Fewer Humans, More Humanity: Havas CX's Arthur Fullerton on the Future of In-Store Experience

So let's now talk about the in-store component that you already mentioned a little bit.

Do you have a general philosophy around where in-store fits on this broader customer journey? Is it the destination? Is it a checkpoint? Is it the grand finale? Or is it really different for everybody?

I think it's all those things.

I call it a high intent convergence point, right? It's like the line from Glengarry Glen Ross, a man doesn't step on the lot lest he wants to buy, right? If someone's showing up in the store, they have intent.

And the store is where the intent becomes behavior.

So it can be a destination, a checkpoint, a final destination, depending on the category.

But strategically to me, it's where Media, decision-making, service, and transaction sort of collapse into the same moment.

So how do you capitalize on that with the technology and the experience that retail media can provide?

Well, thanks for digging into another quote from Glengarry Glen Ross that I've not heard before.

To be fair, I've not seen the play or watched the entire movie.

I'm really mostly familiar with the ABC Always Be Closing.

And I think the fact that if you get third place, you're fired.

So there's another piece of wisdom in Glengarry Glen Ross that I suppose people would be well served to look into.

That is

true.

Take knives for second place.

Exactly.

Exactly.

But of course, you're trying to help your clients get first place in their respective businesses, including retail.

And so in general, how are retailers thinking about in-store media, in-store screens as part of this overall customer experience? Do they have a wise perspective on it? Do they see it as just something they have to add and it's kind of bolted on? I'm again, just trying to understand the lay of the land in terms of where people's mindsets are before we dig in further.

I think it varies.

I think too often it's a bolt-on model, sort of the standalone monetizable inventory, as opposed to part of what I would call an experience system, right? The optimal approach is to connect screens to loyalty, inventory, merchandising, content, and customer context.

So it's not just about a screen asking what ad can we serve? It's about what would be useful in this moment in context to the person who is in the store.

It's more about the intelligence behind the screen than the screen itself.

And with the volume of data that we're collecting behavioral data, loyalty data, basic analytics, identity data.