Back to bricks and mortar.

2017 may have been the year of the retail apocalypse, but we're now heading for a retail renaissance.

But it won’t come for free. To drive this return to bricks and mortar, retailers must evolve to stay relevant in the changing market. Customers, not retailers, now shape the shopping experience, and the winners will be those who can give customers the experience they are looking for.

To overcome growth in online shopping, stores need to give customers a real reason to shop in person – to become a destination in their own right. Target Marketing sums it up by asking: “In today’s world, how can stores create the feeling of engagement and excitement that Holly Golightly felt when looking at the Tiffany’s store window?”

Destination: supermarket.

For supermarkets, this will mean getting more creative – and more ambitious. Experiential marketing campaigns, built into a considered path-to-purchase, can turn supermarkets into destinations. This ‘super-tainment’ (we’re trying to get that to catch on) could include live entertainment, events or even pop-up hospitality and concessions.

Using experiential marketing to drive footfall into store (something experiential excels at) benefits both the brand and the supermarket. Strategic partnerships between supermarkets and brands can find economies of scale and complementary products/services. And unique, surprising or outrageous campaigns get people talking about your supermarket as the place to go for the weekly shop.

Better use of existing space.

With available retail space either static or shrinking in the next five years*, it’s crucial to make the most of existing space.

By incorporating digital elements, small footprints can be made to yield immersive and inspiring experiences. Experiential campaigns can adapt to existing layouts by using modular sets and bespoke stands.

Best of all, the temporary and scalable nature of experiential marketing campaigns allows retailers to start small. At N2O we work with brands of all sizes, delivering campaigns that might appear in one store or one hundred. We’re happy to hit the ground running with a large-scale campaign right off the bat, or ease you in with something a little more modest.

Ready to take your first step? Talk to us today.

*No new hypermarkets are expected to open in the next five years, and total space in existing stores will shrink, as retailers offer it to concessions and other services. (Sources: Mintel, IGD)

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