In 2023, Audley Travel, a market-leading travel company with a stronghold in the US and UK, found themselves at a crossroads. Well-known for curating tailor-made holidays across 90 countries, the company wanted to provide a more rounded and personalised client experience.
Audley uses Salesforce as their CRM technology of choice, and following a collaborative discovery session between the three organisations, DEPT® (as a Salesforce premium technology partner) proved to be the natural choice to implement Marketing Cloud to revolutionise Audley’s cross-channel marketing efforts. And so we seized the opportunity to mark a transformative chapter in Audley’s email marketing journey.
The objective: re-engaging users
Audley Travel had a straightforward yet ambitious objective: to launch three high-ROI use cases rooted in user website behaviour. Utilising AI-based product recommendations by Salesforce’s Einstein, the intent was to re-engage users who had abandoned an itinerary, a destination, or an enquiry page by sending them a tailored email reminder one day after their initial interaction. These emails were designed either to nudge the user toward completing their booking or to present curated itineraries that aligned with their most-viewed destinations.
Unveiling the power of Marketing Cloud Personalisation
By implementing Marketing Cloud Personalisation, Audley Travel laid the foundation of its first-party data strategy, effectively creating a walled garden of proprietary customer data. This approach not only allows for a nuanced understanding of customer behaviours but also empowers the brand to build powerful user segments for targeted campaigns.
Leveraging AI-driven recommendation systems, each email is dynamically personalised according to user affinities such as destination and itinerary interests, as well as incomplete forms. This personalisation strategy is underpinned by the collection and analysis of user behavioural data across various digital touchpoints, providing valuable insights into the customer journey. Specifically, these touchpoints encompass both our website and email interactions. On the website, we track a user’s behaviour down to the minutiae – what pages they visit, the itineraries they explore, categories and destinations they express an interest in, and even the duration of time they spend on each itinerary. Similarly, within our email campaigns, we closely monitor metrics like email open rates and timestamps to understand the optimal timing and content that resonates with each user.
In doing so, Audley Travel succeeds in breaking down existing data silos, gaining a robust understanding of their customers’ online behaviour and needs, thus setting the stage for a seamless cross-channel experience.
In summary: personalisation meets performance
In just a few months, Audley Travel and DEPT® rolled out a fast, ROI-driven personalisation strategy through Marketing Cloud. This quick implementation met key revenue targets and gave Audley the flexibility to adapt to customer needs and market changes. The project serves as a key milestone, offering Audley an adaptable framework that aligns well with their long-term business objectives that focuses on and improves the overall customer experience.
Explore DEPT®/TRAVEL, our team of specialists pioneering solutions to help travel brands to grow sales, and utilise data & AI to create best-in-class experiences.
Questions?
Commercial & Client Director
Katrine Andersen
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There is a tendency in the B2B e-commerce sector to look across to the top B2C brands and play down the applicability of the features and techniques that make their sites market leaders. The idea that stylish sites and flashy features only fit the B2C model, while B2B should focus on the bread and butter options to fit the typically measured and professional tone of voice that many B2B brands use. This is misplaced thinking, based on the division of B2B and B2C. In reality, there are businesses, there are customers, and there is e-commerce. Shopper psychology spans across each; the features that allow B2C brands to excel in the online space are there because they work. Chiefly, personalisation.
Personalisation has always played a role in commerce. In the past, personalisation existed in retail as an in-store assistant, and in industry as a sales rep that would build a relationship with the customer over time, learning their needs, their pain points and how they liked to conduct their business. These approaches have always led to a much improved buying experience; faster, easier and more accurate. But these relationships take time to build; it’s a long term process of listening, learning and responding. And while human-to-human contact is still very much valued, digital technology, data tracking and analysis can bear the load. When implemented well, personalisation can speed up sales cycles and nurture prospects into loyal customers.
Advancements in digital technology have radically cut the time it takes to understand each individual customer and provide a personalised commerce experience. This technology is widely available, often built in to your content management system; all businesses now have the ability to implement personalisation strategies into their marketing and commerce efforts. This is good news, seeing as smart personalisation engines used to recognise customer intent can lead to an average profit increase of 15%. The flipside to this, is that personalisation has moved from an added benefit of certain businesses to an expected feature across every experience. 33% of consumers abandoned a business relationship last year because of a lack of personalisation. This is a necessity, not a nice to have feature.
Utilising account specific data
When starting to think about how your business can use personalisation in its commerce sales funnel, begin by thinking about how the company can collect data about customers and visitors. It’s important to begin with data capture, as the implementation of features depends on the type of data collected.
For specific customers, data primarily comes through the account creation process: job function; past purchases; which pages they have previously visited on the site; their dwell time; on-site search history, and so on. If the current data collection on account creation is limited, build this out for future customers and consider requesting current users to update their profile with more information upon their next login. Rather than hiding the motive, make it clear that the company will be using the data for an improved, personalised shopping experience. This clarity will boost the numbers opting in to data sharing, as it clearly offers a mutually beneficial exchange.
Putting this in place, electronics manufacturer Omron was able to create a site that adapts to the needs of each visitor. By using information on the job function of each logged in visitor, the Omron site could dynamically adapt and funnel distributors, systems integrators, Omron employees and end users to the appropriate pages. This is a simple solution, using just one piece of data to adapt the site, but it has a major impact, with the ability to scale up personalisation based on further gathered information.
Making use of automatically data
Thinking about data capture also means thinking about the information that is automatically collected when a user visits the site, whether logged in or not. Their location data, the search term that brought them to the site, their onsite user journey – all of this information can inform your personalisation approach. Personalisation based on this information is subtle, possibly unnoticed as the visitor explores the website. They may not recognise the personalised experience, but will come away thinking that the shopping experience was quick and easy.
This also applies to classic customer segmentations, a general grouping based around shared behaviours. Personalisation doesn’t always mean single individuals. These segmentations can be useful when thinking about broader data automatically collected by new visitors to the site, as the depth of information isn’t there to create an individual response. As an example, an electronic parts company could use site search data to establish a segmentation that prominently displays associated purchases to visitors.
With an understanding of how data is collected, your business can begin planning the execution. At this stage, think in terms of what can be done onsite and off-site. While it is easier to control the onsite content and design, focusing solely on the website can see businesses missing out on the opportunity to fine tune their contact with customers through advertising and direct messaging.
Dynamic content
Onsite, dynamic content is a useful tool to make use of. This is content that adapts based on the data that is fed into the CMS, whether it is account data, previous purchases, search terms, and so on. The most obvious use is often found in the leisure and tourism space; if a visitor clicks on a number of pages relating to Italian destinations, the site can adapt the background images on more general pages to show Rome, Venice and Florence.
In the B2B space, dynamic content can be used to display relevant information, based on what is known of the customer. If they have listed their job function as logistics, they can be shown contextual information on delivery times and options, while a member of the finance team will see more about pricing options and different payment plans.
Accelerating everyday tasks
Speeding up common processes is another use, particularly helpful when looking to keep long term customers engaged. There will be a number of actions that returning customers have to redo with each visit, the most obvious example being adding items to the basket.
This is particularly important for B2B commerce as orders can be large and complex, and customers are more likely to repeat their orders when compared to B2C. Improving reordering was a key feature when developing Brenntag’s new commerce platform, Brenntag Connect.
As a chemical distributor, Brenntag has a strict process when allowing new customers to use their service. Customers are typically placing large, identical orders, leading Brenntag to create an automation service that places repeat orders and provides relevant contextual information when customers need to make an adjustment. This is a clear indicator of why it’s important to remember that personalisation is not fitting to how customers buy, it’s fitting to how customers behave.
Supplying more information to upsell
When customers are returning to reorder from your company, there is an opportunity to upsell existing products and promote new ones. This goes beyond ‘customers who bought X also bought Y’. This form of personalisation should aim to suggest alterations and explain the reasoning, based on the specific customer’s order. Think of it as a digital representation of the sales rep relationship, understanding the developments in a customer’s business and reacting with new solutions.
It can also be developed into a website feature, an interactive problem solving flowchart or chatbot that allows visitors to input their problem or need and see what solutions the company would suggest.
Optimising site speed
Not every on-site personalisation improvement is interactive and clear for customers to see. Adding in predictive loading is one example, a feature that speeds up the load time for each page on your site based on similar customer journeys.
Customers may never realise that the site they visit uses predictive loading, but they will notice if a site is slow to load. Selling needs to be as smooth as possible; slow loading leads to a larger bounce rate. Installing features, like predictive loading, that uses the information gathered when analysing personalisation can ensure the process never stalls.
Off-site actions
Personalisation also applies to actions that the company makes off-site. Email is one area, automated workflows for customers that left the site without checking can bring them back, boosting conversion through reminders and specialised offers. This can similarly be used for surrounding purchases, following the frequency of repeat purchasing or the typical time it takes for a customer to branch out to a new product.
Also consider how the purchasing journey exists across different touchpoints such as apps, social media and face-to-face meetings. Is it easy to bring up the customer profile and optimise their order based on this information? This kind of integration creates a seamless experience, perfect for B2B’s longer, omnichannel purchasing journeys.
Facilitate an easier commerce experience
In each recommendation, the end goal of facilitating a faster, easier, more accurate commerce experience remains the number one priority. By hitting each aim, the business makes each customer more likely to checkout, more likely to return, and more likely to talk to people in their industry about how great purchasing from your business is. These improvements build up, a snowball effect that ultimately results in increased sales and larger, loyal customer base.
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Questions?
Commercial Director
Peter Dam-Johnsen
Fashion trends are coming and going at an increasingly rapid pace —and this is most apparent when it comes to footwear. From chunky loafers to high-heeled sneakers to mesh flats, the “in” shoe is ever-changing. Thanks in part to TikTok, fast-paced micro-trend cycles keep brands and shoppers alike on their toes. It’s never been more critical for footwear brands to remain one step ahead.
Brands across the retail industry face an ever more challenging marketing landscape. Consumers do not follow a linear path to purchase, making it tricky to reach shoppers where they are. And the convenience of shopping from online marketplaces often outweighs the practicality of buying certain items—like shoes—in-store.
To stay competitive and deliver exceptional experiences at every customer touchpoint, footwear brands must up their digital marketing, taking a more sophisticated approach that leverages data and AI.
Enhanced customer journey mapping for personalisation
The non-linear purchase funnel in the footwear industry requires brands to provide a seamless customer experience across multiple touchpoints, pre- and post-purchase. By analysing customer data, brands can understand the various touchpoints where customers interact with their brand, such as social media, website visits, or email campaigns. With generative AI-powered dashboards and reporting, you can analyse browsing behaviour, purchase history, and preferences, and segment your audience to deliver tailored messages.
This information allows you to build highly personalised marketing campaigns, with timely creative and messaging that resonates with your target audience, at the right stage of the customer journey.
Take a running shoe brand, for example. Using AI to identify customers who have recently purchased running gear, the brand could target them with personalised recommendations for complementary products like socks or fitness trackers. This level of personalisation makes shoppers feel seen, enhancing their experience, increasing engagement, and building loyalty.
Predictive analytics for reducing returns
When it comes to shoes, a (near) perfect fit is nearly always essential to shoppers, and can be difficult to determine through a screen. So, unsurprisingly, returns pose a significant challenge for footwear brands. According to June 2024 data, at 16%, shoes are the second-most returned category of e-commerce purchases, creating a double-sided dilemma for both revenue and customer satisfaction.
While charging for returns is an option to discourage (albeit one that likely won’t win favor with customers), a better solution is to get in front of returns altogether. The challenge is understanding which valuable products to advertise first to customers, and to advertise products that boost margin and decrease returns, but not at the cost of revenue. AI poses a solution.
Using predictive analytics, you can identify customers who are more likely to return their purchases and why. For instance, analysing historical data on returns allows you to identify patterns and factors that contribute to returns, such as sizing issues or product descriptions. And by centralising data from various sources, such as sales, stock, margin, and returns, you can use AI to calculate data-driven scores for each product. These scores can be used to help prioritise advertising efforts, ensuring that marketing budgets are allocated to products that drive revenue while minimising returns.
These insights can be used to optimise products and their digital presentation, tailor your marketing efforts to promote products that have a lower return rate and target shoppers with the greatest potential lifetime value.
Optimised media spend allocation
Finally, by building a media measurement dashboard that integrates the data from across your campaigns, you can gain a holistic view of your overall marketing performance. This is critical to be able to optimise media spend and allocate budgets to the most effective channels and campaigns.
Generative AI-powered dashboards take data analysis to the next level by providing real-time insights and actionable recommendations. These dashboards can process vast amounts of data and generate meaningful insights that help you make informed decisions. They can identify trends, patterns, and correlations in customer data, allowing you to adjust your campaigns in real time to maximise performance.
These shoes rule
As footwear styles go from hot to not faster than you can lace up a knee-high boot, customers still remain relatively loyal to brands. Fit, fashion, and brand trust are top drivers for consumers, and many aren’t interested in opting for dupes.
What will turn shoe shoppers away? A poor buying experience, lacking the right size in stock, and price—all factors that can be mitigated by having a solid data and AI foundation in place. By effectively integrating and using these tools in your media and marketing approach, you can create personalised marketing campaigns and customer communications, implement dynamic pricing strategies to capture in-market shoppers and deliver a seamless multichannel customer experience that won’t end in a return.
Ensure more people spend time with you
Today’s customer journey is complex, weaving in and out of digital touchpoints, physical stores, and retailers. Together, we can optimize and personalize these various touchpoints, creating customer experiences that drive awareness, growth, and loyalty for your brand.
Exceptional experiences at every touchpoint
We help you map your customers’ end-to-end journeys, uncovering the biggest opportunities to drive awareness, growth, and loyalty.
Personalization—even at scale
We specialize in using data, automation, and AI to bring personalized experiences to the masses.
Seamless tech stack
We partner with all the leading DXPs to help you integrate and leverage technology to create better experiences.
Never one-size-fits-all
Every customer journey is different. We can help you track, analyze, and optimize the paths your audience takes to convert.
AI-driven customer insights
With AI, we can gain contextual insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and feedback, before quickly putting them into action.
Where consulting meets craft
With deep and broad experience in UX/UI, emerging tech, creative, data, and AI, we can move the needle for your business while giving your customers something to love.
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AI-enabled products present a massive opportunity for brands and businesses. By harnessing the power of AI, brands can help bring to life an entirely new form of digital interaction characterised by an unprecedented level of personalisation.
That said, to build an effective AI-enabled product, you need to test it.
And to test it, you need to build a prototype.
However, traditional prototyping just doesn’t hold up in the world of AI, where search bars and chatbots are sometimes the full experience. Because AI’s true magic lies in its dynamic and flexible responses to real-world inputs, evaluating the value of an AI-enabled product requires a new methodology.
In this pragmatic guide created by the experts at DEPT®/Digital Products, we share how to unlock that last mile of value in prototyping and the necessary first steps your product team needs to start building the AI-enabled products and features that your customers actually want.
DEPT® is heading to Shoptalk Europe
Shoptalk is where the future of retail is created. Thousands of retail innovators come together to discuss trends and the transformation of how consumers discover, shop and buy everything ranging from apparel and electronics to groceries.
Shoptalk Europe 2024
Find us at the MACH Meetup Lounge
DEPT® is teaming up with the MACH Alliance and welcomes you to swing by the MACH Alliance Meetup Lounge to meet the team.
Located in the far right of the exhibition hall by the entrance to the Meetup space, the Lounge will be open for you to chat and connect throughout the event.
We also invite you to kickstart your trip to Shoptalk with Welcome Drinks at Skyfall Cocktail Club on Sunday June 2 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Secure your ticket here.
On the ground
Meet us at Shoptalk Europe
Franziska Bönder
Head of New Business, DEPT®
Franziska is an expert in developing strategies that blend the best of creative, media, data and technology to deliver demonstrable growth for clients. Franziska has experience across a vast range of industries, working with brands such as Zalando, Douglas, ALDI, Samsung, smart and Netflix to help them stay ahead.
Jonathan Whiteside
Global SVP of Technology & Engineering, DEPT®
Jonathan has led tech teams for more than 20 years, working with global brands such as adidas, Nikon, Reckitt, and Diageo. Jonathan leads our engineering craft of over 1,750 engineers and is responsible for growing capabilities across content, commerce and cloud platforms, digital products and emerging technologies.
Tim de Kamper
VP eCommerce, DEPT®
As VP eCommerce at DEPT®, Tim focuses on designing and building seamless commerce experiences for global brands. He has experience across a wide range of industries, working with brands including GANT, Manchester City F.C.,Just Eat Takeaway and Nilfisk. Tim has over a decade’s experience leading developers and architects to deliver eCommerce experiences that brands need and customers want.
We help global brands create seamless shopping experiences
Buyer behaviours are continually shifting. In a world where everything is shoppable, tech stacks stifle innovation, and personalisation needs to be a reality, brands need to be smarter and faster to stay ahead.
DEPT® works with brands across all industries to create flawless shopping experiences that fuel their business growth. Together, we create holistic customer journeys and world-class experiences, fueled by robust marketing strategies that embrace new behaviours, technology and data. We offer integrated capabilities across creative, media, AI and data, retail media, marketplaces, social, and emerging tech.
With over 20 years of experience across consumer packaged goods, fashion and lifestyle, retail, automotive, and B2B, we can help you grow your business and deliver a modern commerce journey.
We’d love to connect at Shoptalk Europe to learn more about your tech and marketing challenges and share our experience.
DEPT® Lunch Break: Creative Automation
In the fast-paced world of marketing, consumer expectations are rising. More than ever, they want personalised experiences and offers.
An ‘always on’ approach to marketing automation is critical to build relationships through a series of integrated, relevant, timely and personalised communications across multiple channels.
But in today’s digital reality, it’s incredibly difficult to deliver effective, multi-channel retention and loyalty programmes in a privacy-by-default world.
DEPT® Lunch Break: Creative Automation
Enter, creative automation. The key to ensuring every piece of creative and communication builds and contributes to the broader strategic goals of your business, helping to establish and cement relationships with your customers at every stage of their journey.
Efficiency is table stakes. But creative automation improves speed, personalisation and value-driven campaigns (at scale) to help you reach audiences when it’s most impactful.
In this DEPT® Lunch Break, we’ll uncover the power, and necessity, of creative automation in the new marketing landscape.
By the time your lunch break winds up, you’ll understand:
- What creative automation actually is, and what it’s not
- How creative automation solves the challenges of manual production
- What brands are innovating in the space
- Why you should be making the business case for adopting creative automation
Meet the speakers
Anneloes van Vugt
Head of Content at DEPT®
Anneloes, a digital professional with a background in both media and creativity, has honed her expertise over a distinguished 8-year career as a content strategist on the agency side. She is a masterful connector in the realms of performance-based and creative thinking, skillfully weaving the threads of innovation and strategy. At DEPT®, Anneloes is the visionary driving force behind the creative team, which is passionately dedicated to achieving growth through inventive solutions and artistic brilliance.
Florencia Obert
Head of Creative Automation at DEPT®
With over a decade in tech agencies, Florencia is a specialist in creative automation. Leading DEPT®’s global team as the Head of Creative Automation across Product, Delivery & MarTech, she is at the forefront of pushing the technical and creative boundaries of this field. Florencia has been instrumental in shaping DEPT®’s creative automation offering from the ground up, and is passionate about streamlining processes and solving problems with technology. She is obsessed with finding innovative solutions that let tech do the hard work.
Mitch van den Akker
Digital Designer at DEPT®
Bringing together design, marketing, and innovation, Mitch seamlessly merges design and innovative technology to enhance online campaigns efficiently, prioritising quality, creativity, and customisation. He has extensive experience in global campaigns, specialising in automation and driven by a profound passion for creative creation through concepting, designing, and developing.
DEPT® x Salesforce – Tech & marketing insights 2024
As a digital leader, you face several challenges around AI, commerce, content, and personalisation. With GenAI forcing brands to evolve, it’s hard to keep up.
Despite Salesforce’s market leadership in CRM, commerce, and data, its products are only as good as the strategy and thinkers behind them. Download the DEPT® x Salesforce longread to better understand how DEPT®’s unique expertise in tech and marketing can help your brand leverage Salesforce commerce, marketing, and AI.
Inside, you’ll find:
– Insights around the future of GenAI, content, and commerce
– First-party data strategy with Salesforce
– Tips on integrating TikTok Shop with Salesforce
– Featured DEPT® work, showcasing how we help organisations around the world
Download the DEPT® x Salesforce longread to learn more!
People’s escalating desire to explore new places is causing a surge in travel research, bookings, and digital opportunities.
Our DEPT®/Travel experts have compiled the top digital trends of 2024 that can help brands create better experiences, drive sustainable growth, and increase the value of travel bookings.
Despite the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, people are prioritizing travel. But such high demand comes with even higher expectations.
The modern traveler doesn’t just want to travel more. They want to travel better.
From airlines and hotels to online booking platforms, companies are pushed to deliver impeccable services and stay culturally relevant and tech-savvy.
Luckily for brands in travel and tourism, these goals are attainable. The unprecedented demand correlates with the rise of available solutions. Now, delivering the sought-after ‘unreasonable’ level of hospitality is within reach, not only for 11 Maddison Park but also for your organization.
To help brands meet customer expectations, we have identified four major digital trends shaping the travel industry.
Trend 01 – A new generation of travelers: The shifting mindsets of Gen Z and Millennials
The travel industry faces an ongoing challenge: meeting the needs of a diverse range of young customers who do not fit the same mold as other generations.
Millennials and Gen Z seek highly personalised, niche experiences. This shift away from traditional travel patterns is becoming more evident with the rise of new trends like “gig-tripping” and “bleisure,” which are further popularised by social media.
How can brands stay in sync with the new generation of travelers?
72%
of Gen-Z consider travel a
priority in their 2024 budget
64%
of global travelers are reducing
spending elsewhere to prioritise
leisure travel in 2024
85%
of Millennials and Gen Zs are
willing to allocate funds for unique
experiences during their vacations
Cultural exploration will be a priority for travelers in 2024. We’re seeing a broad spectrum of cultural curiosity, from gig trippers jetting off to see their favourite artists, to budget bougie foodies.
Naomi Hahn, VP of Strategy at Skyscanner
Brands must stay especially relevant on TikTok
“Our community craves content that provokes wanderlust by highlighting unique destinations and experiences, recommendations, and reviews.”
To stay top of mind with the TikTok audience, brands should:
Explore growth areas e.g. accessible luxury travel, domestic travel, and sustainable travel
Collaborate with creators to enhance credibility and authentically represent the brand.
Create save-worthy content that users find valuable enough to save in their ‘travel folder.’
Sustain audience engagement by actively responding to comments and engaging with users through comments on their videos.
Remember that authenticity reigns supreme, and travel brands need to reflect that by:
- Showcasing real consumer experiences, highlighting both positive and negative experiences in strategic ways.
- Generate less polished creative assets (even at the luxury level), creating a more genuine two-way conversation with consumers.
This approach resonates with the younger generations of travelers, who have become more pragmatic from rising living costs.
So throughout marketing activity, quality and price need to be highlighted first and foremost, with additional elements like sustainability becoming secondary messages – necessary but not a key driver of purchase.
The key to success is creating a consistent experience that is embedded in current consumer needs and supported by authenticity end-to-end.
– Antonio Castiglia, Strategy Director, DEPT®
Trend 02 – Try before you buy: Mixed reality is giving travelers a taste of the real experience
The limitations of screens, PCs, and smartphones have become increasingly apparent. Users crave more immersive, seamless, and intuitive ways to interact with digital content – beyond the confines of the 2D screen.
Immersive, “being there” experiences can help brands drive deeper engagement, fostering emotional connections and informed travel decisions.
And with oncoming technologies such as Apple Vision Pro, brands will need to steer increasingly toward spatial design innovation.
71%
of travelers said they viewed the
quality of their digital experience as
a key factor when booking travel
60%
of people are willing to
book a trip if they can
experience it virtually
$1.5tn
predicted increase in tourism
revenue due to VR by 2030
Today’s travelers want to live like locals, feel inspired by the places they visit, and experience a transformative journey that is wholly their own.
Sarah Somerville, Senior Director, Asia Pacific at Hilton
Experiment with immersive experiences
Immersive experiences allow you to:
Enhance your digital presence
Static online descriptions often fail to capture a destination’s unique appeal. Immersive digital experiences can combine virtual tours, engaging local stories, and user-generated content.
Stand out
Story-driven marketing campaigns and virtual experiences of hotel rooms and services can help businesses build a personal connection with potential customers.
Showcase cultural richness
Developing interactive platforms highlighting local events and cultural experiences helps fully convey the depth of a destination’s culture and experiences.
With Apple’s Vision Pro, the writing is on the wall. While it won’t change the world overnight, you should start experimenting with VR and AR to understand the technology behind it. As you progress with the technology and understand how to leverage it, you’ll be in a stronger position as the immersive future continues to evolve.
A cinematic experience
For Virgin Galactic, DOGSTUDIO/DEPT® created an immersive website that offers potential customers a cinematic, interactive experience. We aimed to help visitors understand what it would be like to be a space explorer and inspire them to dream big and pursue their goals.
I believe that by creating immersive experiences on their websites, travel businesses can:
- Spark imagination and establish a strong emotional connection with their visitors by taking them on a journey.
- Offer an impactful and emotional experience through customer engagement.
Not every brand can create the same immersion level as Virgin Galactic. However, they can still take bold and innovative steps, offer the right-sized experiences to their organisation and audience, and in doing so, establish a stronger connection with customers.
– Simon Boas, Senior producer
Trend 03 – AI is setting a new standard in hospitality through personalisation
From booking flights to navigating unfamiliar cities, AI is on track to becoming an indispensable travel companion.
AI’s capabilities extend beyond automation and chatbots, encompassing a multifaceted role that elevates hospitality standards and redefines the travel experience.
It can help brands transform their services into a highly personalised journey, like offering each client their own travel concierge.
32%
of all travel industry revenue
is predicted to be influenced by
AI in some capacity in 2024.
75%
of travelers worldwide expect
to use AI to plan accommodations
by 2033.
62%
of millennials say they would appreciate
insights, tips or hints from an AI
companion while on holiday.
In travel, gen AI could take the form of a digital assistant that interacts with customers throughout the journey.
McKinsey & Company
How AI will elevate the traveler experience
Image these applications integrated into your product.
- Efficient browsing of destinations without using multiple platforms, apps, and search engines.
- Personalized customer communication system for airlines and airports that helps create a seamless travel experience and fosters loyalty.
- An itinerary curator tailored to individual’s preferences while incorporating hidden gems and advice from locals.
- A 24/7 real-time travel concierge that predicts potential issues and offers solutions immediately as problems arise during travel.
- An assistant that analyzes taste in music, art, and culture and helps ‘gig-trippers’ book experiences in advance.
- A personalised ticket booking system based on budget, availability, preference, and the type of traveler.
ChatGPT has unleashed an AI frenzy, but often, brands struggle to visualise their applications beyond a standard chatbot framework.
We seem attached to an archaic form of user interface despite LLMs being at the forefront of innovation (note the irony).
LLMs enrich the value of brand data, giving it the general knowledge and ability to create content by itself. This shifts many digital products (like websites) from an outdated content management system to a concept management system, where the product is tailored—but the trigger doesn’t have to be a conversation.
What would that look like for the travel industry?
Imagine looking for places using a specific keyword (e.g. ‘whimsical’) and getting recommendations that don’t contain that, but fit better – because the system knows that what you say is not always what you mean, or what you want.
Or imagine you’ve received a push notification with a dedicated itinerary of fun things to do that happen to be near, open, within budget, and not too exhausting – “Just what I didn’t know I needed!”
Imagine how that looks on the product page, in a check-out system, on a search bar, in a departure board, or in Google Maps—anything but a chatbot.
– Maria Temneanu, Lead Tech Planner, DEPT®
Trend 04 – Archetypes over demographics: Understanding customers’ mindsets is key to an effective website
According to Statista’s forecast, the online travel market is expected to almost double by 2030 compared to 2023.
In a landscape where potential travelers navigate around 40 websites before making a booking, it has become imperative to ensure that your website stands out, is relevant, and builds trust within seconds.
38%
of people will stop engaging with
a website if the content is unattractive.
75%
of users admit to making judgements
about a company’s credibility
based on their website design.
94%
of website first impressions
are design related.
People want hyper-personalised experiences to feel they’re traveling with intention, not just to get out of the country.
Lee Chambers, Psychologist and founder of wellbeing and inclusion agency Essentialise
An engaging experience has never been more crucial
A travel brand’s website is the digital backbone of success in generating demand and sales.
Effective UX research and solutions can directly and positively impact six out of 10 critical factors travelers consider when booking while indirectly influencing the remainder.
The key to driving bookings is to stand out and build trust, but meeting the expectations and needs of thousands of visitors is no easy task. To do so, brands need to understand existing and potential customers.
Relying on demographic-based personas is no longer enough. Instead, leading brands are replacing them with mindset and archetype-based segmentation, which in turn fuels a shift toward a more nuanced approach to web design.
How do you tailor your web experience to each visitor?
By understanding their travel mindset. Here’s how.
First, it is necessary to move beyond old-school macro-segmentation of audiences based on demographics towards hyper-segmentation. Or, as Piero Sierra, Chief Product Officer at Skyscanner, has said, by evolving to help their customers pick their perfect destination, “whatever their trip’s vibe.”
To do so, it is necessary to take a multi-method approach to understanding customers – through surveys, data collection and analysis, experimentation, and field studies.
The key is to grasp the various mindsets of the customer base.
The traditional approach to personas, segmenting by demographics, isn’t flexible enough to accommodate how people are now approaching travel planning and booking. Travelers don’t fall into neat buckets according to age, family status, or location. We need to be led more by their mindsets and motivations.
By gathering customer insights using various research methods, we can understand the unique challenges that a brand’s customers face and create experiences that resonate with the right audiences.
In such a crowded market, connecting with a customer and engaging them on an emotional level is key to setting your brand apart from the rest. Generative AI and machine learning can help you take data and anticipate their wants and needs.
Researching to gather information about customers is only one part of the problem. It’s also key to ensure that we’re implementing those learnings by adapting experiences and constantly reviewing and iterating to measure what’s working and feeding back in those insights.
– Lizzie Astles, Lead UX Designer, DEPT®
DEPT®/Travel is our expert digital team helping travel brands stay ahead.
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Account Director & Head of Business Development
Victor Marcus Lunde
Spatial computing, expected to reach a market size of over $700 billion by 2033, integrates AI, computer vision, AR, and VR to merge virtual experiences with the physical world. Many believe that it has the potential to impact the world in the same way smartphones did in the early 2000s.
With spatial computing, your surroundings become interactive canvases, where every gesture and glance shape your digital interaction. It promises to revolutionise customer engagement, offering immersive experiences tailored to individuals.
But what does this mean for your industry?
With a diverse and global team of over 4,000 digital experts at DEPT®, we have many perspectives on the potential impact of spatial computing and how it will extend across industries like fashion, music, retail, health, and education.
Read on for some hot takes from experts on how they see the future of spatial computing.
Commerce
James Lowe – VP Commerce APAC
The goal of an e-commerce website is, ideally, to sell products, and they do that by simulating real life shopping experiences online. We add products to a virtual ‘cart’ and virtually visit the ‘checkout.’ The reality is, though, that there is still a huge gap between real-world touch and feel experiences talking to a salesperson and online shopping. This is changing.
From immersive experiences, viewing a rug in your room or a hologram of yourself sized with those new jeans, the effect of spatial computing in reshaping the e-commerce experience will be massive. It’s not only about being able to try out that rug in your living room but how that will affect light and sound, changing your experience of your own home forever.
Spatial computing, whether AR, VR, or any reality that edges us closer to replicating real-world shopping and in-store personalisation, will change how we shop forever. We have only scratched the service.
The targeted use of these technologies will be important. Successful brands will use spatial computing subtly (not everyone has an Apple Vision Pro!) and AI passively to bring users on the journey where required and blow our minds at other touch points in the mixed reality commerce journeys of the future.
This is a moment for commerce brands to set themselves apart in a field wide open with opportunity. Brands that continue creating immersive, personalised shopping experiences, replicating and augmenting real word experiences as the technology evolves, will emerge as leaders.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
I bought a trampoline for kids for Christmas this year. The AR feature on the site allowed me to video my front yard in real-time, position the trampoline in the yard, and walk around it, seeing the placement from different angles. I was surprised at how accurate it was. I got my tape measure out to verify (didn’t trust the tech!), and the virtual placement was spot on.
This was a super helpful application of AR enhancing my buying experience. I had limited space in my yard, so this augmented view of my yard sold it for me. AR placing products in situ is not the most cutting-edge example of spatial computing, but it was the best example I have personally experienced and led me to the checkout.
FMGC
Jessica White – General Manager Creative & Content Australia
I’ve been a storyteller my entire life. Sitting around the table with my family, we took turns to see who could tell the best story. I love the creativity of it, the challenge of finding the right hook, and helping brands become famous. Famous in the category, internally, and most importantly, famous with consumers, making their product the one they reach for first.
Fast forward 10 years, storytelling is more diverse than ever, with TikTok as a platform for entertainment, self-expression, and search! Personalisation gives tailored brand experiences across email, social channels, and online shopping. Technology is making it easier and easier to reach consumers and tell them richer stories. Spatial Computing is enabling us to seamlessly merge the physical world with the magical world of digital. Picture consumers virtually learning how to brush their teeth properly or wash their hands effectively in their own spaces, testing, learning, and experiencing them firsthand.
The digital world as we know it has changed forever. Things are only going to get more exciting from here. We’re taking storytelling to a new dimension, and I’m here for it!
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
From virtually trying on beauty products to unlocking a world of interactive content and promotions, spatial computing empowers marketers with the tools to weave captivating stories. Consider the experience of trying on different makeup looks in augmented reality or seamlessly accessing additional information and promotions while browsing in-store. One may be more functional than the other, but both avenues create a richer storyline for consumers to explore, transforming mere transactions into memorable experiences.
Retail
Asher Wren – VP Growth Americas
Spatial computing will change the game in commerce in several ways— from behind-the-scenes operations and logistics like inventory and supply chain management and helping warehouse staff to locate items more efficiently through to creating more immersive, contextually relevant customer experiences at-home or in-store.
Industries that typically rely on more tactile, white-glove customer journeys— e.g., luxury fashion, auto, home furnishings, etc. will see a completely revolutionised retail experience. Shopping experiences in those industries are increasingly digital. Still, nothing compares to being able to feel the finish on an Eames chair, feel the weight of a Rolex in your hand, or see the movement of a Gucci garment.
Spatial computing will put customers on their catwalks in this season’s must-have, in the driver’s seat of a luxury car, or in a newly decorated and kitted-out home. It’s the next step in bringing elevated shopping experiences for high-ticket items into the home, changing retail forever.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
I’m a big fan of using augmented reality to make static artwork come to life. It’s an oldie but a goodie— There’s something very punk rock DIY about the MoMAR concept— a group of artists leveraging augmented reality to overlay digital art onto traditional works of art in galleries.
The concept challenges the notion of what art is and pokes fun at the elitism of the fine art world. On the other end of the spectrum, for businesses, using AR to bring billboards to life can create engaging, buzz-worthy brand activations while also making existing OOH media buys work harder by establishing measurable paths to purchase from static billboards to digital/e-commerce.
Music
Henry Daubrez – CEO & COO Dogstudio/DEPT®
Past the expected entertainment outcome from a device like the Apple Vision Pro, there’s a huge potential for learning new skills.
I used to (badly) play the guitar as a teenager, by myself, at home, and I do remember printing sheet after sheet of chords and going through the painful journey of constantly moving from the sheets to the fretboard. I mean, nothing crazy, but it was still getting in the way of me learning a new skill.
Now, looking at the future of spatial computing and offering information contextually, there’s a future in which learning music can be offered directly in relation to the instrument, showing you the chords next to the fretboard or the notes on top of the piano keys. Even better, leveraging AI, there’s a very short path to suggesting the next note and giving you the fundamentals of improvisation.
This is one simple example but music, being attached to a different of our senses, has the potential to be experienced differently thanks to the evolution of headset technologies.
We’re still early despite the dozens of years separating us from the initial generations of headsets and the most recent ones.
Technology is finally getting to where we can experience the full expected potential: a seamless, integrated, contextual experience intertwined with reality. The Apple Vision Pro and the recent Quest3 are one iteration closer to that dream but not fully there yet.
I’m looking forward to the possibilities of experiencing and learning music (and a lot of other things) in a visual, natural, and neck pain-free manner.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
As mentioned, all the passthrough (and therefore avoiding pure VR) experiences around the learning of new skills are fascinating to me, whether it’s about cooking, learning an instrument (check PianoVision), or learning a trade. People directly think about gaming when looking at these devices, but the untapped education market is endless.
BFSI
Yash Moody – CTO APAC
Spatial computing presents an unparalleled opportunity to improve financial literacy worldwide by making complex concepts more accessible and engaging across diverse age groups and demographics. By leveraging immersive technologies, financial education can become more interactive, intuitive, and inclusive, empowering individuals to make informed financial decisions and participate more effectively in the global economy.
The convergence of fintech innovators and traditional financial institutions facilitated by spatial computing can lead to the development of groundbreaking products and methodologies prioritising human-centric design and user experience. This collaboration can drive innovation and efficiency while addressing the evolving needs of consumers in the digital age.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
Several financial organisations have explored virtual branches using VR to make banking more accessible and inclusive. This makes banking more cost-efficient, secure, accessible, and personalised.
Family & Kids
Joey Eggar – Executive Director Games & Emerging Tech
When it comes to tech and kids, at the end of the day, it’s not so much about the technology, it’s about the experience.
For kids, it’s about what’s fun, intuitive, and engaging: What can tell a good story. What can provide a cool challenge? And for their caregivers – is my child safe using this device and playing this experience?
It’s our job to create spatial interactive experiences that feel natural to that device and are intuitive and safe for the user to play. We want the experience to work for the end user, not just for the device.
We’ve been working on variations of Spatial technology since 2012, kicking off with the award-winning The Hidden Park, which used a form of AR before AR was formally integrated into phones. Since then, we’ve crafted many projects utilising AR with well-known kids’ brands such as The Wiggles and Sesame Street, VR to help kids reduce stress and anxiety during needle procedures with the Webby Award-winning SmileyScope, and with XR currently having fun with some projects that blend Mixed Reality headsets with real-world experiences.
With all our spatial work, we know that the tech is just a tool, and it’s the enriching experiences it facilitates that truly matter.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
It’s very simple, but the XR devices such as APV, Hololens, MetaQuest, and MagicLeap, when you initially map the environment around you. They all do it differently, but I never get bored of it, and it makes me feel like I’m on a Star Trek holodeck.
Education
Phil Gonzalez – Director of Engineering
Spatial computing, along with mixed and augmented reality technology, has the potential to redefine the educational paradigm.
If we were to bring a time traveler 200 years from the past to the present, 99% of our world would look vastly different to them: a classroom, however, would look mostly the same: a set of desks facing a presenter at the front of a room. While online, self-paced, and digital learning has started to take form in the last couple of decades, it still isn’t a stand-in for the in-person experience. You don’t have to look further than standardised test scores dropping dramatically during the COVID-19 lockdowns for evidence of this.
However, this is fortunately on the path towards change. VR/MR headsets allow learners to step into nearly any subject matter virtually. Want to learn about the human body? Shrink yourself down to the size of an organelle and explore it yourself! Perform lab observations in VR and later generate reports about those observations on a traditional computer. Studying WWI? Step into the moment of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination and political turmoil and speak with virtualised eyewitnesses.
MR/VR also enables a sense of presence missing from virtual learning experiences. With an online can an instructor know if students are engaged and understanding the material or disengaged and lost? Live video calls can sometimes help, but monitoring the facial expressions of 20+ students over Zoom doesn’t always work. Newly developed VR technologies enable eye tracking and facial gesture mapping that allow virtual avatars to appear confused, lost, or engaged and learning.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
Arizona State University’s DreamScape Learn. I had the pleasure last year of demoing some of the courses they offer and was blown away by the level of interactivity.
Gaming
Todd Hutchinson – Creative Director
Virtual Reality has never managed to live up to the promise of Ready Player One. Although it’s not surprising, only a select few are happy to block out their reality in favour of a digital one, and then there’s the motion sickness… blargh.
But spatial computing is a very different and vomit-free beast. It offers a brave new future, where real and digital worlds collide to make both cutting-edge and simple intuitive experiences.
Once the hardware reaches the point of looking like ordinary glasses, I can imagine everyone wearing them to engage in daily digital activities. From a gaming perspective, there are countless opportunities to integrate gameplay with the world around. Hide behind the couch to avoid enemy fire in an FPS, solve escape room experiences in your bedroom, or create and manage complex cities in your lounge.
The future seems bright, I gotta wear [spatial computing] shades.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
First Encounters. It’s a very simple and fun game in which players blast away at fuzzy little aliens to capture as many as they can before time runs out. The cool integration of Spatial Computing is that it starts off in the player’s room, and as they fire their blasters, they blow holes in their walls to reveal an alien world beyond. The aliens move from their alien world into the player’s room, and the player has to walk around to find hidden aliens. By the time the round is up, the walls are destroyed, and the player is now in the alien world.
Health
Evan Davey – VP Growth APAC
In healthcare, spatial computing isn’t just about enhancing patient experiences; it’s about revolutionising care delivery. Imagine surgeons seamlessly accessing patient data in real-time during procedures or medical professionals conducting virtual simulations to refine treatment plans.
Spatial computing empowers us to bridge geographical gaps, providing remote consultations and monitoring for patients in rural areas. However, it’s not without its challenges—ensuring data security and privacy remains paramount.
Yet, the potential to improve outcomes and streamline processes is undeniable. As we navigate this transformative landscape, collaboration between healthcare providers, technologists, and policymakers will be crucial in realising the full benefits of spatial computing for the industry.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
I’m absolutely taken by the breadth of use cases for the Apple Vision Pro, so it’s hard to nail it down to just one example. One experience I’m particularly looking forward to being an Australian – and air travel out of the country taking at least 8 hours – is taking an Apple Vision Pro onto the plane, watching movies in what will feel like a theatre rather than a cramped economy seat and working in that same seat on a projected 4K screen, rather than bending over my iPad. Add to that the privacy that comes with the APV, and I’m pumped to get onto that plane!
Fashion
Jan Gutkuhn – Director Web3
Spatial Computing was invented for the fashion industry. In the world of fashion, the allure of the runway is undeniable. Yet, the digital representation is full of limitations and disappointments. Spatial computing offers a lifeline, bridging the gap between the real and the virtual. It’s a designer’s dream becoming reality, setting the industry free.
The biggest opportunity lies in creating more human and emotional experiences through 3D – directly from the creative director’s imagination. No proxy, no samples, no shootings. Fully immersive experiences evoke a sense of wonder and delight – something missing in the realm of the 2D screens and CR-optimised online shops of today.
Imagine entering an immersive, highly emotional brand universe, seeing yourself in the latest runway looks, and chatting with a virtual stylist who understands your unique tastes and preferences based on your body measurements. Or attending a virtual fashion show where you can interact with models and designers in real time. For as long as you want – and you will want to stay and get lost, and shop…
These are the experiences that bring fashion to life in ways that were previously unimaginable. It allows brands to democratise the front row, inviting anyone and everyone to immerse themselves into the brand’s universe like never before.
This is it. Unlimited creativity and pure emotion. Directly from the designer’s brain into your Apple Vision Pro.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
Our work with H&M on creating their virtual showroom. 69% of the respondents said that the showroom had piqued their interest in a virtual H&M brand experience.
Automotive
Peter Van Alphen – Strategy Director Growth Europe
The world of mobility is rapidly changing from physical environments to digital experiences. Legacy manufacturers and emerging industry players are reinventing and rethinking the traditional paradigms. Electric vehicles, digital-first buying models, technology-led information systems, and self-driving solutions are leading the way in society and will become the standard.
In the realm of automotive, spatial computing is reshaping the driving experience, both within and beyond the vehicle’s interior. Innovations such as Augmented Reality Dashboards, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Predictive Maintenance, and Smart Parking Solutions exemplify the dynamic changes transforming the automotive industry. I am particularly excited about the potential of spatial computing to address traffic congestion and enhance driving safety.
At DEPT®, we’re at the forefront of innovation in the automotive landscape. We’re strategically positioned to provide comprehensive end-to-end customer experiences, leveraging the power of AI, technology, creativity, and media.
Best encounter with spatial computing so far?
I am deeply impressed by the spatial computing solutions that Tesla is developing and integrating into their vehicles. From the adaptive cruise control feature to the sophisticated infotainment systems and the advanced navigation system capable of recognising environmental surroundings, Tesla is enhancing driving safety and security significantly. I eagerly anticipate the innovations and advancements that lie ahead.
Fostering creativity and curiosity
Spatial computing has the power to revolutionise how we interact with technology, reshape industries, and redefine user engagement. It’s a call to action for businesses to embrace this technology as a catalyst for innovation and growth, unlocking new opportunities to create immersive, personalised experiences that transcend traditional boundaries.
However, realising this potential requires overcoming challenges such as data security, logistical integration, and ensuring equitable access. Despite these hurdles, the consensus is clear: The future of spatial computing is limitless, and it’s up to businesses to seize the moment and shape the digital landscape of tomorrow.
With a deep understanding of emerging technologies and a track record of delivering cutting-edge digital solutions, our teams at DEPT® are uniquely positioned to guide businesses through the complexities of spatial computing integration.
Creativity x AI: An interview series exploring the near future
