e.g., in stores, in buildings, or with objects). would be delivered on an as-needed for innovation.
Replicating these interactions as added-on, custom basis, sometimes pioneered by the
implementations tends to be slower, cost brand and shared with others.
more, or pose a higher risk.

90 OUR PERSPECTIVES 91
 The key to Conclusion
success comes The continuous and rapid adoption
of new technologies by consumers has
with building transformed the CMOs approach to
a map of business digital marketing.

opportunities To make matters more complicated,

and a blueprint expectations regarding return on
investment from marketing strategy
of the technology have increased drastically. And the
solution tolerance for that first return to be
delayed by complex implementations
architecture. has gone down rapidly.

Each brand has its own story, imple-

menting various business models in
different industries. Even though
individual brands will require their
own strategies, we can see a set
of common principles emerging on
how to approach the problem and
define, plan, and implement digital
marketing solutions.

The overall approach is a balancing act

between breadth and depth of solution,
progress over perfection, and data-
driven experiments on a growing set
of multichannel user experiences. The
key to success comes with building
a map of business opportunities and
a blueprint of the technology solution
architecture. Together, these two views
realize the successful planning and
rationalization of your investment.

Andre Engberts
Technology Director,
SapientNitro Minneapolis
aengberts@sapient.com

92 OUR PERSPECTIVES 93
ENTERPRISE
STARTUP: TACTICS
FOR THRIVING IN
FAST-CHANGING IT
ENVIRONMENTS
PINAK KIRAN VEDALANKAR
With contributions from Andy Halliwell and Shivdas Nair

Driven by outside pressure, digital transformation is now on the agenda of many

boardrooms. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. Airbnb, the
worlds largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Uber, the worlds
largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the worlds most popular
media owner, creates no content.1 Disruption is everywhere across every
category. Established businesses have to transform or face the consequences.

For enterprise information technology (IT) professionals, and increasingly the board
of directors, delivering software in an iterative and continuous manner is no longer
optional. In fact, continuous delivery, powered by development and operations
(DevOps) and other methodologies, has been shown to enable business transfor-
mation and improve business results by delivering software products to market
faster, reducing downtime costs, reducing risk, and other benefits.2,3

Yet in our recently conducted survey of IT experts, just 23 percent of companies

support an experimentation culture one characterized by test and learn
and small and frequent methods. Most large companies are not embracing
modern development best practices.

Adapted from comments by Tom Goodwin.

1

DevOps. The ROI of Enterprise DevOps. http://devops.com/2015/03/09/the-roi-of-enterprise-devops/.

2

3
For the average Fortune 1000 company, the average total cost of unplanned application downtime is $1.25 billion to
$2.5 billion annually. DEVOPS Digest. IDC Survey: Downtime Costs Large Companies Billions. http://www.devops-
digest.com/idc-survey-appdynamics-devops-application-performance.

OUR PERSPECTIVES 95
 Just In a separate question, the culture A culture of experimentation Introducing a shift in mindset own profit and loss (P&L) and reports

23%
of companies support an
experimentation culture.
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
IDC prediction
and mindset change was the biggest
challenge. One expert noted, [the
biggest challenge] is the people and
not the technology. Changing peoples
mindset, be it for agile, microservices or
experimentation-orientation, would take
considerable effort.
In todays always-on age, customers
are less patient and expect to interact
The single, greatest key to embracing
continuous delivery is culture, and
systematically building a culture of
rapid change. Both Amazon and
Google emphasize their fail fast
culture, with Jeff Bezos, for example,
noting that [Amazon is] the best place
in the world to fail. To put it simply,
these firms build and pilot hundreds of
Our approach to continuous delivery
is a bit like a long car trip. In the past,
we have always focused on reaching
the destination, on how to go live on
a specific date. It was not about how
the car was working, how bumpy the
ride was, or how we lost our direction
hundreds of times along the way; rather,
it was all about have we reached
to internal investors, even as it also
makes decisions on a daily basis.
The team tests and fails fast by deploy-
ing minimum viable products (MVPs)
and then iterating.
Organize around customer journeys
We organize product teams around
customer journeys, not around traditional

90%
almost instantly. This requires software ideas to find the successful ones.5 For the destination? functional areas. For example, rather
delivery to be transformed into an example, Google's 25,000 engineers than having a team focused on product
outside-in function that plans, builds, reportedly modify 15 million lines of Our new mindset focuses on both the development, we focus it around the
and runs technology according to how code across 250,000 files each week.6 car and the journey. By focusing on customer need. Instead of mortgage
of IT projects will be
customers move within market spaces. The only constant is change. the car, new traits become important: origination, we organize the team on
rooted in the principles
the flexibility to adapt to changing the buying a home customer journey.
of experimentation,
In this article, we explain how weve This experimentation culture is particu- road conditions, the speed to quickly
speed, and quality by
the end of 2018.4 helped clients embrace continuous larly important in retail (or any customer- achieve your goals, and the endurance Use best-in-class agile methods
delivery, and respond to the challenge facing channel) where it is key to to reach the end destination. We also use best-in-class agile me-
of the always-on age. Well also share truly realizing returns from the major thods. This means shifting the IT
our latest research into enterprise e-commerce, content, or digital market- Having a solid engineering methodo-
culture from long product development
IT practices and the current state of ing platform implementation projects logy is like having a good car which
cycles and extended quality assurance
enterprise IT. that are now largely complete. is maintained well with excellent road
(QA) periods to daily releases and
conditions. It doesnt guarantee that
continuous QA.
FIGURE01 Yet our research shows that just 23 you'll make it to your destination safely
percent of companies support an and comfortably, but it makes the pros- For example, Marks and Spencer, like
experimentation culture (see Figure 1). pect a lot more likely. most retailers, had traditionally done a
Just 23% of companies support an experimentation culture. Companies which adopt a culture of code freeze for several months during
experimentation emphasize test and Autonomous product teams the holidays. This year that changed:
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Most com-
learn methods, rapid prototyping, and To help large corporations embrace They conducted nineteen code releases
panies support an experimentation culture, that is, one characterized by test
and learn and small and frequent methods. immediate feedback from real cus- an experimentation culture, weve during the peak holiday season. The
tomers. The most important process developed and refined an Enterprise result was an improved product and
40% 38% is sustaining a never-ending cycle of
23 percent of
Startup approach. We start with an millions of new data points on customer
33% measuring outcomes, changing quickly
companies support autonomous product team that runs its behaviors in the new experience.
30% experimentation based on feedback, and then putting
culture
the next thing in front of your customers.
20%
13%
10%
10%
5%

0%
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly
disagree nor disagree agree

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.7

IDC. IDC FutureScape CIO Agenda Predication 5: Driving Experimentation, Speed, and Quality. http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US40548115.
4

5
Forbes. Jeff Bezos Calls Amazon Best Place in the World to Fail in Shareholder Letter. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2016/04/05/jeff-bezos-calls-amazon-best-place-in-
the-world-to-fail-in-shareholder-letter/.
Wired. Google is 2 Billion Lines of Code And Its All in One Place. http://www.wired.com/2015/09/google-2-billion-lines-codeand-one-place/.
6

For more information, see About the research on page 106.

7

96 OUR PERSPECTIVES 97
 The three pillars of an enterprise startup These are only sample products which FIGURE03
we have put in the pipeline and most of
To create an enterprise startup, we believe there are three things which we need the tools will have alternatives based on
to do differently from the traditional approach: build clean, high-quality code; client-specific requirements (see Just 13 percent of companies routinely build clean, high-quality code.
automate with a no operations (NoOps) mindset; and think small and frequent. Figure 4).

1
BUILD CLEAN, HIGH-
QUALITY CODE
Building clean, high-quality code
involves two steps. The first is making
sure the code is of production quality
from the start (see Figure 2). The second
step is to build and use a DevOps tool-
chain and ensure that it is adopted by
enterprise IT teams.
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Most
The purpose of the pipeline is to companies routinely build clean, high-quality code at every stage of the cycle. By
high-quality code, we mean more than 90 percent unit testing and more than 90
enable developers to get rapid feed-
percent code coverage for front- and back-end code.
back (in minutes) and optimize their
In our recent research, we found that code throughout the development pro- 60%
51%
just 13 percent of companies routinely cess. By using this method, developers 13 percent of companies
50% "routinely build clean,
build clean, high-quality code at every and test engineers perfect quality as high-quality code"
stage in the lifecycle (see Figure 3). part of the development process rather 40%
To help companies overcome this gap, than waiting until a future, separate
we have designed and built our own testing phase. 30%
23%
continuous delivery DevOps toolchain 20%
which builds in high levels of quality 13%
using mostly open source tools. 10% 8%
5%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly
disagree nor disagree agree

FIGURE02 Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

Each developer must build production-ready code. Developers should try to perfect the quality as part of their development
process, rather than as part of a dedicated testing process. FIGURE04

DevOps toolchain for continuous delivery

This is an example of a continuous delivery DevOps tool pipeline, which enables developers to get rapid feedback (in minu-
DEVELOPERS OWN THE QUALITY AND BUILD tes) and improve quality during the development process. The pipeline should use open source tools where possible.
PRODUCTION-READY CODE
Exploratory
The key objective is to make sure that all developers own their code:
Builds
They perfect the quality as part of the development process rather e.g., Gradle,
Nexus, Jenkins,
than having a dedicated testing phase. Code Review Bower, NPM
e.g., Gerrit
Code Compliance
The foundation for enterprise startup driven methodologies is End-to-End Development e.g., Sonar
e.g., Confluence,
Unit Testing. And, increasingly, automation is used for Unit Jira, Git
Testing, Service & Integration, and the End-to-End phases
of QA. Development Rapid feedback
Commit Deployment on CI Environment
collected from e.g., Computer Associates, Lisa,
appropriate roles: Jenkins, Ansible
However, Exploratory, the final phase, requires the human Developer Business Owner,
IDE
touch. In this phase, an inquisitive product owner, deve- Service & Integration Test Unit test
Service Developer,
Service Operations,
loper, or tester goes through the application to find Service Tester
issues which no robot (i.e., automated testing) can Code compliance
Publish Reports/Update Dashboard/
find. As the software being built is for humans, it Pass/Fail Status
JUnit & Code Coverage
e.g., JUnit, Jasmine, Jest,
e.g., Jira, Cucumber, Confluence, Sonar
makes sense for humans to test (a very small per- Cobertura, Karma
centage) directly to determine usability issues.
Unit Testing
Automated Deployment/
Environment On Demand
e.g., Urban (code), Docker,
Ansible, Lisa, Splunk
Performance Security Scan Functional Automation Test
Automation Test e.g., Veracode, e.g., Cucumber, SE, Pally,
e.g., BlazeMeter, Sitespeed.io Fortify SauceLabs

98 OUR PERSPECTIVES 99
 2
is using a container-based approach
and tools like Docker. This will make
Potential trap: Limited or fitful Use metrics very early AUTOMATE WITH A the entire process of creating and
adoption of processes Use a consolidated code- NOOPS MINDSET maintaining an environment completely
quality dashboard to house automated and repeatable with no
It is not enough to simply create all relevant metrics in one In our study, 92 percent of digital manual steps.
this toolchain. You must then place. This can act as an leaders agree or strongly agree that cli-
make sure that it is adopted by information radiator and help ents want to automate all enterprise IT
the product teams adopted drive adoption by making the processes, but just 16 percent agree
such that engineers are not metrics visible to everyone in
only using this toolchain and its
or strongly agree that clients have FIGURE05
the team. been very successful in doing so
processes, but also using them
across their organizations. Companies
effectively without slowing down Create competition or
recognize the value of automation, but The automation gap

2m 48s
the entire development process. gamification
are struggling to make it widespread 92 percent of digital leaders agreed that clients want to automate all enterprise IT
For example, we used a combi- One successful method is
(see Figure 5). processes, but just 16 percent of clients were considered to be very successful in
nation of steps to drive adoption creating competition and
doing so.
for one of the United Kingdoms involvement by comparing This begs the question: If something is
for developers to get initial feedback
leading banks: teams key metrics and so important, then why is it failing?
on their code, passing both a violations
recognizing those which
check and unit test coverage.8 Create champions are most successful. We encourage organizations to look 92%
We trained six developers agreed that
at automation with a NoOps mindset.
as advocates in these new clients want to
Ensure that product The NoOps mindset will force you to
tools and technologies. They owners understand the think differently and force the paradigm
automate all
enterprise IT 16%
then encouraged adoption value of quality processes of clients were considered
shift needed. Namely, that no opera- to be "very successful" in
amongst their peers. It is essential to educate tions team will be needed to manage automating all enterprise
product owners and the and maintain the product (i.e., there IT processes
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
entire ecosystem on the will be no operations team for testing,
importance of quality. Other- deployment, environment creation, or
wise, conflicts of interest and application support). FIGURE06
priority (prioritizing the release
of new features above quality) Few companies be they startups or
can arise and impact adoption. large enterprises meet this standard Just 13 percent of companies regularly use a NoOps mindset.
today. Just 13 percent of our IT experts
agree or strongly agree that companies Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Compa-
regularly use a NoOps mindset (see nies regularly use a NoOps mindset (meaning that the company assumed that
there will be no operations team to manage and maintain the product).
Figure 6).

In our experience, the inability of IT 50%

teams to setup and maintain test 44%
13 percent of companies
environments which are needed to run 40% "regularly use a NoOps
different experiments is a key chal- mindset"

lenge. There are occasions in which 30% 28%

environment creation is so manual and
error-prone that it takes weeks and 20%
15%
months to create test environments. 13%
A good example of NoOps in this case 10%

0%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly
disagree nor disagree agree
8
In parallel, all other testing is triggered so that over the next 10-20 minutes or so, the developer will get a complete view of security, front-end performance, and functional testing
across all priority browsers. This number varies based on the amount of unit tests and the functionalities which exist in the microservices. Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

100 OUR PERSPECTIVES 101


Potential trap: Automating
Automation is with scripts instead of tools
the difference A common mistake that most
between two days organizations make is to automate
with custom scripts rather than
to a release, versus tools. They then spend more time
spending three maintaining those scripts, which
increases overhead and (in some
months doing cases) reinforces the old manual
testing prior habits rather than automation.
to release. The key here is to build a strategy
that focuses on automation tools.
But, as we know, these tools get
FIGURE07
outdated very quickly due to the
speed of innovation in this space.
Companies need a strategy to
stay current by regularly crowd-
sourcing new tools from the
engineering community.
Figure 7 depicts categories of
automation tools. By embracing
these tools and the crowdsourcing
concept, you will be able to help
build a NoOps mindset by auto-
mating the entire lifecycle of
application delivery, and avoid
executing automation in silos.
3
FIGURE08
THINK SMALL
AND FREQUENT Achieving the small and frequent mindset
This step requires the biggest shift in
The small and frequent mindset is comprised of three levers. The first revolves
around having the right architecture, the second around having the right process-
mindset. Leading companies transi- es in place, and the third around data. Microservices is the area with the least
tion to continuous delivery by thinking adoption today. According to our survey, the following percentage of respondents
small and frequent to minimize risk. agree or strongly agree that companies regularly use or do the following:
And they do so by pulling three levers:
microservices, thinking beta, and mea-
suring (see Figure 8).
Microservices Think beta Measure
15% 49% 41%
Microservices
To be autonomous, break your appli-
cation into small, functional clusters. "Have a right "Have a right "Rely on data"
Create applications as suites of small architecture" process and mindset" (see Figure 11)
services, each running their own pro- (see Figure 9) (see Figure 10)
cesses and communicating with others
over lightweight APIs. This will allow
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

you to release changes in those small

functional clusters rather than wait for
Reference categories of automation tools big, monolithic releases to happen.
Companies can use a reference catalog to categorize the various types of FIGURE09
automation tools and quickly create a solid strategy. For example, for one telecom client, we
divided the entire application into diffe-
rent clusters and structured the digital No widespread use of microservice architecture
Environment part of the development teams to mirror Just 15 percent of companies use modern microservices architecture for all of
Code Continuous
creation and them. This led to efficiencies in road- their development, according to our survey of IT experts.
repository integration
management
map management, product backlogs,
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Companies
and the autonomy of releases. regularly use a modern, microservices-based architecture for all of their develop-
ment. By modern, microservices-based architecture, we mean building applications
Release and In our research, microservices had the in small, functional clusters.
Configuration Application
deployment
management
management lifecycle lowest usage of the three main levers,
50%
with just 13 percent reporting its usage
for all of their development (see 41%
Figure 9). 40%
Ops Application Testing
monitoring performance automation 31%
30%

20%
15%
13%
10%

0%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly
disagree nor disagree agree

Source: SapientNitro, 2016.

102 OUR PERSPECTIVES 103

FIGURE10 Think beta CASE STUDY: MARKS AND SPENCER
Companies should release changes
Less than half of companies operate using a beta orientation today, according to a small group of customers, then
expand. This is the easiest way to re-
Marks and Spencer is on a journey
to move from its complex and
Today, Marks and Spencer has
moved from having a couple of
Today, Marks
to our recent survey. duce risk. Even if there are issues with siloed structure to a simple, agile, releases each quarter to releasing and Spencer
and resilient organization. With more than 200 changes in the last
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Most com-
what is deployed, you can easily roll it
back and reduce its impact on your end
over 10.3B revenue in 2016, Marks two years; from a complete code has moved from
panies operate using beta orientation. When we say beta orientation, we mean and Spencer is a global UK-based freeze to a number of changes
that they always expose the functionality to a subset of users before releasing it customers. In our research, roughly half retailer with over 83,000 people during peak times; from having no having a couple
to everyone. across 59 territories. Until 2011, concept of zero outage releases to
49 percent of companies
of respondents said that companies
are operating using a beta orientation their entire omnichannel experi- all of their releases being executed of releases
50%
"operate using a beta orientation"
today (see Figure 10).
ence was handled through perhaps
their biggest competitor Amazon.
with zero outage deployment
models; and from large, single,
each quarter
You can also choose an internal emplo- Marks and Spencer needed to move
monolithic applications to a micro-
services architecture (see Figure 12).
to releasing
40% 36%
yee to be your beta customer, thereby away from Amazon, branch out more than 200
testing features in the safety of your internationally, and update their This new culture emphasizes test
30%
23% own environment before exposing them in-store experience. Our partner- and learn methods, experimenta- changes in the
ship commenced with their rapid tion, rapid prototyping, and imme-
20%
15%
to your end users. In the case of Marks
deployment of a digital shopping diate feedback from real customers. last two years.
13% 13% and Spencer, we gained tremendous experience across international The most important process is
10% insights from this type of employee markets, starting with France. sustaining a never-ending cycle
testing before the initial launch of the Following this, the platform was of measuring outcomes, changing
0% brands new omnichannel, e-commerce reimagined, redesigned, and rebuilt quickly based on feedback, and
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly to create a consistent omnichannel then putting the next thing in front
platform.
disagree nor disagree agree experience across the Web, stores, of customers.
and customer service. The platform,
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
Measure which has completely replaced Our retail experience has taught
the legacy infrastructure, now us that this new mindset enables
Measure every important key per- the kind of business transfor-
integrates 80 applications with 132
FIGURE11 formance indicator. In establishing interfaces to handle 40,000 orders mation that increases agility,
whether youre progressing in the per day and 3,000,000 page views responsiveness, and the volume
right direction, patterns are often more per hour. of product releases.
Just 41 percent of companies "regularly use" a modern microservices-based important than numbers. The data will
architecture. range from business outcomes and
Marks and Spencer practices
FIGURE12
modern DevOps and agile metho-
technology delivery to code quality met- dologies, moving from episodic to
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statement: Com-
rics, and should be used for measuring continuous delivery and bringing
panies regularly measure key performance indicators for business (conversion,
the effectiveness of the microservices new features (and increasing value)
NPS), technical (code coverage, violations, SCALE rating), and delivery (velocity,
to their customers every day. Their FROM TO
burndowns) as an integral part of their enterprise IT programs. and beta rollouts.
digital business has shifted toward
Complex and fragile Simple, agile, and resilient
an enterprise startup approach,
41 percent of companies "regularly In our research, a surprisingly low
with autonomous product teams
50% measure" key performance indicators number around two in five companies Two releases per quarter More than 200 releases done
and minimum viable product (MVP)
in two years
are regularly measuring key perfor- development methodology.
40%
33% mance indicators as part of enterprise
For example, as they rolled out a Complete change freeze during 19 releases done during peak
28% 28% (Figure 11). peak period holiday season
30% new guest checkout flow, Marks
and Spencer progressed in small
Thinking small and frequent is es- No tracking of the overall down time Less than 8 hours of planned
20%
increments by establishing inde-
sential as companies shift toward an pendent product teams that con- (with service managed by Amazon) outage in 24 months
enterprise startup mindset. Building sisted of dedicated and agile multi-
10% 8%
for microservices, thinking beta, and disciplinary engineers. To test their Monolithic architecture Going toward microservices
3% progress, they exposed new fea- architecture
measuring progress are the must-have
0% tures to selected beta customers,
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly steps in this shift.
measured the outcomes, and added No concept of zero outage All releases done with a zero
disagree nor disagree agree
more customers or adjusted fea- release outage deployment model
Source: SapientNitro, 2016. tures based on those learnings.

104 OUR PERSPECTIVES 105

 The #1 failed Conclusion
initiative among As companies look to move faster and
adapt to the always-on mindset,
digital leaders embracing agile, MVP, and other
in our survey methods will become more important.
We have found that an enterprise
was combining startup approach embracing journeys,
business and IT focusing on building quality code,
automating wherever possible, and
into one team. embracing a small and frequent mind-
We talked about how important it is to
have a good car, good road condi-
tions, and knowledge of the direction
in which youre going. Some believe
that, in a few years time, we will have
teleportation which has already been
proven via quantum physics. The need
for a car will be removed by the ability
to reach a destination instantly, simply
by thinking of it.

set is helpful in achieving those goals. Today, we are far from achieving this,
just as we are far from continuous
Todays principles should indeed, deployment. As we wait, let's continue
must be adapted to different tools in to change and adapt together.
the future. At one point, we might shift
from continuous delivery to continuous
deployment (i.e., releasing code into
production as soon as its ready by Pinak Kiran Vedalankar
allowing developers to deploy the code Director of Technology,
themselves). And, after adopting a con- Digital Transformation
SapientNitro London
tinuous deployment approach, we may
pvedalankar@sapient.com
witness the introduction of continuous
operations. In that case, automated,
A special thanks to Andy Halliwell and
real-time feedback loops between the
Shivdas Nair for their contributions to
customer and development would be this article.
created without a need for require-
ments, further extended by allowing
the release of new changes with no
interventions or downtime.

About the research

We conducted a survey of senior technology leaders with broad client experience
across multiple industries from April 27, 2015, to April 22, 2016. This survey
explored clients interests in enterprise startup models and technology experimen-
tation techniques, along with the pitfalls that they've faced along the way. These
senior leaders (n=39) were SapientNitro executives and were based in three main
geographies: the United States, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific. All have worked
in technology with multiple clients for a minimum of a decade.

106 OUR PERSPECTIVES 107

110 Case Study: Reimagining Banking at RBS
Pawan Udernani

INDUSTRY VOICES
& GAME CHANGERS
CASE STUDY:
REIMAGINING
BANKING AT RBS
PAWAN UDERNANI

51%
of online retail sales
in the UK are now made
via mobile devices1
Financial services is seeing a surge of innovation. And retail banks, in particular,
have been quick to embrace digital transformation, understanding that todays
customer demands greater convenience and access than just a few years ago.
Few banks exemplify this trend as well as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the pre-
dominant payments provider in the United Kingdom, the economy with the highest
digital payments usage in the world. The number of electronic payments (52
percent) in the UK market now exceeds cash payments (48 percent), and over
half of digital sales are now made through mobile devices.2

1
IMRG. Over Half of Online Sales Now Made through Mobile Devices. http://www.imrg.org/media-and-comment-
press-releases/over-half-of-online-sales-now-made-through-mobile-devices/.
BBC. Cashless Payments Overtake the Use of Notes and Coins. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32778196.
2

INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS 111

 Over the last six years, RBS has re-
leased a series of innovations and inter-
nal changes in order to adapt to a more
competitive marketplace. RBS has
transformed its organization to focus
on customer experience, building on
its history of deep product and channel
centricity. Guided by the promise of
Helpful Banking, the organization has
been building a digitally-led culture,
reimagining internal structures, and sub-
sequently bettering its customers lives.
Organizational change: Creating
journey managers
The reimagining of RBSs digital busi-
ness started with its people more
specifically, its product managers. Pre-
viously, product managers across RBS
worked in organizational silos, such as
checking accounts, savings accounts,
mortgages, etc. They rarely communi-
cated across the lines and customer
feedback suggested that customer
requests were, at times, getting lost in
the handoff between specialists. Fur-
thermore, customers reported that they
were not getting holistic life advice.
RBS reached the conclusion that an
entirely new role needed to be created
to drive business transformation and
improve the customer experience. This
role was needed in order to disrupt
traditional mindsets, look across pro-
ducts and services, and collaborate
with those who would continue to ma-
nage and own existing products.
112
To serve this purpose, RBS created the
position of journey manager. Journey
managers are individuals who are con-
cerned with customers aspirations and
goals. They are oriented not around
products, but rather around customers
and their major financial moments
including opening their first accounts,
saving money for university, and buying
a home.
In 2012, RBS had five journey managers.
Three years later, there were sixty.
A digitally-led culture and
simplified user experience
Over the years, RBS like many banks
has developed multiple website and
web platforms to support its business
needs at specific moments in time.
Often, these proprietary platforms lived
on at a growing cost both financially
and in terms of maintaining a distinct
user experience.
When reimagining its business, however,
RBS saw an opportunity to focus on
the simplification of its digital estates.
Over the last 18 months, RBS has
been on a journey to consolidate over
200 distinct web platforms into a single
one, thereby increasing collaboration
among business teams and simplifying
the user experience.
In addition, RBS introduced an initiative
aimed at increasing the overall digital
IQ of the organization and helping it
transform into a digitally-led company. To
achieve this, two major steps were taken.
The first saw RBS develop agency-like
digital studios in both London and
Edinburgh. These studios began trans-
forming the organization's culture and
technology systems from the inside out
BBC. RBS: Ross McEwan Speech in Full. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-your-money-26365616.
3
INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS
via Scrum collaborative development
areas, cross-functional teams, and the
mindset of a more nimble enterprise
startup. Our busiest
The second step was Bank of APIs, branch...is the
a series of hackathons run by RBS and 7:01 [train]
open to both staff and external par-
ticipants. Spanning the brands three from Reading
major geographies (London, Edinburgh, to Paddington
and India), this initiative further commu-
nicates RBSs new way of working and over 167,000
dedication to innovation. of our customers
And that was just the start. use our Mobile
Banking app
The innovation imperative between 7am
With the new journey managers and and 8am...
refined product mix, RBS was working
hard to address consumers core every day.
needs. However, to effectively reima- Ross McEwan,
gine their business, RBSs leaders CEO of RBS3
needed to reinvent the customer
journey across all channels and truly
put customers in the center.
But how was the organization going to
address the customer experience holisti-
cally? RBS realized that game-changing
innovation requires an end-to-end view
of the customer experience. RBS was
able to introduce a series of innovative
services to the market over twenty-four
months by combining customer insights
from the journey managers, a team
making rapid prototypes, and a nascent
crowdsourcing/co-creation platform.
The following pages highlight the
innovations made in three major areas:
optimizing existing web properties,
building new tools based on customer
needs, and aggressively embracing the
latest mobile technology.
113
 WEB PROPERTIES Auto ID
THE CUSTOMER NEED
at home, bank employees can dedicate
additional time to customers more
complex issues.
37%
increase in new account
Removing the barriers to opening opening conversion rates
Lending potential Intention to Lend THE STRATEGY
an account THE OUTCOME
delivered to Creating a frictionless lending process
Conversions

32k users
THE CUSTOMER NEED
300%
RBS and their busy customers were
Nobody should wait that long for a Using technology to solve for a better
aware that opening checking and sa- RBS's Auto ID has increased new ac-
mortgage approval experience, RBS introduced Intention
vings accounts in the UK can be diffi- count opening conversion rates by 37 increase in First Saver
to Lend.4 This digital tool gives con-

20%
cult experiences. Nearly half of all ap- percent across the range of products, accounts opened by parents
The UK housing market is notoriously sumers a personalized mortgage quote
plicants in the UK are required to bring including a 300 percent increase in for their children
competitive, and tighter standards within five minutes allowing customers
increase in first-time a physical ID into a bank branch, after First Saver accounts opened by par-
are creating further uncertainty for to show their real estate agents the banks
home buyers which they wait an average of eleven ents for their children. Topping all

mortgage approvals. In most cases,
mortgage closures are a race against
Over the clock to get bank approval. In fact,
550%
agreement in principle for a specific
days before approval. RBS, in an effort of that, though, were the students
property on the same day.
to further deliver on their commitment for whom accounts increased by
increase in student
to Helpful Banking, came up with an 550 percent.

9,000
RBS journey managers supplied and This means better chances for users to
win a bid for their dream home, all with-
confirmed these insights via their actual
out any impact on their credit scores.
working hours of consumers. This prompted RBS to ask
mortgage application the question: How can we utilize digital Now, thats truly helpful banking.
processing have been innovation to ease this process for our
THE OUTCOME
saved each year consumers?
More people with homes
Intention to Lend has delivered 5
billion worth of lending potential to
32,000 users. Moreover, RBS saw a
20 percent increase in first-time buyers,
with 60 percent of Intention to Lend
users being first-time buyers them-
selves a percentage that surpasses
the marketplaces 40 percent average.
And, if that weren't enough, over 9,000
working hours of mortgage application
processing have been saved each
year by automating the process via the
web tool.
accounts
innovative solution for removing the
barriers to opening an account.
THE STRATEGY
An end-to-end digital experience
Exclusive to RBS and the first of its
kind in the UK, Auto ID is an innovative
digital identification tool that enables
customers to scan or photograph
necessary documents to open an ac-
count. Busy people no longer have to
present their identification documents
in-branch, but rather can submit them
digitally at their convenience. The tool
was created using the utmost level of
efficiency and security: Image scanning
ensures that images are not fraudu-
lent, after which they are checked and
approved by RBS employees, as well.
With simple transactions being done

Please note that NatWest is one of the RBS brands in Great Britain.
4

114 INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS 115

 CUSTOMER-FACING TOOLS
Net Promoter Score Overdraft calculator
has jumped by
50%
THE CUSTOMER NEED
Simplifying overdraft coverage
Checking accounts remain one of the
key product types in any bank, but
can also be one of the most puzzling.
In this case, RBS realized that overdraft
coverages remained confusing for
many customers, and executives
wanted to simplify the experience.
RBS. Q4 Results. http://www.rbs.com/content/dam/rbs/Documents/News/2016/February/q4_results-26-Feb-2016.pdf.
5
116
THE STRATEGY
A simple overdraft calculator
RBS introduced a new tool to help
customers understand and differentiate
the costs of the two different overdraft
types arranged and unarranged
for NatWest and RBS. Each has
significantly different fees and terms.
The tool explains the options clearly and
helps customers make good choices
between usage fees, interest rates, and
loan lengths.
THE OUTCOME
Sustainable website traffic
Traffic to the website has continued to
increase, while the Net Promoter Score
(NPS) an industry measurement for
customer satisfaction and loyalty for
RBSs Personal Banking lines has
jumped 50 percent in just one year
(from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015) to a score
of nine (out of a maximum possible
of ten).5
MOBILITY
Get Cash in need, and giving you the option of In its first year after launch,
leaving home without your wallet. Get Cash generated over
161k requests
THE CUSTOMER NEED
Help customers bank naturally, THE OUTCOME
comfortably, and securely Strong potential translated into
strong satisfaction
5.5 million
The feeling of forgetting something
is familiar to us all, but what happens In its first year after launch, Get Cash
when the item in question is your bank generated over 161,900 requests (aver-
worth of withdrawals
card? RBS found that it was common aging 7,000 per week and growing) and
for consumers to either misplace their 5.5 million worth of withdrawals. Get
cards or simply leave them at home Cash was also one of the gold winners
before a big night out. But people lose for the Mobile category at the 2013
a smartphone far less often and almost Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
never leave home without it marking
a huge opportunity to transform it into
a banking tool. What was the consum-
er data telling RBS about customers
regular needs and how could the
brand innovate the mobile experience
to better serve those needs?
THE STRATEGY
Quick access to emergency cash
The team at RBS developed and
launched Get Cash, a mobile feature
that enables ATM withdrawals using
a short-duration, five-digit PIN that
users can access via smartphone. This
feature allows customers to send and
receive money from any one of 8,000+
RBS, NatWest, and Tesco ATM ma-
chines without the need of a bank card,
lessening the immediate pain of losing
your bank card, simplifying the process
for sending money to family members
INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS 117
 In just 5 days, Touch ID THE STRATEGY Apple Watch RBSs NatWest for Apple Watch app
15,000
72%
Partner with and implement allows users to access the popular Get
THE CUSTOMER NEED the latest technology THE CUSTOMER NEED Cash feature to pay for items without NatWest for Apple Watch
of all capable iOS logins Mobile login as a point of entry Use a new format to satisfy a debit/credit card. Now, NatWest app users
were via Touch ID Partnering with Apple, RBS leveraged new expectations customers can truly leave their wallets
While the number of electronic pay- Touch ID to become the first UK-based at home and still have access to their
ments now exceeds cash payments
10%
bank to offer login solely with biometric With the introduction of the Apple
money on the go!
in the UK, the login process remains identification, speeding up customers Watch, RBS recognized a new
Reviews went up from

3 to 4 stars
cumbersome. With an increase in
security concerns and precautions,
logging in has become increasingly
on the Apple App Store
more complex. RBS quickly realized
that they could not boast helpful bank-
ing if this main point of customer entry
800k
references to RBS and
was not simplified.
NatWest on Twitter in
the first 24 hours
access to their accounts. The decision opportunity to define the on-the-go THE OUTCOME of regular users are using
to roll out Touch ID was driven in part (and wearable) customer experience. the Get Cash feature
Leading UK retail banking app
by customer comments on RBSs With iOS innovation at the core, RBS
Ideas Bank, the banks online commu- created tangible value for busy, savvy Since its launch, over 15,000 Ap-
nity forum. The biometric enablement consumers who expect their banking ple Watch users have installed the
allowed customers most unique fea- environments to evolve at the speed NatWest app easily surpassing the
tures their fingerprints to become
their most convenient security keys.
of tech. target of 1,000. More so, 10 percent of
regular users are using the award-win-
THE STRATEGY ning Get Cash feature, thus maintaining
THE OUTCOME Helpful banking on your wrist a market-leading NPS score for mobile
Biometric enablement leads to and delivering on the promise of
ease of use RBS introduced an Apple Watch ex-
Helpful Banking.
perience that did more than just check
In just five days, 72 percent of all balances. Unlike its contemporaries,
capable iOS logins were via Touch ID.
Not only was the feature adopted, but
it was also applauded. For example,
app reviews went up from three to
four stars on the Apple App Store with
the release of the update. In addition,
there were over 8,000 references to
RBS and NatWest on Twitter in the
first twenty-four hours after launch, in-
cluding recognition received from both
industry and traditional media on this
new display of helpful banking.

118 INDUSTRY VOICES & GAME CHANGERS 119

 Reimagining business
step-by-step
With these innovations and the creation
of the new journey manager role, RBS
has positioned itself as a leader in the
UK. By embracing digital business
transformation, the organization has not
only set the bar for financial institutions,
but has proven to other industries the
value of designing with the customer
in mind.

RBS continues to see strong results

for its initiatives, and has embraced
a culture of innovation and change in
order to maintain its momentum.

Consumer banking may be changing,

but so is RBS.

Pawan Udernani
Director, Client Services,
SapientNitro London
pudernani@sapient.com

120
124 Artificial Intelligence: Applying Big Data,
Machine Learning, & Causal Reasoning
to Digital Transformation
Josh Sutton, Ritesh Soni & Scott Petry

134 Leveraging Emotion Insights to Drive

Experiential Return
Melissa Read, PhD

146 Conversational UI: Talking Loud and

Saying Plenty
TRENDS AT THE
Daniel Harvey & Kieron Leppard
INTERSECTION OF
158 How Brands Are Changing the Context
of Location Marketing
Sheldon Monteiro
TECHNOLOGY & STORY
ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE:
APPLYING BIG
DATA, MACHINE
LEARNING, &
CAUSAL REASONING
TO DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
JOSH SUTTON, RITESH SONI & SCOTT PETRY

Its been five years since IBMs artificial intelligence, Watson, beat human contes-
tants on the game show Jeopardy! Still, to this day, many people think of artificial
intelligence (AI) as science fiction a cunning computer run amok or a loyal
companion robot.

The reality is much more practical.

Artificial intelligence technologies are largely designed to help humans work better
first, by generating insight from data more quickly and accurately than is humanly
possible and second, by acting automatically on that insight. Invisible to the human
eye for years, these technologies have been completing a broad range of tasks,
from correctly routing mail to interpreting handwriting.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 125

 Today, AI technologies are used every-
where you turn: Siri on your iPhone,
rear parking assist in your car, automati-
Most of the cally re-ordering supplies on Amazon,
and suggesting clothes you may like on
knowledge in your favorite retail websites.
the world in the Indeed, enhancing the human ability to
future is going to process remains a top strategic priority
at early AI innovators such as Facebook,
be extracted by IBM, Microsoft, and Google.
machines and will
These technologies (including image
reside in machines. recognition, natural language process-
Yann Lecun, ing, machine learning, causal reason-
ing, and robotics) can help businesses
Director of AI Research,
Facebook1 increase revenues, reduce costs, and
mitigate risks.
Enhancing the human ability to
process is a strong statement and
the stakes are enormous for the early
innovators, as well as for the broader
economy. Artificial intelligence techno-
logies have the potential to transform
entire business models at a clip remi-
niscent of the industrial revolution. The
question is: How can companies take
full advantage of such a fundamentally
disruptive group of technologies?
Our view of AI
For business leaders, it is important
to have a basic understanding of how
the major technologies that constitute
AI can deliver optimal business impact
by enabling their companies to provide
products and services to meet their
customers needs when and where
they need them.
To provide such products and services
requires the ability to collect and analyze
vast amounts of structured and un-
structured data, and to use the insights
gained from that data to inform business
decisions and take action in real time.
Gutierrez, Sebastian. Data Scientists at Work. Apress. December, 2014.
1
126
Broadly speaking, AI technologies fall
into two principal categories:
Machine learning (correlation-based
analyses and predictions) through
which complex patterns can be
identified and acted upon. Machine
learning tools allow businesses to
understand what is happening in
the data.
Causal reasoning (otherwise known
as common-sense AI) platforms
that apply real world understanding
to information, test hypotheses, draw
conclusions, and allow executives
to better understand why things
are happening.
Although the application of each techno-
logy on its own can result in improved
business performance, the truly
transformative value and future of AI
will lie in the ability to seamlessly layer
data analytics, machine learning, and
causal reasoning platforms to deliver
insight-driven, personalized products
and services.
In particular, this combination offers
great promise for changing the way
that brands approach marketing. By
using these technologies in concert
with each other, marketers can obtain
a better understanding of consumer
and behavioral data, and enable far
more granular personalization of the
customer experience.
For example, Walmart knows that a
sunny weekend forecast in May brings
out gardeners, so the company com-
bines data from localized weather
forecasts with that of consumers
buying histories to send personalized
mobile promotions.
In fact, machine learning tools help
the company do everything from
improving store layouts to optimizing
the efficiency of delivery routes and
warehouse operations.
Most companies that are leveraging
AI successfully have found that the
key to realizing meaningful results is
FIGURE01
AI point solutions are available for various markets and roles
AI technologies support solutions that span across various business cases, challenges, and teams.
Intelligent Assistance
AI will provide expert assistance
for users during various activities,
including product support, Q&A, and
providing recommendations. They
can also provide suggestions to
experts for example, recognizing
patterns in complex data more quickly.
Custom Digital Experiences
By evaluating humans emotions,
moods, attitudes, and intents, AI
can then create and modify the
experiences to match.
Source: SapientNitro, 2016.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
to mix and match complementary AI
technologies geared toward specific
markets or roles (see Figure 1). Face-
books newest AI tool, for instance,
draws on both image recognition and
natural language processing tools
to help describe photos to visually
impaired users.
Summarization Services
Natural language processing
can be used to automatically
create summaries of both
highly technical and non-
technical information.
Support for Accessibility
On-the-go tools to support
the accessibility needs of the
disabled or impaired. These
Anticipate Customer Needs tools can provide real-time
Based on a variety of inputs, interpretation of signs,
AI technology can anticipate papers, books, etc., in the
customers needs and pro- messy real world.
actively make suggestions
for how customer service or
management should support
those customers.
127
 Companies Combining machine learning
will be able and causal reasoning
to influence Until recently, big data and machine
learning have been the primary focus
consumer for many big data analytics projects,
behavior by but causal AI will emerge as an
important complementary tool in
responding in the 20182020 timeframe.
context to what Heres why.
an individual
Machine learning
is doing in Machine learning platforms such as
the moment. IBMs Watson or Googles TensorFlow
use algorithms to find particular pat-
terns in huge data sets, and learn from
the results.
For example, a machine learning
platform can look at a million tagged
pictures of house cats to learn the attri-
butes of something called a cat. Then,
when it sees another cat picture, it will
recognize it as a feline. This is what
drives the impressive accuracy of apps
like Google Photos, which can identify
pictures of you and your family mem-
bers based on its analytical learnings.
In marketing applications, machine
learning algorithms are particularly
useful for finding unexpected patterns
that help companies more accurately
build market segmentations or optimize
ad spend. For example, using machine
learning to better target online display
ads can dramatically improve click-
through rates.
Causal reasoning: Common sense AI
On the other hand, causal reasoning
systems (or common sense artificial
intelligence) use more of a teaching-
based approach. Causal AI teaches
128
machines to think like humans by
showing them how things relate and,
subsequently, allowing them to reason
contextually. In other words, the com-
puters have to learn common sense.
So while a machine learning platform
can identify that cat picture, causal
AI platforms like MITs ConceptNet feel about a companys products or
and Cycorps Cyc platform apply
context to that image by drawing on an
extremely large model of relationships
that reflect a human beings under-
standing of how the world works in
relation to that image. In other words,
rather than simply identifying the
picture, causal AI tools also understand
a cats place in the world (e.g., they
make great pets, are great hunters, and
sometimes trigger allergies in humans).
Fusing multiple technologies
to form the optimal solution
The union of multiple forms of AI
allows companies to achieve digital
transformation through insight gene-
ration, customer engagement, and
business acceleration.
Insight generation
Insight generation involves extracting
meaningful and actionable intelligence
from ever-increasing quantities of
available raw data. With the amount of
information in the world nearly doubling
each year, it is no surprise that com-
panies are scrambling to capture and
make sense of it.
One of the fastest growing uses of AI is
to listen to all customer communica-
tions, both directly with a company and
about that company in the market
at large ranging from call center con-
versations to chat sessions and even
social media activity. AI tools are able
to perform what no single human or
even team of people could hope to
do; they can read, review, and ana-
lyze vast quantities of disparate data,
providing insight into how customers
business and marketing experts as well
services and why they feel the way they
do. Luminoso, an AI company with its
roots in MITs Media Lab, has built a
robust business performing precisely
this task.
Customer engagement
Customer engagement has long been
the holy grail for marketing and CRM
programs. Today, AI is radically enhanc-
ing the personalization of information
that fuels such engagement. Nowhere
is this more evident than in AIs next big
thing: chatbots and virtual assistants.
Chatbots are software programs that
use messaging as an interface through
which companies can answer custom-
ers questions, help their customers
find information, and offer personalized
deals and sales. They are ideally suited
to a mobile platform and have been
made significantly more powerful by
advances in machine learning and
natural-language processing.
Multiple companies such as Viv,
Facebook, and Nuance are providing
frameworks and turnkey solutions in
this space, allowing for services as
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
diverse as media content distribution,
customer service support, and customi-
zed marketing campaigns. While the
technology advances are exciting
and bode well for business applica-
tions successful use cases will be
grounded in a strong, user-centered
design process, leveraging the input of
as those of the information technology
(IT) division.
Business acceleration
Business acceleration refers to how
companies use AI to expedite knowl-
edge-based activities to improve
efficiency and performance. Examples
range from hospitals finding potential
patients for drug trials to financial insti-
tutions creating investment strategies
for their investors.
While these types of activities are often
viewed as opportunities to reduce
costs through the automation of internal
processes, they also should be consid-
ered in terms of their ability to transform
the customer experience. For example,
if a bank can use AI to reduce the time
it takes to approve a loan, it not only re-
duces its own costs but also provides
an improved customer experience.
As a result, when AI tools such as
Watson from IBM and Cyc from
Cycorp are deployed, todays market
leaders ensure that they leverage the
technologies with both cost-cutting and
customer satisfaction in mind.
129
 The road ahead: What leaders
should do today
According to International Data Cor-
poration (IDC), by 2018 about half of
all apps developed will incorporate AI,
as firms increasingly experiment and
explore the use of this technology.2
After all, there are no tried-and-true
implementation methods for such a
rapidly evolving set of technologies.
While many companies know that
AI is important in a general sense,
most havent figured out specific
business applications.
That, however, will change. AI is
rapidly becoming a top business
FIGURE02
Smart machines rapid impact
Leading predictions show the imminent rise of smart machines and their impact
on business investments and applications.3
By year-end
2018
25% of durable goods manufacturers
will utilize data generated by smart
machines in their customer-facing
sales, billing, and service workflows.
R&D-based, end-user approaches
to smart machine deployment will be
three times more likely to produce
business value than IT project-based
approaches.
CIO Magazine. Whos in Charge of AI in the Enterprise? http://www.cio.com/article/3033141/robotics/whos-in-charge-of-ai-in-the-enterprise.html.
2
Graphic created by SapientNitro based on Gartner research: Predicts 2016: Smart Machines. December, 2015. https://www.gartner.com/doc/3175120/predicts--smart-machines.
3
130
priority, and brands should consider
how to get in front of the trend rather
than react to it later (see Figure 2).
Explore AI capabilities
As with any significant technology
trend, companies need to learn the key
elements of AI and dig into its possible
impact on specific business functions
as well as overarching industries.
Explore ways of making AI part of the
overall business conversation for
example, through the use of exploratory
projects or innovation labs that look for
the best areas for AI applications, both
within your company and across its
products and/or services.
tomer is most likely to buy. The same
By
2020
Smart machines will be a top five
investment priority for more than
30% of CIOs.
CFOs will need to address the valua-
tions derived by smart machine data
and algorithmic business.
Start with small, targeted projects
to learn about the technology
Where is your money best allocated?
Smart AI investors tend to follow the
data breadcrumb trail. Thats why
data-intensive industries like financial
services and healthcare are early inno-
vators in this field: They feel more pres-
sure to extract full value from their large
volumes of data, making it easier to
balance the risk and reward of such a
significant investment. Most companies
start with smaller, targeted projects that
can improve existing business pro-
cesses, particularly in areas that place
a high premium on real-time decision
making or have large volumes of data
that are not being effectively utilized.
For example, machine learning models
can be used to improve product
recommendations by predicting, based
on previous behavior, what item a cus-
concept can also apply to predicting
customer churn, helping companies
know when to offer incentives to keep
customers on board. Another likely
application area is in dynamic pricing,
where AI can be used to more accu-
rately predict product demand at
a given price.
Search for knowledge bottlenecks
When it comes to identifying and
prioritizing near-term prospects, look for
knowledge bottlenecks areas where
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
humans either cant absorb the infor-
mation fast enough, or where there are
Machine learning
models can
large streams of data to integrate and
analyze. Go after an obvious optimiza-
improve product
tion problem as opposed to solving for
not very well-defined problems. This is recommendations,
a long journey, not a six-month effort.
predict customer
As tools mature and commercial ma- churn, and support
chine learning and causal AI platforms
become more affordable, the risk- dynamic pricing.
reward ratio will flatten considerably,
lowering the barrier to entry at many
companies. Those who have learned
from working with smaller subsets of
data will be well-equipped to jump
aboard the express.
Design with the customer in mind
Perhaps most important, successful
companies of tomorrow will fuse
together AI solutions with the customer
in mind. Rather than seeing each
emerging AI technology as an exciting
new tool in and of itself, they will seek
to determine which combination of AI
technologies can generate the most
actionable insight into their customers
and clients. They will use that insight
to provide consumers with products
and services that meet their needs
when and where they need them. And,
they will design these AI solutions from
the outside in from the perspective
of their customers as opposed to
inside out, via traditional divisional and
product silos.
131
 Conclusion
AI as a technology sector is evolv-
ing rapidly, providing tools that can
generate insight, engage customers,
and accelerate business growth. Early
leaders like Google, Facebook, and
Amazon are building their business
models around AI, and driving further
AI expansion by opening up their plat-
forms to outside developers.
Meanwhile, significant venture capital
activity, coupled with substantial
improvements in accuracy and per-
formance, have driven robust market
expansion for AI technologies.
All of this adds up to huge opportuni-
ties for businesses that can success-
fully leverage AI either across func-
tions such as marketing and sales
or for business transformation. The
tools that are currently available offer
significant potential to boost revenue,
cut costs, and reduce risk. And, when
132
combined and designed with the
consumer in mind, AI technologies can
deliver solutions that drive customer
loyalty, engagement, consumption, and
satisfaction. In fact, AI technologies
may become a key driver for the digital
transformation of tomorrows most
successful businesses.
Josh Sutton
Global Head, Artificial
Intelligence Practice,
Publicis.Sapient
jsutton@sapient.com
Ritesh Soni
Vice President, Data Science,
SapientNitro Washington, D.C.
rsoni@sapient.com
Scott Petry
Vice President, Technology,
SapientNitro Atlanta
spetry@sapient.com
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 133
LEVERAGING
EMOTION INSIGHTS
TO DRIVE
EXPERIENTIAL
RETURN
MELISSA READ, PhD

Marketers have long acknowledged that customer behavior has both rational and
emotional drivers. While rational drivers have been relatively easy to assess, it has
historically been difficult for marketers to measure the emotional side. Instead, we
have relied on methods like self-reporting and direct observation to glean emotional
insights, but these methods are limited to what people can express. They are also
modified by which emotions people choose to show marketers while being observed.

Emotions drive our thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors across environments

and cultures, so it should be no surprise that they impact brand experiences too.
Emotions drive resonance in brand messaging, brand loyalty, and buying behavior.

Recently, the technology of directly measuring an individuals emotional response

to a piece of content (e.g., video or advertisement) or experience (e.g., in-venue
event, video game, or vehicle) has become refined and reliable.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 135

 Yet many marketers still hesitate to use
emotion insights.1
With the rise of more sophisticated
emotion insights methodologies
over the last several years, however,
marketers have the opportunity to give
voice to the emotional drivers of cus-
tomer decisions. Marketers can take a
more balanced approach to data with
research programs that are inclusive of
both rational and emotional marketing
drivers. Most important, they can lever-
age emotion insights to demonstrate
the success of marketing outcomes
too thereby giving them a richer and
more holistic story to tell about market-
ing performance.
FIGURE01
Just a few of the marketing returns achieved via emotion insights
The returns on using emotion insights are clear, touching various ROI metrics
including views, engagement, click-through, and conversion.3
Trends in experience
Brands can leverage emotion insights
primarily to optimize marketing perfor-
mance and drive responsive experiences.
Optimizing marketing performance
For some brands, emotion insights can
be leveraged to understand oppor-
tunities in the design of their brand
experiences. Coca-Cola, for example,
leveraged biometric measurements
to determine which of a dozen Super
Bowl commercial variations were the
most emotionally resonant.2 Partici-
happiness, sadness, boredom, and
pants wore headsets and wristbands
that detected brain waves, heart rate,
blinking, breathing, and even blushing.
These techniques allowed Coca-Cola
to determine which commercial was
the most emotionally resonant and also
drove modifications to the final com-
mercial design. The winning, optimized
commercial was then aired.
Other brands have leveraged emotion
insights to more deeply assess market-
ing assets and drive tactical optimiza-
Driving experience in responsive
environments
Other brands can leverage emotion
insights as inputs to brand experiences.
For example, Stanford researchers built
an Xbox console that senses players
emotions.4 The sensors were placed
on the back of the Xbox controller to
detect heart rate, blood flow, breathing
rate, and depth of breathing all proxies
for the emotional part of the brain.
They allow the game to detect four
unique player emotions as inputs:
excitement. The best part? The gaming
experience then modifies itself depend-
ing on the players emotional state.
Another great example stems from the
automotive industry. Several teams of
researchers have worked in conjunc-
tion with car manufacturers to concept
cars that detect mood.5 In one case,
an infrared camera situated behind the
steering wheel was used to detect the
micro-movements on drivers faces.
These movements were then rapidly

3x 8x 20x 3x
tions such as changes in asset length,
coded by computer vision software to
creative look and feel, music choice,
detect one or more of seven emotions.
more likely to higher click- social action quicker in and narration. Marketing assets that are
When a driver is experiencing anger
watch to the end through rate conversion attracting views optimized to be emotionally resonant
and rage, these concept cars modify
drive significantly greater marketing
aspects of the driving experience, such
returns (see Figure 1).
as the driving speed.

1
Forrester Research. Understanding the Impact of Emotion on Customer Experience. July, 2015. https://www.forrester.com/report/Understanding+The+Impact+Of+Emotion+On+Cus-
tomer+Experience/-/E-RES122503.
Stanford. Stanford Engineers Design Video Game Controller that Can Sense Players Emotions. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/game-controller-excitement-040714.html.
4

Alhadeff, Eliane. EmSense Turns Market Research Into a Serious Game. http://elianealhadeff.blogspot.com/2009/02/emsense-turns-market-research-into.html.
2
5
ExtremeTech. In-Car Emotion Detector Can Tell When You Have Road Rage, Can Make Driving Safer. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/178514-in-car-emotion-detector-can-
Realeyes. Realeyes Imagination: Is Your Content Learning from Experience? http://www.slideshare.net/realeyes-slides/realeyes-imagination.
3
sense-when-you-have-road-rage-making-driving-safer.

136 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 137

 THE SCIENCE OF EMOTION INSIGHTS
Researchers in emotion insights use
cognitive and neural science techniques
to assess the type, magnitude, and
timing of real emotions in response to
brand experiences. Example techniques
include galvanic skin response, facial
coding, and electroencephalography.
By using these techniques, marketers
can maximize brand engagement, mini-
mize pain points, drive creativity, and
quantify success.
FIGURE02
How galvanic skin response works
Sweat glands are known to deliver basic data around increases
in emotional arousal. GSR allows marketers to use these biological
features to analyze the natural effects of their experiences.
138
GALVANIC SKIN RESPONSE
Galvanic skin response (GSR) is an
emotion insights technique that allows
marketers to assess basic emotional
arousal at key points in the marketing
experience by measuring sweat gland
activity (see Figure 2). Increases in
emotional arousal correspond with
increases in the amount of sweat our
fingertips produce.
GSR is a relatively low-cost and easily
accessible method. It is lightweight
and unobtrusive to the research envi-
ronment, allowing for study in con-
trolled lab environments or in-the-wild
environments where participants can
move about freely. When implemented
in the wild, careful consideration must
be given to the temperature of the envi-
ronment and the participant, so as not
to impact the readings.
Some of the key questions that GSR can
answer include:
When in the experience is emotional
arousal and stress elicited?
What is the magnitude of the emo-
tional arousal and stress?
How do specific audience segments
differ in terms of their emotional/
stress responses to marketing
experiences?
One of the biggest limitations of GSR,
however, is that marketers do not know
exactly which emotion is elicited in the
arousal response. For this reason, GSR
is often most effective for marketers
when paired with other methods like
heart rate monitoring, eye tracking,
facial coding, and even survey/interview
questions to tell a holistic story.
FACIAL CODING
Facial coding is an emotion insights
FIGURE03
technique that has risen in popularity
in the last several years. In Figure 3, a
camera captures several emotion types,
The complex workings of facial coding Facial coding is
magnitudes, and timing by micro-move-
ments on the face.
Facial coding technologies capture affordable to the
everything from differing emotions
The emotions captured by facial coding to their magnitude and timing all average marketer,
using the micro-movements of the
include happy, confused, disgusted,
fearful, sad, scared, and surprised. With participants face. and yields rich
this technology, we can also see when
multiple emotions are elicited at the
and rapid insights
same time. When just a few basic emo-
tions are captured in parallel, there are
returns.
many resulting emotional states that we
can observe (see Figure 4).
Facial coding provides detailed, up-to-
the-second readouts about specific emo-
tions, so marketers can see the flow of
emotion over the duration of the brand
experience. While its often more expen-
sive than GSR, facial coding is affordable
to the average marketer, and yields rich
and rapid insights returns.
FIGURE04
Some of the key questions that facial
coding can answer include:
Which of several emotions are elicited
The range of mood states that can be
in response to marketing experiences? detected by facial coding
What is the magnitude of each elicit- The breadth of facial coding detection
ed emotion? is incredibly vast, enabling the tech-
nology (and those using it) to pick up
When in the experience (up-to-the- multiple emotions simultaneously.
second) are emotions elicited?
How do specific audience segments
differ in terms of their emotional
responses to marketing experiences?
Facial coding is often used when par-
ticipants are viewing videos of brand
experiences on desktop computers or
mobile devices. Participants have to be
relatively steady and in good lighting
conditions in order for marketers to
uncover meaningful insights. There are
several products on the market that
make facial coding testing relatively
cost-effective for marketers. Facial cod-
ing is in a sweet spot when it comes to
investment and return.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 139
 With electroen-
cephalography
(EEG), marketers
can capture brain
waves to measure
positive and
negative arousal
in response to
experiences.
FIGURE05
An EEG headset
This dry and wireless headset is what enables marketers
to capture brain waves depicting both positive and negative
arousal states. It also enables participants to move about,
thereby permitting assessment of in-the-wild experiences.
ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY
With electroencephalography (EEG),
marketers can capture brain waves to
measure positive and negative arousal
in response to experiences. Headsets,
with electrical sensors placed on the
scalp, are used to detect emotions
and changes.
Positive and negative arousal, measured
by EEG, are indicators of engagement,
excitement, and frustration. While
EEG implementation requires one of
the highest investments of time and
expertise (time required for analysis),
marketers can get detailed readings on
arousal states down to the millisecond.
Some of the key questions that EEG
technologies can answer include:
Are participants excited, frustrated,
and/or engaged by our marketing
experiences?
What is the magnitude of each feeling
that is elicited?
When in the experience are emotions
elicited, down to the millisecond?
EEG technologies have evolved in
response to marketing needs, so they
are as unobtrusive as possible. Some
EEGs are wireless and dry, meaning that
they do not require gel on their sensors
to collect insights, and participants can
move about in real world environments
relatively freely (see Figure 5). However,
Why emotion insights matter
For a financial services brand, we used
emotion insights to determine which
of three digital brand videos (each
with variations in script, music, and
voiceover) elicited the most positive
consumer response and engagement.
The brands goal was to maximize their
chances of connecting with their target
audience on the emotion that mattered
most to them: happiness.
Without emotion insights, we might
have conducted survey, interview, or
even focus group research to allow
participants to self-report the emotions
they felt about each video. We might
have also directly observed people
watching the videos. These methods
would have given us a general sense
of the way participants felt about the
videos and may have even given us
ideas for how to optimize the top
performing video to maximize the
brands desired happy response.
However, imagine how our strategy
evolved when facial coding was
introduced. With this technology, we
discovered that one videos female
voiceover was the most emotionally
resonant, driving happiness up and fear
We were then able to optimize our
communications for all emotions
elicited. We could dial up desired
emotions and dial down ones that
were not productive. We could test
the emotional response to the revised
video to make before-and-after com-
parisons. We could also leverage the
emotion scores from the facial coding
exercise and correlate them with the
engagement generated in response
to the video. With that information, we
were able to know exactly what mix of
emotions to target in future videos and
other types of brand messaging.
FIGURE06
Applying facial coding: A side-by-side comparison for all three videos
With facial coding, we were able to identify the female voice in the first video (line
A) as being the most emotionally resonant, driving happiness up and fear down.
Three versions of the same video were shown. Version A, which included a
woman's voice, music track A, and groups of people sharing a positive experience;
Version B, which included a man's voice, music track B, and religious locations;
and Version C, which included both a man and woman's voice, as well as a unique
music track.
Comparison of HAPPINESS for each video
14%
12%
10%

Happiness
EEG instrumentation can be cumber- down (see Figure 6). More so, every
some and distracting for participants. time the brand promise was mentioned, 8%
When this technology feels too unna-
happiness went up a strong point 6%
tural, it can stand in the way of getting
meaningful results. of validation for our creative teams 4%
approach. We were also able to
2%
identify that visual representations of 0:06 0:18 0:30 0:42 0:54 1:06

the tagline drove further increases in Time in seconds

positive sentiment. Comparison of FEAR for each video
4%
Lastly, we realized that certain content
types (photos) and themes (churches) 3%

showcased throughout the video were 2%

causing happiness and engagement

Fear
1%
dips thereby informing further edits
0%
of the selected video.
-1%

-2%
0:06 0:18 0:30 0:42 0:54 1:06
Time in seconds

140 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 141

 Emotion insights Capturing and creating authentic
allow us to tap experiences
In our digital brand video example
into authentic, described on the previous page, the
unconscious financial brand would not have disco-
vered that one particular female voice
responses to brand drove happiness up and fear down
environments, without facial coding. A common cha-
llenge for marketers is to understand
thereby unpacking what their target audiences are really
the complexity of thinking. There is often a vast difference
between what people can articulate
emotion that is and their true experiences, while uncon-
present and what scious experiences guide choices and
drive marketing outcomes.
the conscious
mind cannot share. Emotion insights allow us to tap into
authentic, unconscious experiences
with brand environments, thereby
unpacking the complexity of emotion
that is present and what the conscious
mind cannot share. They also allow us
to create emotionally resonant moments
through responsive environments that
deeply connect with our target.
Driving up-to-the-second outcomes
In the digital brand video example
on the previous page, it would have
been difficult to get up-to-the-second
insights on emotions (such as those
induced by the brand promise or tag-
line) using techniques outside of facial
coding. And, when it comes to digital
branded content, every second matters.
Emotion insights techniques allow us
to detect changes in emotional
response to marketing experiences,
up to the second. They also allow
responsive environments to act on
changes in emotion, driving experiential
changes in the moments when specific
emotions unfold.
142
Exploring emotion insights applications for your brand
When thinking about how emotion insights can apply to your busi-
ness, here are some considerations:
Uncover insights that drive real impact
Emotion insights techniques are shiny objects.
They are methods and outputs that tend to draw a lot of
attention. So, when using these techniques, make sure that
your research program is sound, and that you are answering
questions whose results will make a real impact on your
business. It can be tempting to choose methods like EEG
because of how powerful the technology is and how granular
your findings can be. Oftentimes though, lower-cost emotion
Gain the greatest value by taking
insights methods like facial coding (and even GSR/heart rate
monitoring) will yield a greater return on your investment by a holistic approach
giving you targeted results that directly inform strategy. Emotion insights can be a powerful
driver of change. But oftentimes,
the full story about customers
and their experiences is best told
by pairing this method with oth-
er complementary methods. For
Make the greatest investment in the best outcomes, complement
your team, not your tools emotion insights methods (that tap
Emotion insights is an emerging unconscious feelings) with methods
research capability and marketing is a that allow your target audience to
dynamic field. Tools and methods have share their conscious perspectives,
rapidly advanced, and changed, over too. For example, you can use a
a short period of time. That being said, follow-up survey during or after
it is best to work with strong insights emotion insights tracking. A survey
professionals who understand the sci- can help researchers understand
ence behind emotion insights and who why specific emotions were elicited
are tool agnostic. You want a team that at key points during an experience.
can develop the capability quickly to
find the strongest tools for your evolving
field and needs. Teams with a mix of
backgrounds in cognitive neuroscience,
psychology, and both qualitative and
quantitative research can be particu-
larly powerful especially if they also
have experience working in marketing
research and strategy capacities.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 143
 Looking to the future
Today, emotion insights techniques
are largely used to capture the emo-
We are starting tions of individual participants for
to see vendors marketing experience optimization.
Emotion insights sensors are directed
emerge that are at specific individuals. Sometimes
able to offer group these individuals wear the sensors,
while other times the sensors are
assessment of embedded in a specific device.
emotion insights.
Now, we are starting to see vendors
emerge that are able to offer group
assessment of emotion insights.
Sensors are placed in environments
as opposed to on, or near, individuals.
These sensors calibrate the emotions
of many people at the same time, and
can capture their engagement with mul-
tiple marketing channels across a range
of devices. Group emotion calibration
has incredible applications in driving
responsive group experiences in places
like retail environments, entertainment
experiences, and other in-the-wild mar-
keting and branding venues.

As brands continue to invest in

responsive environments, the demand
for more precise and holistic emotion
insights will only increase.

Melissa Read, PhD

Global Emotion Insights Head,
SapientNitro Atlanta
mread@sapient.com

144
CONVERSATIONAL
UI: TALKING LOUD
AND SAYING
PLENTY
DANIEL HARVEY & KIERON LEPPARD

Software is eating the world. Thats what famed venture capitalist Marc Andrees-
sen said in a Wall Street Journal article in 2011. Fast forward five years and its
clear that he was correct software is indeed ubiquitous. But not all software is
equal. Messaging apps are experiencing a meteoric rise above all others.

Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, says that messaging app sessions saw a 103
percent rise globally as far back as 2014, and sustained a 51 percent rise in
2015.1 General-purpose chat app WhatsApp had 50 percent greater traffic than
all global text message use.2 And Snapchat, once the domain of Millennials only,
now has a daily average user count of 100 million.3 Furthermore, 50 percent of the
top eight downloaded apps in the UK are messengers, while two out of the top
three are chat apps from Facebook.4

1
Flurry. Shopping, Productivity and Messaging Give Mobile Another Stunning Growth Year. http://flurrymobile.
tumblr.com/post/115194992530/shopping-productivity-and-messaging-give-mobile.
2
Evans, Benedict. WhatsApp Sails Past SMS, But Where Does Messaging Go Next? http://ben-evans.com/
benedictevans/2015/1/11/whatsapp-sails-past-sms-but-where-does-messaging-go-next.
3
SocialTimes. Snapchat Is the Fastest Growing Social Network (Infographic). http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/
snapchat-is-the-fastest-growing-social-network-infographic/624116.
4
Ofcom. The Communications Market 2015 (August). http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-da-
ta/communications-market-reports/cmr15/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 147

 And its not just social chatter thats
commanding such inspiring figures.
WeChat, the dominant chat app in
Snapchat, once China, had more mobile transactions
over the 2016 Chinese New Year than
the domain of PayPal had during all of 2015.5 The
Millennials only, users of Slack, the darling of the
But, in the cloud era, all that could change.
Whats important to realize is that
messaging apps are often becoming
platforms. Think of them as stealth
operating systems on top of your exist-
ing OS. Theyre one-stop portals
The aforementioned examples show
that a chat user interface (UI) can
work in a variety of situations. But
why is it preferred?
Chat UI has a zero learning curve The average smartphone
user downloads

enterprise, engage with the app on
now has a daily average ten hours per day during
average user count the work week.6
of 100 million. This evolution of messaging platforms
and the rise of chatbots represents a
paradigm shift in our always-on world.
Marketers now have the opportunity
to be more plugged in to their target
consumers conversations. And, as a
business today, it is critical to under-
Big numbers in conversation
stand this mega-trend and respond
to everything you need on your smart-
phone, infiltrating your life through the
notifications panel.
The most successful, like WeChat or
Facebook Messenger, are facilitating
more than just chat. WeChat supports
peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, shopping,
booking taxis and restaurants, and
more. Facebook Messenger with its
virtual assistant, M will be able to do
all of that and who knows what else.
zero apps
First, theres a similarity across the
user interfaces of chat apps, so theres
no need to learn a new UI or pattern. per month
Chat boils down to text on the right/left
and input on the bottom it's digital
second nature now for many. This in-
stinctual understanding gives brands a
head start when designing an engaging
experience for their consumers. As
Nir Eyal, author of Hooked, puts it,
We already know how to chat, so

3.8 billion
in short order. This is the dawn of the
post app era and will be as transfor-
WeChats revenue
mational for businesses and consumers
in 20157
as apps were a decade ago.
Messaging as an operating
$3.8 billion system
Slacks 2016 valuation8 Creators of operating systems have
long had a competitive advantage in
the software industry. In the personal
computer era, Windows dominance
afforded Microsoft much success.
In the desktop Internet era, Google
functioned as an operating system
(OS) of sorts for the web. In the
mobile era, iOS and Android are
critical components of the Apple and
Google ecosystems.
making requests is easy.10
As messaging apps grow more ubiq-
Second, chat can be instantaneous or
uitous and powerful, the need to have
asynchronous. If you want a bus time,
standalone apps for these individual
then bots, artificial intelligence (AI), and
functions becomes questionable. What
schedules can share a schedule in real
impact could this have on Venmo, Jet,
time. If you want to buy luchador finery,
Hailo, OpenTable, and the like? What
about Google Now, Cortana, and Siri?
then humans can take some time to
find you the best deal.
More important, what does this do
Unlike the telephone or web, messag-
to other types of app experiences?
ing affords us constant communication.
The average smartphone user down-
For example, it gives customers quick
loads zero apps per month and, with
access to information while on the
users spending more and more time
go and can grant them answers
in chat apps, things look bleak for
even when brand representatives
traditional apps.9
are not available.

5
The Drum. WeChat Had More Mobile Transactions Over Just Chinese New Year than PayPal Had During 2015. http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/02/09/wechat-had-more-
mobile-transactions-over-just-chinese-new-year-paypal-had-during.
TIME.com. How E-Mail Killer Slack Will Change The Future Of Work. http://time.com/4092354/how-e-mail-killer-slack-will-change-the-future-of-work/.
6

7
Bloomberg. Tencent Climbs as Ad Surge Boosts WeChat Earnings Outlook. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-18/tencent-earnings-surge-50-percent-on-higher-
online-game-sales. comScore. The 2015 U.S. Mobile App Report. https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2015/The-2015-US-Mobile-App-Report.
9

Fortune. Slack Raises $200 Million at $3.8 Billion Valuation. http://fortune.com/2016/04/01/slack-raises-200-million-at-3-8-billion-valuation/.

8 10
Eyal, Nir. Human + A.I. = Your Digital Future. http://www.nirandfar.com/2015/07/the-message-is-the-medium-3-reasons-apps-as-assistants-work.html.

148 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 149

 In a post-Snowden As renowned tech strategist Ben
Thompson puts it, Conversations are
era, messaging never-ending, and come and go at a
apps seem to be pace dictated not by physicality, but
rather by attention.11 Brand service,
the last great therefore, becomes even more conti-
refuge for privacy. nuous and dependable.
Third, its an ideal medium for customer
service. If social media has taught us
anything, its that people love to engage
with brands for everything from satisfied
reviews to customer service complaints.
Chat apps allow customers the same
opportunity, but in a discreet venue
that's more personal for the consumers
and less damaging to brands. It's also
just more helpful to have a one-on-one
service experience.
Last, in a post-Snowden era, messaging
apps seem to be the last great refuge
for privacy. Apple and the FBI have
been embroiled in a 21st-century
version of the crypto-wars, while similar
rows will likely erupt in the UK thanks to
the Snoopers Charter.12 Messaging
apps, when compared to social media,
pose a safer communication stream
for consumer data. Most major chat
companies now have encryption
enabled by default. For example, while
Telegrams encryption has long been
lauded by privacy advocates, competitor
WhatsApp recently made headlines
when it enabled end-to-end encryption
on all communications.
Infinite chat integrations
into branded ecosystems
Brands have always fished where
the fish are. Today, that means expedi-
tions into messaging apps. Facebook
Messenger has successful integrations
with Uber to reserve a car, and KLM
to provide boarding passes and
flight updates, among other brands.
Thanks to these advances, consumers
who need to get to the airport can
now do so without ever leaving the
Facebook app.
Millennial favorite Kik has seen over
eighty promoted chats with bots for
brands like MTV, the Washington Post,
and Skull Candy. Perhaps its most suc-
cessful bot campaign was with NBC-
Universal to promote the horror film
Insidious 3. A bot with the personality
of the haunted main character Quinn
exchanged on average sixty-nine mes-
sages across nearly 350,000 partici-
pants.13
Whats a bot? Put simply, a bot (also
known as a chatbot) is a computer
program which conducts a conversa-
tion via auditory or textual methods.14
Kik, Facebook, and WeChat arent the
only ones using this technology.
Snapchat, the poster child for intimate
messaging, has expanded its brand
tools including its Discover section.
Several brands have created animated
filters that overlay animation on video.
Similarly, WhatsApp has created bot
Whats a bot?
characters to help Clarks promote its Put simply, a
Desert Boot product.15
bot (also known
These integrations will only increase as a chatbot)
as each of the major players creates
its own bot store. Kik and Skype is a computer
both launched their own versions of program which
bot stores in early 2015. WeChat is
already home to over 10 million official conducts a
accounts which are thin apps (light conversation
versions that dont require installation)
or bots. More so, theres a third-party via auditory or
opportunity here (as we saw with app textual methods.
stores) for new businesses to emerge.
For example, you can play poker,
explore restaurant menus, and receive
travel advisories via chatbots.17
Facebook is anticipating this explo-
sion of bot development. At the most
recent F8 conference, Mark Zucker-
berg announced Facebooks entrance
into the bot store arena.18 Media and
commerce were the dominant exam-
ples, including demonstrations from
CNN and 1-800-Flowers. While people
are sharing less on Facebook, they are
talking more than ever before on Face-
book Messenger (900 million people
per month, to be exact). In fact, this
platform will be the first experience that
many people will have with bots.19

13
Forbes. Kik Battles Facebook with Bots in the New Messaging Wars. http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/10/kik-bots-messaging-facebook-wechat/.
Wikipedia. Chatterbot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatterbot.
14

15
The New York Times. As Messaging Apps Boom, Brands Tiptoe In. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/business/media/as-messaging-apps-boom-brands-tiptoe-in.html.
16
The Drum. Why Clarks Hopes Calculated WhatsApp Risk Will Improve Brand Perception. http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/03/31/why-clarks-hopes-calculated-whatsapp-
risk-will-improve-brand-perception.
17
Forbes. Get Ready for the Chat Bot Revolution: Theyre Simple, Cheap and about to be Everywhere. http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/23/chat-bots-facebook-
telegram-wechat/#657f9a942633.
Thompson, Ben. Snapchats Ladder. https://stratechery.com/2016/snapchats-ladder/.
11

18
Facebook. Messenger Platform at F8. http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/04/messenger-platform-at-f8/.
The Telegraph. Snoopers Charter: Government Wins Vote on Investigatory Powers Bill. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12194441/Snoopers-Charter-Parliamentary-
12

vote-on-the-investigatory-powers-bill-live-updates.html. 19
The Verge. Facebook Launches a Bot Platform for Messenger. http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/12/11395806/facebook-messenger-bot-platform-announced-f8-conference.

150 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 151

APPLICATIONS ACROSS INDUSTRIES AUTOMOTIVE
As the category continues to adopt the Internet of Things, its easy to
imagine apps having a greater role than they do today in customer
The tables below explore examples across six major industry verticals, and comment interaction.
on the strategic fit of chat-driven interfaces. Some executions are fairly straight-
forward, while others require a dedicated app and have significant complexity. The
wide variety of examples illustrates the potential of this technology. Easy request Voice Play Father John Misty.
Moderate request Text Did I lock the door?
Difficult request Card Where did I park you?
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Integration with platforms seems unlikely due to privacy, security, and Complex request Micro-app Why does the check engine light
regulatory concerns. Folding chat functionality into your own apps keep blinking?
seems more fit-for-purpose.

Easy request Voice Whats my balance?

Moderate request Text I need to change my address.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Difficult request Card How much mortgage can
Many apps in this category already feature customer service and usage
I afford?
prompts. Adding chat functionality into the mix seems an obvious evolution.
Complex request Micro-app Will my children be better off if
I give them everything?
Easy request Voice How much data have I used this
month?
Moderate request Text Ill be traveling this month and need
data/voice roaming services.
Difficult request Card Which apps hog the most data?
RETAIL
Complex request Micro-app I want to suspend my account for
As a category, retail is vast. Some fashion and sports brands already
three months.
have strong ties to Snapchat and Facebook, while some electronics
and software brands have strong adoption for their own apps.

Easy request Voice What are your store hours?

Moderate request Text I need to return these jeans.
TRAVEL
Difficult request Card What goes with this jacket? Travel apps are already woven into native functionality on iOS and
Complex request Micro-app I need to replace the video card Google/Android. Tighter integration with them seems a given.
in this old laptop.
Easy request Voice Is my flight on time?
Moderate request Text Id like to use my points to upgrade
my seat.
Difficult request Card Where exactly is my departure gate?
CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS
Complex request Micro-app Show me tomorrow's flights from
Low app adoption has long plagued this category. That makes the sector
LHR to JFK.
a strong candidate for integration with Facebook.

Easy request Voice How many calories in just one Twix?

Moderate request Text Send me a box of diapers/nappies
ASAP.
Difficult request Card What stores nearby carry your
products?
Complex request Micro-app Id like a custom blush to suit my
skin tone.

153
 DESIGNING CHATBOT INTERFACES FOR BANKING Bots are the Trojan horse for The concern that some people have
with bots is the risk of a tedious back-
artificial intelligence and-forth. No one wants an interactive
What might a chatbot interface look like in banking? These images show
how a conversation about a change of address, a transaction alert, and Bots are a preoccupation in tech be- voice response system in their pocket.
sending money might occur between consumer and brand. cause they're exploring artificial inte- To reduce such risk, many bot expe-
lligence (AI) at scale.20 AI comes in two riences are complementing text with
broad flavors: causal reasoning (gene- cards and micro-apps. Both are ways
ral AI) and machine learning (specific to deliver thin, but robust, interactions
AI). The former is recursive and can inside of chats. Show flights within
contend with a wide set of questions Google Now or ordering an Uber in
with open-ended answers. The latter, Slack are both great examples.
on the other hand, responds to narrow
Change of sets of questions with scripted answers.
We dont have widespread adoption of
address
causal reasoning AI yet, but the current
generation of bots is a good example of
machine learning AI.

Todays bots are often a combination

of algorithms and/or human turks.
Google Now and Siri are the former,
while on-demand delivery services like
Magic in the United States and Fetch
in the United Kingdom are the latter.
Facebooks virtual assistant M, on the
other hand, is a hybrid.

Given the limitations of machine learn-

Transaction ing-based AI (those of narrow question
and answer sets), we need both con-
alert
text and precision. Brand engagements
are an interesting way to provide both
because they are industry, product,
or service specific. For example, you
can trust that someone wont ask a
banking bot a question about football.
And methods such as onboarding and
prompts can help people further
understand what they can ask each
bot. Niche domain expertise such as
bots for mortgages or asset manage-
ment are another way to focus a con-
versation and avoid awkward failures.

Send money

Please see Artificial Intelligence: Applying Big Data, Machine Learning and Causal Reasoning to Digital Transformation on page 124 for more details.
20

154 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 155

 Branded chat personas at work
Many people already use services like
When the Nike+ or Moves for fitness tracking.
But its easy to imagine those apps
conversation is becoming more like real coaches via
the interface, the addition of chat behaviors and bots.
Likewise, your banking app could be-
experience design come a financial advisor that answers
is all about crafting basic questions about mortgages.
While it wont take the place of your
the right words. real banker, the chat bot offers more
John Pavlus, intuitive and efficient ways to answer
writer and filmmaker standard questions, filter requests, and
gather more information for a customer
service specialist.
The requirements of designing a
successful chat experience are different
than building websites or delivering
apps. Figuring out the personality of
the brand is key. Is your brand voice
funny, smart, or authoritative? How
is the bot going to behave when a
customer asks an unrelated question
or isnt able to clearly communicate his/
her issue? Those are questions that
weve always asked when creating
branded experiences, but now they
take real prominence.
Writer John Pavlus recently said,
When the conversation is the inter-
face, experience design is all about
crafting the right words.21 Thats
exactly why AI companies like x.ai,
makers of personal assistant chatbots
Amy and Andrew, are hiring writers
with acting and improv backgrounds
as their designers.
Navigating stories and dialogue are
tricky businesses. Fortunately, theres
an emerging sense of best practices:
For example, avoiding rhetorical ques-
tions and gendered pronouns are both
examples of advice offered by the x.ai
design leads. They also encourage
Co.Design. The Next Phase of UX: Designing Chatbot Personalities. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3054934/the-next-phase-of-ux-designing-chatbot-personalities.
21
156
building in kill switches to give users
control. In their case, telling Amy or
Andrew to shut up causes the bot to
retreat from the current conversation.
So, whats your chat strategy?
If software is eating the world, then its
clear that messaging is eating software.
Or to paraphrase another venture
capitalist, Benedict Evans, It used
to be that all software expands until it
includes messaging. Now all messag-
ing expands until it includes software.
As with any new era, there's a lot of
experimentation. Companies ranging
from Facebook and Google to CNN
and Gatorade are paving the way
forward. Whether that is through
platforms or activations, these nascent
cases can and are teaching us a lot.
The rise of chat gives marketers the
unparalleled opportunity to align what
their brands do with what they say.
The right chat strategy, when executed
well, will merge a brands persona with
consumer expectations to create a
seamless, intuitive experience. Whether
that means adding chat functions to
proprietary apps or creating branded
bots on big platforms, organizations
can now have more personalized con-
versations with their customers.
Daniel Harvey
Creative Director & Global
Practice Lead, Experience Design,
SapientNitro London
dharvey@sapient.com
Kieron Leppard
Creative Director, Experience Design,
SapientNitro London
kleppard@sapient.com
HOW BRANDS
ARE CHANGING
THE CONTEXT
OF LOCATION
MARKETING
SHELDON MONTEIRO
with contributions by Matt DeVirgiliis and Shawn Sheely

For the past few years, brands have been getting very good at using technology
to make location-based marketing immersive and experiential. JCPenney has
used Oculus Rift headsets to send in-store shoppers on a virtual tour of the
North Pole during the holiday shopping season.1 Target operates a concept
store in San Francisco that gives shoppers first-hand experience with the Inter-
net of Things.2 And thousands of (mostly small) businesses experimented with
augmented reality and virtual destinations in and around their stores to attract
Pokmon GO players during the summer of 2016.3 These businesses aim to drive
more foot traffic to their thousands of stores by using technology to re-contextualize
their stores as places to experience and learn, in addition to buying products.

Businesses will continue to apply technology to make locations matter, either by

making shopping easier or by enriching shopping with an experience.

1
AdvertisingAge. JC Penney Shoppers Visit Santas Workshop in New Virtual Reality Initiative. http://adage.com/
article/cmo-strategy/jc-penney-shoppers-visit-santa-s-workshop-virtual-reality-initiative/301721/.
2
A Bullseye View. Experience Connected Home Technology Like Never Before at Target Open House.
https://corporate.target.com/article/2015/07/open-house-connected-home.
3
As of August 15th, 2016, there were 3.4 million PokStop and Gym locations worldwide. Pokmon GO Map.
http://www.pokemongomap.info/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 159


POKMON GO: THE LOCATION-BASED MARKETING CRAZE OF 2016
Thanks to the contemporary reintro-
duction of a renowned game, the nexus
between augmented reality (AR) and
moment marketing is here to stay.
When Pokmon GO debuted on July 6,
2016, it quickly became the biggest mo-
bile game ever, surpassing Candy Crush
Saga, and Twitter in terms of active
users. With over 100 million downloads,
it quickly became the most download-
ed game, surpassing the success of all
other apps during their first week on the
Apple App Store. And with one-in-five
players spending money on in-app add-
ons, Pokmon GO generated more than
$268 million in revenue, which is likely
split between game producer Niantic,
Nintendo Ltd., Pokmon Co., and store
operators Apple and Google.4,5
4
Financial Times. Pokmon GO Crosses $250m in Revenues Since Launch. http://on.ft.com/2bcoZiq.
5
International Business Times. Who Owns Pokmon GO? Video Game Maker Nintendo Makes a Comeback with App Game, Pokmon GO Plus. http://www.ibtimes.com/who-
owns-pokemon-go-video-game-maker-nintendo-makes-comeback-app-game-pokemon-go-plus-2391791
6
CNN Money. Nintendo Share Are Up 120% (!!!) Thanks to Pokmon GO. http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/19/investing/pokemon-go-nintendo-shares/.
Nintendo Life. Pokmon GO Predicted to Make More than One Billion Dollars Worldwide in 2016. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/08/pokemon_go_predicted_to_
7
make_more_than_one_billion_dollars_worldwide_in_2016.
160
But something else is going on:
Businesses brick-and-mortar outlets
and the brands that sell their products
inside of them are increasingly using
technology to reach consumers before,
during, and after purchase. They are
applying smarter online targeting tools
and physical objects such as Amazons
Dash button to create experiences that
redefine location marketing in the con-
text of where the consumer is, in addi-
tion to where the store is. Increasingly,
these context-aware experiences are
happening in three crucial locations: in
homes, on the go, and at/near a store.
Meanwhile, Nintendos stock price
jumped 120 percent on speculation over
the products future revenue streams.6
The games concept is simple: Using
your phone's GPS and camera, you
seek out, capture, train, and fight
virtual Pokmon, digital characters
that are superimposed onto the real
world using your smartphone camera
and AR technology. Businesses can then
sponsor lures to attract Pokmon (and,
subsequently, potential customers)
to their stores PokStops or create a
Pokmon Gym where players can train
their creatures.
The results, so far, look promising
thanks to a summer-long surge in
mostly Millennial players running,
As a result, businesses must master
the contextual customer journey by
creating experiences that resonate
with consumers in the context of the
circumstances in which people make
purchasing decisions. On any given
day, the context of a consumer's
journey may change several times,
depending on factors such as where
the consumer is (at home, in a car,
etc.), what device he/she is using,
and ambient circumstances (such as
weather conditions outdoors or noise
levels indoors). Businesses that under-
stand context become relevant at each
stage of the journey.
jumping, and making purchases in
public locations around the world. In
fact, the games long-term revenue run
rate across all 72 countries is expected
to reach $1 billion.7
The most lasting impact, however, is a
proof of opportunity at the intersection
of augmented reality and location-based
marketing. The game has shown mil-
lions of people, previously unaware of
the technology, what location-based AR
is, what its potential looks like, and how
to enjoy it. Marketers, in turn, can and
should seek opportunities to leverage
similar technologies when creating rele-
vant experiences and interactions.
Creating a context-aware
roadmap
Location-based contextual moments
usually happen in three places:
at home, on the road, or at/near a
location. (The Starbucks example
see sidebar could apply to all
three.) These moments represent
opportunities for businesses to create
context-aware content so long as the
brands message is relevant and not
spammy. But how does a brand figure
out which moments to create and
where to create them? SapientNitro
suggests that businesses identify their
own moments by applying these filters:
Your customer. Who are your
customers? What are their wants
and needs, and how do those
wants and needs change through-
out the day? How do your customers
use technology to get what they
want? What do they expect from your
brand: utility, engagement, or both?
What opportunities exist for you to
deliver context-aware experiences
throughout your customers journeys?
STARBUCKS CONTEXT-AWARE APP
Starbucks makes it possible for
customers to use its native app to
order and purchase food and drinks
before they arrive at the stores for
those times when customers simply
need to live their lives on the go.
The app also allows customers
to explore, save, and favorite the
songs that the restaurant streams
in-store from Spotify.
In this example, Starbucks under-
stands the changing context of
its customers' experiences, which
might occur within hours of each
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
Your business strategy. What is
the vision for achieving your brand
and experience goals? What are
your near-term objectives from a
location-marketing standpoint?
For instance, are you trying to
increase foot traffic to stores?
Increase same-store sales? Both?
Your capabilities. What capabi-
lities (e.g., inventory management,
merchandising, and branding)
exist in order for you to create
context-aware experiences for your
customers? What gaps exist with
your capabilities, and do you have
the budget and resources to fill
those gaps?
Your technology. Ranging from
analytics to platforms and mobile
wallet offers, what supporting
technologies (if appropriate to
your customers wants and needs)
do you need in order to create
context-aware experiences?
other. Sometimes a customer is FIGURE01
on the go and needs the speed and
efficiency of an ordering app. Other
times, the same customer might be
enjoying his/her food and drinks in
a Starbucks and have the time to
shift into discovery mode.
By collecting data about a customer's
purchase history, a business such as
Starbucks can serve up content that
is more personal and contextual,
such as an offer for a Pumpkin Spice
Latte in October or Vanilla Sweet
Cream Cold Brew in June.
161
 By applying these four filters, a
business can create a context-aware
roadmap that generates value for both
the customer and brand throughout
the journey. The key to constructing
context-aware journeys is to apply data
properly (see Figure 2). Data creates a
foundation of understanding. With data,
a business can ask questions such as:
What do we know about our
users at each step?
How will using this data make
users experiences better?
FIGURE02
Data can be applied to multiple context layers
Constructing context-aware journeys relies on enriching the core, basic context of
the traveler with historical/behavioral and, ultimately, physical location informa-
tion to help anticipate customers needs.
Situational
Context
Contextual
Intelligence
Basic
Context
Traveler information
162
Will the experiences address
users wants/needs be it utility,
engagement, or both?
Let's look at some examples of how
businesses are creating relevant
experiences by understanding the
context of their customers journeys.
Whether consciously or not, the
businesses in these examples are
applying the SapientNitro filters of
context-aware location marketing.
Physical location
Historical information
Behavioral information
Reaching consumers in the home appliances into smart appliances. Amazon
One of the leading brands creating Dash buttons take at-home reple- understands
context-aware experiences in the home nishment to specific locations inside
is Amazon.com, with its incorporation the home: the kitchen, laundry room,
context.
of Dash buttons into the buying and bathroom. Amazon also partners
process. Dash buttons, adorned with with offline brands where it makes
a brands logo, are little Wi-Fi-enabled sense to use its technology in an
tags that Amazon Prime members stick on-demand world.
to their household appliances and click
to instantly reorder various goods (such For instance, Dominos pizza and
as cleaning wipes and detergent). Amazon have collaborated to make
it possible for consumers to order
When Amazon announced the Dash pizzas with voice commands to Amazon
button on March 31, 2015, more than Echo. Theirs is a useful partnership in
one observer thought that Amazon was which the brick-and-mortar location
getting an early start on April Fools matters for order fulfillment, but the
Day. Eighteen months later, however, two brands meet customers in the
the joke is on the critics. Amazon has context of their locations.
rolled out about 100 buttons and
claims that they are pushed once
a minute.8
Why? Because Amazon understands
context. Amazon knows that the buttons
are perfect for restocking staple sup-
plies directly from home, which is the
exact place where consumers notice
that theyre running out of something.
Even better, Amazon knows that
consumers probably notice that theyre
out of detergent when their hands are
full of laundry and perhaps a bit messy
from handling a detergent bottle, an
experience that does not lend itself
to resupplying via a laptop or mobile
phone. Its easier for them to use a
Dash button affixed to their washing
machines in effect, turning those
Fierce Retail. Amazon Triples Number of Dash Buttons. http://www.fierceretail.com/story/amazon-triples-number-dash-buttons/2016-03-31.
8
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 163
 On the go searches has increased thirty-four-fold,
and 80 percent of those searches are
Mobile is a particularly effective channel conducted on mobile devices.9
for location marketing in four major sce-
narios. First, brands can use location Micro-moments represent opportunities
marketing to influence consumers long for businesses to reach consumers as
before they enter the store. Second, they make shopping decisions long
brands can use location to generate before they enter the store. Succeeding
digital buzz. Third, brands can use during micro-moments means combin-
mobile to unlock entirely new store ex- ing location data with the right content
periences. And finally, brands can use at the right time to reach consumers
location to deliver targeted advertising. when they use their mobile phones
to decide what to do. For example, in
On-the-go decisions often occur at the 2015, Dunkin' Donuts took advantage
local level, when consumers are making of the surge in foot traffic in Manhattan
decisions about transactions theyd like during Advertising Week to undertake a
to make nearby. According to Google, context-aware campaign that drove foot
since 2011, the volume of near me traffic to Dunkin' Donuts stores. If you
were using your smartphone to search
for coffee near me, then Dunkin' Do-
FIGURE03 nuts served you a message suggesting
which Dunkin' Donuts you should visit
based on which locations were closest
Smartphones are the dominant digital channel regardless of time of day, while and had the shortest wait times. In or-
personal computers show a distinctive peak during traditional work hours.
der for the experience to work, Dunkin'
Donuts needed to crunch data about
USAGE OF DIGITAL DEVICE BY TIME OF DAY both the walk times to nearby stores
and wait times at each location.10
16%
14% Similarly, a number of brands have been
12% mastering the art of using playful Snap-
10% chat geofilters to offer consumers a
8% reason to visit. McDonalds became the
6% first brand to sign up for a sponsored
4% geofilter, or a special content overlay
(akin to a digital sticker placed on
2%
0% Snapchat photos and videos) that can
be accessed only at certain locations.11
3:00 AM
But advertisers can turn micro-moments FIGURE04
into spammy moments, too. The anti-
dote to spam is to either be useful,
more relevant, or more of a natural part Target Cartwheel app coupons
of an experience (see Figure 4). An Target's Cartwheel app enables cus-
example of being more useful comes tomers to save money with coupons
from Target, which relies on the scanned either in-store or after check-
Cartwheel app to offer consumers a out (scanning one's receipt opens a list
mobile utility for reviewing and storing of personalized offers and discounts).
coupons on their smartphones, then
redeeming them inside Target stores.12
Target understands that the shopping
journey begins long before someone
enters the store, but clipping coupons
and storing them in the home is a
hassle. Target also understands that
consumers are just as cost-conscious
and open to coupons on the go as they
are in the home. Target has given con-
sumers a solution that matches their
needs in the context of where they are.
NARRAFAR
Narrafar, a grocery store in Sweden, has It's quite telling that the store's owner, FIGURE05
removed friction from the mobile shop- Robert Ilijason, says he conceived the
ping experience by providing 24-hour idea after struggling to find an open
service to customers through a mobile store when he needed to purchase baby Swedish grocer Narrafar has created
app (see Figure 5). Customers who are food late in the evening after acciden- perhaps the worlds first 24-hour,
willing to download an app (connected tally breaking his last available jar at unstaffed store. Shoppers use smart-
to their banking IDs) can shop at their home. Ilijason understands from per- phones to unlock the store, buy eve-
convenience 24 hours a day, 365 days a sonal experience why it's essential for a rything from diapers to milk, check

4:00 AM

5:00 AM

6:00 AM

7:00 AM

8:00 AM

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

11:00 AM

12:00 PM

1:00 PM

2:00 PM

3:00 PM

4:00 PM

5:00 PM

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

9:00 PM

10:00 PM

11:00 PM

12:00 PM

1:00 AM

2:00 AM

Customers across the brands 14,000 year, in the completely unstaffed store. store to address his moment of need on out, and pay.
U.S. restaurants could decorate their the go or at home, with mobile being the
Narrafar is believed to be the world's crucial enabler.13
Snapchat images with playful illustra-
Smartphone Personal computer Tablet first 24-hour, unstaffed store. Shoppers
tions of fries and double cheeseburg- simply use their smartphones to unlock
Source: Share of average daily time spent with select media devices among US adults, by daypart, May 2015; ers, creating tremendous engagement. the doors of the store, buy everything
% of total. Nielsen. The Total Audience Report: Q2 2015. September 21, 2015. http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/
reports/2015/the-total-audience-report-q2-2015.html. from diapers to milk, check out, and pay.

Think with Google. I-Want-to-Go Moments: From Search to Store. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/i-want-to-go-micro-moments.html.

9

Advertising Week. How Dunkin' Donuts and Airbnb Are Turning Google Searches Into Experiences in NYC. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-dunkin-do-
10

nuts-and-airbnb-are-turning-google-searches-experiences-nyc-167216.
iTunes. Cartwheel by Target. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cartwheel-by-target/id659563061?mt=8.
12
11
Marketing Land. Snapchat Starts Selling Sponsored Geofilters; McDonalds Steps Up First. http://marketingland.com/snapchat-starts-selling-sponsored-geofilters-mcdonalds-
steps-up-first-132399. 13
resund Startups. Unmanned Store is Now Running in Sweden. http://oresundstartups.com/unmanned-store-is-now-running-in-sweden/

164 TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 165

 In or near the location
Of course, influencing decision-making
at or near the location itself remains
as important as ever, and businesses
are using tools to extend consumers
experiences.
For example, the Miami Heat NBA
team collaborated with SapientNitro to
create a mobile wallet app that helps
fans do everything from managing their
ticket validation at the arena where
the Heat plays to purchasing conces-
sions (see Figure 6). The Miami Heat
understands that wayfinding in a large
location such as a stadium is important.
When fans are hungry, they dont want
to miss the action, and so the app
FIGURE06
Miami Heat app
The Miami Heat app shares statistics and social media during the game, and is
designed to help fans keep up with off-season activities, as well.
166
connects them to their nearest conces-
sion stand to get what they need with
minimal disruption to the game that
they're watching. The app is integrated
with a Miami Heat customer loyalty
program, which rewards fans for their
purchases. The app also serves up
contextual content. Depending on users
interests, the app shares statistics,
social media and photos, or both. The
app is designed to be used year-round
to keep up with the team's off-season
activities, as well.
Businesses continue to rely on bea-
cons and GPS-based tools to support
the delivery of content such as mobile
wallet offers at or near locations. Bea-
cons are popular, although in the more
narrowly-defined context of enriching
in-store experiences. For instance, Bar-
neys has recently deployed beacons to
create more immersive content at their
flagship store in Manhattans Chelsea
neighborhood. For customers who
opt in, Barneys provides personalized
shopping recommendations based on
the shopper's location in the store.
Beacons are far from the only technology
available to make in-store shopping
more personal and relevant. Because
of its longer range, simpler GPS-based
technology is more appropriate for
sharing mobile wallet offers for custom-
ers nearing a store. Then, indoor po-
sitioning systems such as IndoorAtlas
help shoppers find the exact locations
of products inside large buildings such
as airports, stadiums, and shopping
malls by reading a structures magnetic
signature and turning a customer's
smartphone into a digital compass.
What marketers should do Surround yourself with the right
blend of talent and technology to
Capitalizing on the new context of design experiences that will support
location requires senior marketers to your business needs. If you are a
think differently about how theyre retailer, for example, youll likely
interacting with their customers, as need a multidisciplinary team that
well as the agencies that support them. combines expertise in merchandis-
For starters, you should: ing, customer experience design,
and mobile.
Re-examine your multichannel
marketing strategies in the context
Identify your best opportunity to
of your business goals. Are you reach your customer with a contex-
trying to win more mobile traffic tual marketing experience at home,
for your online storefront? Improve on the go, or at/near the store. Pilot
foot traffic at your brick-and-mortar a contextual marketing experience
locations? Both? that occurs in one or all of these
circumstances and create content
Design a more robust view of your
appropriate for the circumstance.
customers journey from the home to
the store. Doing so requires applying Ultimately, redefining location marketing
tools such as journey maps, which around the context of the consumers
illustrate multiple decision-making
location means always asking: Where
points along the path to purchase. is the purchase decision being made,
Journey maps also identify opportu-
and where is my brand playing a role?
nities for your brand to participate
in the decision-making. These maps
need to be dynamic to succeed for
example, they should accommodate Sheldon Monteiro
emerging platforms such as Snapchat. Global Chief Technology Officer,
SapientNitro Chicago
Once you have a clearer view of the smonteiro@sapient.com
customers journey, start thinking of
the contextual circumstances that
inform decisions along each touch-
point. In what kind of home does
your target audience live? Are they
likely to be using smart appliances
themselves? If so, then how? How
are they consuming content at home,
on the go, and at/near the store?
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY 167
170 Picture This: How Art Can Help Digital
Find Its Soul
Matthew Maxwell

THE
EYE-OPENER
 this How Art Can Help Digital Find Its Soul
MATTHEW MAXWELL

170 THE EYE-OPENER 171

 Art acts
like a mirror
It can reflect something in ourselves
which is inaccessible, stimulate the
imagination, and unlock forgotten or
repressed desires and emotions.

Art helps us make sense of the world

around us. The practice of making art
is one of selection, of filtering out the
irrelevant to expose the significant. And,
by doing so, we reveal the patterns and
rules that govern nature, empowering
us to navigate the man-made world and
master it.

To help expose this significance, we

identified a handful of themes in classical
art that link the historical, analog world
to the world of today: Existential
evidence, kinesis (movement), spatial
awareness, and open vs. closed forms.

From digital identity to the architectural

structure of the Internet, lets examine
together the themes that have fasci-
nated artists and digital scribes alike.

172 THE EYE-OPENER 173

 Like cave
Existential evidence:
I am me and I am here
What makes a person unique? From

paintings, touch
cave-painters handprints to Instagram,
people have always felt the need to
confirm their unique, individual exis-
tence. We have a basic human desire
to distinguish one person from the

ID marks your
many. It seems to confer an evolutionary
advantage because awareness of ones
existence prompts his/her instinct to
preserve it.

This instinct isn't new. Ancient cave

paintings in France and handprints in
Patagonia depict how the earliest
humans documented their identities
presence in a
(virtual) space
and lives.

Today, protecting our online identities is

a central survival skill.

When so much of life is conducted

online where you have no physical
presence, your digital identity is what
gives you a voice, and lets you function
online as you.

For example, when engaging in mobile

banking, you often prove your unique
identity by triangulating three aspects of
it: a password, a device, and a biometric.
Touch ID authenticates a unique individual at his/her moment of interaction with a digital system.
The media may have changed, but the
value of identity remains.

The three pillars of digital identification

Something Something Something

you know you own you are
Prehistoric cave paintings in Patagonia bear witness to an individuals physical
presence at a specific moment in time.

174 THE EYE-OPENER 175

Kinesis: Harnessing the power
of movement

Kinetic energy
Movement is constant and all around
us. The planets rotate. Rivers flow. The
human body is designed to move and
is healthiest when it does. Through

in art and
time, artists have grappled with portray-
ing this energy not just physically, but
in the patterns of nature, in divine and
human affairs, and now, in the constant

industry
flow of data and information circulating
throughout the planet.

The gliding, futurist piece by Boccioni,

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,
captures the form of a man in motion,
full of speed and fluidity. With what the
artist called a synthetic continuity, the
man almost becomes a machine.1

A similar energy permeates todays

digital experiences. Digital marketing is
ultimately about inquiry and response,
order and delivery.

When designing a digital experience,

we imagine users going on journeys
that take them from awareness to
desire, past obstacles and distractions,
to fulfilment and conclusion. And,
while kinetic energy is the essence of
the digital world, experience design
is the process of understanding and
harnessing it.

ART+COM: Kinetic Sculpture The Shape of Things to Come, 2008.

Over 7 minutes, suspended steel spheres slowly assume the shape of a BMW. The dead weight of the vehicle escapes the
constraints of mass and gravity.
Umberto Boccioni. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913.

Flowing movement, paradoxically cast in bronze after the artist's death,

anticipates the dawn of the age of flight.

Wikiart. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. http://www.wikiart.org/en/umberto-boccioni/unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-1913.

1

176 THE EYE-OPENER 177

 Key card entry data
To illustrate this concept, SapientNitros
UK experience design team produced
is represented as
dancing particles
a piece called Polyatomic, which
translated the data stream produced by
employee key cards (used to access
the five floors of our Eden House office

of light
in London) into a visual projection on
our lobby wall. This was depicted as
particles that clustered when a door
was closed and exploded outward
when it was opened.2

With the dry data, we produced a

portrait of an organization using the
movement and human energy within
it. The verve and bounce of the tiny
splinters of light reveal the activity of
hundreds of colleagues across those
five floors and tens of doors.3

Polyatomic translated natural move-

ment into virtual experience.

These types of visualizations are just

the start. With video representing 70
percent of all data traffic and the refine-
ment of HTML5 allowing for much more
complex interactions, kinesis and gliding
motion appear to be growing more
important than ever for digital scribes.4,5

See a video of the projection here: YouTube. Polyatomic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEOLSNqSUgI.

2

3
To learn more about the value of empirical storytelling, check out Why You Should Hire an Empirical Storyteller. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/
insights-articles/why-you-should-hire-an-empirical-storyteller.
4
Projected to grow to 82 percent of all traffic by 2020. Cisco. Visual Networking Index (VNI). http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/
index.html.
For more information, see SapientNitros Motion & Animation. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/motion-animation.
5

178 THE EYE-OPENER 179

 Spatial awareness
Spatial awareness:
Survival and digital navigation
Movement is futile without a sense of

in art, past and

where youre moving to. In art, its a
celebration of will over matter our
minds are agile, but our bodies are
heavy. As infants, we grow to under-
stand these constraints by developing

present
a sense of spatial awareness: Im over
here. All the good stuff is over there.
How do I get there (before that other
kid does)?

The exploration of space has a long Painting

history in the classical art world. One of

the founders of the Italian renaissance,
Brunelleschi, helped the spread of
linear perspective and laid the ground-
work for centuries of artists to model
Mirror with
real-world environments. More recently, sighting hole
David Mullen's work uses modern acryl-
ic techniques to explore reality, space,
and emptiness.6
Sight line
Because the ability to do this well is
a key survival tool (Exactly how far
away is that lion?), our brains reward
us for developing it. Theres something
inherently dopamine-inducing about
depictions of illusory space.
Daniel Mullen. Inter Expansion, 2012.

Brunelleschi observed that parallel lines meet at a single point in the Mullens work uses spatial and aerial perspective to draw us into a space that is simultaneously structured and fragile.
distance. This allowed him to formulate mathematical laws and build tools
to aid artists in calculating the scale of objects in a painting.

Saatchi Art. Daniel Mullen, Inter Expansion. http://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Inter-Expansion/289334/2426357/view.

6

180 THE EYE-OPENER 181

 Spatial awareness
The foundation of most interaction
design is in spatial awareness. Indeed,
the illusion of spatial awareness is
widespread. On the Internet, we move
plane, solid and void, mass and scale.
Designers, like artists, shape the space
in which we reside, prompting customers
to step inside and soar.

is also key to
deeper into a website as we shop.
Servers live in a diffuse cloud. Even our Spatial awareness is also key to
operating systems uses a physical designing interactive experiences that
metaphor of layers of folders and files. accurately reflect the virtual world that
we (increasingly) live in. Mixed reality

designing interactive
These spatial rules can be bent, or even
broken. In art, M.C. Escher drew from
multiple viewpoints to create impossi-
ble stairs.7 And in marketing, the funnel
from companies like Magic Leap and
Niantics Pokmon GO are already
blending the digital and physical, to
change the rules of space and our

experiences
is being challenged by the non-linear
shopping journey.
Interaction designers need to think
like classical artists, considering not
just surface and signage, but also the
fundamental principles of volume and
awareness of it.8 And while this may
seem fairly abstract now, the addition
of virtual reality to marketers toolkits is
about to make spatial awareness much
more important.

The Google Tilt brush allows artists to paint in virtual reality (in 3-dimensional space). Light
becomes solid. The canvas is everywhere. The illusion, to the user, is instant. The space seems
real and physically present. Digitally, we use a form of imaginative spatial awareness to navigate
through non-linear, digital experiences identifying a destination and
then plotting routes through multidimensional space to get there.

The Guardian. The Impossible World of MC Escher. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/20/the-impossible-world-of-mc-escher.

7

Wired. The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the Worlds Most Secretive Startup. http://www.wired.com/2016/04/magic-leap-vr/.
8

182 THE EYE-OPENER 183

 Closed (tectonic)
Closed and open forms:
Rational vs. emotional
Movement and spatial awareness equip

forms vs. open

us to explore the digital world.

But what kind of world do we imagine it

to be? Is it logical or capricious?

(a-tectonic) forms
And what about us? Are we mercurial
or predictable?

Human history is the story of this

conflict, and the two competing forces
seem locked in an endless struggle
for dominance in each of us and in the
societies and markets that we create.

Exploring this dynamic with open

and closed forms has long been an
artistic tradition.

Closed (or tectonic) forms are self-

contained: Edges are respected and
theres no coloring outside the lines.
They propose an orderly and organized,
but somewhat immobile world an
Apollonian perspective based on
knowledge and reason. Halley's
Abstruse Character displays this
closed form via colorful, geometric ver-
sions of the cages that we build and
our accommodations within them. The
Oath of the Horatti by Jacques Louis-
David (shown on page 186) depicts
the same concept, highlighting balance
and harmony in its composition.

Open (or a-tectonic) forms respect no

boundaries, but seem to point outward
to an infinite world, where growth and
movement are inevitable and desirable
a Dionysian view driven by emotions
and instincts. Parkers Hanging Fire is
a three-dimensional representation of a
shed destroyed through fire, while Gri-
caults striking and controversial (at the
time) The Raft of the Medusa uses Peter Halley. Abstruse Character, 2010. Cornelia Parker. Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), 1999.
the open form to highlight a bigger
Jail windows and prison cells in dayglo Roll-a-Tex depict the cages Fragments of a destroyed shed suspended in a gallery space suggest the power and simulta-
world (or rescue) just out of sight.
that we build and the accommodations that we make with them. neity of natural forces.

184 THE EYE-OPENER 185

 Closed (tectonic)
forms vs. open
(a-tectonic) forms

Thodore Gricault's. The Raft of the Medusa, 1819.

Open forms suggest a bigger, more complex world just out of sight, over which the artist has no control.

Jacques-Louis David. Oath of the Horatii, 1784.

Closed forms respect the internal laws of the picture, creating harmonious and contained architecture. In this
case, the artist focuses the viewer on the hand holding the swords placed in front of the vanishing point
even as the rest of the piece provides harmony and balance.

186 THE EYE-OPENER 187


Visualizations
of closed and
open forms
So, is the future of This conflict between open and closed
forms remains very much alive today.
the Internet open Internet founder Tim Berners-Lee
or closed? argues that the Internet's fundamental
nature is open: Its laws and protocols
are open, fluid, and public.9
Yet it is closed in as well. At a coun-
try level, increasing control is being
enforced by state actors across the
globe. At a micro level, the Internets
underlying technology runs on code
that is highly structured and rule-based.
And, in this post-app world, closed
networks like Tencent's WeChat and
9
SapientNitro. The Game Changers: Wisdom from a Tech Guru, Acclaimed Actor, and Sports Legend. http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#perspective/insights/insights-articles/
the-game-changers-wisdom-from-a-tech-guru-acclaimed-actor-and-sports-legend.
South China Morning Post. WeChat Trends to Expect in 2016: Virtual Reality, More Ads, Global Expansion of Tencent Apps Wallet Function. http://www.scmp.com/tech/
10
apps-gaming/article/1896648/wechat-trends-expect-2016-virtual-reality-more-ads-global-expansion.
See Conversational UI: Talking Loud and Saying Plenty on page 146 to read about the implications of chat-based interfaces growing more important.
11
188
Facebook Messenger are eating
the world.10,11
Even the structure of websites reflect
the tension between open and closed.
Using a web crawler application, one
of our UK teams made inventories
of several major projects, and then
arranged and categorized the resulting
data to reflect the organic aspects
of the domain. The resulting images
are literal depictions of the delivered
websites that use colors to distinguish
content or page types, with dot sizes and
positions showing the site architecture.
Digital brand map for a bank
This 300-year-old retail bank (on left)
displays a tectonic arrangement of
concentric circles, all of similar size,
that cluster defensively around a
central core.
Dots represent HTML elements, colors
show content types (editorial, forms,
tools, etc.), and size indicates the weight
of the page. Their position shows the
overall structure of the website.
An example of a closed form, this
brand respects a concentric, centrifugal
system. Colors line up in homogenous
ranks, and the whole suggests a stability
and strength that one would hope a
bank can offer.
Digital brand map for gaming
An online gambling site (on right)
shows a profusion of gaming content,
dynamic and unruly. There is no apparent
logic to the position or coloring of the
dots, which shows the dynamically-
updating odds and sporting fixtures
on the site.
This creates a whirling, vortex-like
open form that reflects an experience
driven by hope, guesswork, and
passion. Gambling may be driven
by calculations of probability, but
the reality shown here seems
volatile and irrepressible.
THE EYE-OPENER 189
 Conclusion
Throughout this piece, weve used the
word art to loosely reference what
Daniel Kahneman calls System 1
thinking which is fastintuitive,
associative, metaphorical, automatic,
impressionistic[and the] secret
author of many of the choices and judg-
ments [that we] make.12 Art depicts
and provokes instinctual reactions that
are the sum of 40,000 years of human
life, observation, and learning allowing
it to uncover valuable wisdom.
By contrast, digital technology has
grown out of Kahnemans System 2
thinking: slow, deliberate, and conside-
red. But digital in the broader sense
is young. Its a teenager full of energy,
with an appetite for the new, but a very
short attention span.
So what can the digital world learn
from art practice?
Weve touched on four main themes:
existential evidence, kinesis and move-
ment, spatial awareness, and open vs.
closed forms.
In each, classical and modern art
has much to offer. Early French cave
paintings show self-awareness and
evidence of being. Boccionis flowing
bronze Unique Forms of Continuity
in Space highlights movement and
energy. Mullens Inter Expansion uses
acrylic paint and shape to suggest
depth and spatial awareness. And
closed and open forms are highlighted
in Parkers Hanging Fire and Gri-
caults The Raft of the Medusa.
Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Penguin Books. 2010.
12
190
These core themes resonate in todays
world with just as much urgency and
life. Touch ID and the role of persona-
lization emphasize the importance of
identity. The rise of video and use of
motion and animation reinforce the
import of kinesis. The desktop meta-
phor in most operating systems and
evolution of VR depict how spatial
awareness has continued relevance.
And the debate at the heart of the
nature of the Internet around its open
or closed system, and the architecture
of its websites reinforces that key
point as well.
We believe that the notion of tension
is what ties art to digital technology.
Artists love tension because it excites:
complementary colors sizzle and con-
flicts drive drama. Its an appetite for
the opposite by which you recognize
a truly creative thinker one with the
ability to take seemingly unrelated, even
opposing, things and make them into
something new.
To grow well, digital will need to ma-
ture, deepen, and acquire arts wisdom
of human experience. Therefore, a
union of technology and emotion is
needed: a mutually beneficial symbiosis
to give art relevance and digital a soul.
Matthew Maxwell
Associate Creative Director,
SapientNitro London
mmaxwell@sapient.com
About SapientNitro
SapientNitro, an active element of Publicis.Sapient, is a trusted advisor to clients looking to imagine new business models, new
services and new possibilities for the age of the customer driven by the power of technology. Our capabilities across brand and
marketing; sales and service; technology and operations and deep industry expertise allows us to drive measurable business
impact for todays leading brands by putting customer experience at the heart of their organization. For more information, visit
www.sapientnitro.com.

Editor-in-chief: Hilding Anderson | Co-editor: Flavia Barbat

Book design & illustration: Allison Bistrong, Emily Caufield, and Cindy Jimenez.

193
COPYRIGHT 2016 SAPIENT CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.