Bazaar Voice Summit 2014

Last year, I had the good fortune of visiting Austin for the first time. The purpose of the trip was to scout the Bazaar Voice Summit to see how we might build an installation that demonstrated the aisle of the future. 

A colleague was supposed to be a part of panel discussing beacons in store. She got stuck in a different city due to weather, so I sat in on the panel.

Here is an excerpt from that talk that ended up in their the Future Will Be Driven By Big Data post:

But serving customers better doesn’t just have to mean discounts. People will expect a more personalized relationship that rewards their loyalty and sharing, says Tod Szewczyk, VP, Director of Innovation at Leo Burnett,

“If you’re sending something that’s valuable to somebody, that doesn’t have to be a coupon per se, but it is something that’s a valuable, relevant message to them. So maybe it’s a loyalty thing where you’ve been in the store a couple times, and you’ve bought a number of different products. Maybe it’s a recommendation on something else that might be able to help you. Those are the kind of value exchanges that I think make it worthwhile.”

What I was really getting to was beacons at the time were almost strictly thought of as coupon delivery devices, but their true value was in delivering relevant content to people. 

Tod Szewczyk
Born in New Jersey, bounced around the east coast as a kid: South Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland and then upstate New York. Moved to Chicago for high school. Stayed in Chicago for college. Co-Produced one of the original sound art festivals in Chicago, In the Eye of the Ear with Steve Barsotti. Scored a few plays in between. In 1998, married photographer Amanda Sudimack and moved to Denver to work at RR Donnelley. Helped companies in Denver, Paris and London go public. In 2002, moved back to Chicago where son Emmet was born. Moved over to Leo Burnett as a print buyer in the same year. In 2008, traded city dweller status to (close-in) suburbanite and daughter Zoe was born. In 2013, moved up the ladder at Burnett to VP. Now spend most of my time finding new ways to connect interesting companies with the agency under the brands Leovative (blog and events Leovative, FutuRetail/FutureShop). Believer in the idea that the fastest route to innovation lies in making novel connections, from the book Where Good Ideas Come From. Have had the great fortune of working with amazingly talented people that have expanded my thinking of what is possible. Looking forward to what's next.
www.todszewczyk.com
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