Main Day 1: Tuesday, February 28 Growth Strategies And Customer Experiences In The New Normal

In considering the necessary components of a marketing mix, marketers would be remiss not to include influencers. They are a powerful and effective way brands can promote their products through endorsements or recommendations as evidenced by the strategy’s growth expanding +800% since 2016 alone. So while marketers can’t deny influencer’s allure and appeal, the trend may be met with some executive-level skepticism. For example, Meta’s recent shut down of the API used to populate databases for creator discovery and recruitment, authenticity and regulatory concerns, and considerable data security issues with TikTok, have only served to further fan the flames. How could today’s brands resolve these conflicting opinions to implement, optimize and measure effective influencer marketing programs?  

Join us for an executive luncheon discussion focused on the good, the bad and everything in between when it comes to influencer marketing.

Effective storytelling not only helps brands stand out in a crowded digital space, but also inspire, intrigue, and challenge their customers in a way that creates emotional connections.

Innovative techniques like gamification, motion recognition, 360-degree video, and photogrammetry continue to evolve and offer brands new opportunities for telling immersive, multimedia stories.

Join us for discussion and inspiration on how top brands are using storytelling to harness the moments that matter with their customers and create deeper connections with lasting results.

Jeana Garms

Vice President of Marketing
Arc XP

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Amanda Green

Creative Director
The Washington Post

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2023: the year of staying on the offense to drive sustainable growth. Join Power Digital and Pura Vida to see the strategic initiatives brands need to pursue to drive brand recognition and profitable revenue growth with first-hand examples of how brands are getting it right, including:

• Recession-proofing marketing
• Maximizing customer value
• Charting new growth paths on channels like TikTok

Join Chris Hansen, Chief Client Officer at Power Digital and Deirdre Kelly, Director of Acquisition, Pura Vida.

Chris Hansen

Chief Client Officer
Power Digital

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Deirdre Kelly

Director of Acquisition
Pura Vida

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Most brands struggle to connect the dots across the commerce landscape. No surprise given how many dots there are – multitudes of channels, heaps of data sets, online vs. offline, multiple tech stacks, and competing financial objectives. But have you ever stopped to consider whether some of the disconnect starts in your very own organization? Join e-commerce expert Elizabeth Marsten, Group Director of Marketplace Strategic Services at Tinuiti, the largest independent marketing firm in the US, as she leads an open, honest conversation on how the marketing, finance, and technology functions on the brand need to join forces – from the C-Suite all the way down in order to ensure coherence and connection across the entire organization’s commerce growth strategy.

Accepting a variety of payment methods such as Venmo, Apple Pay, and BNPL may help improve your checkout experience, drive conversion, and help you reach new customers. But how do you know if you’re offering all of the ways your customers want to pay without offering too many choices? 

Join Janet Ball, Director of Product Sales, BNPL Solutions, at this private roundtable luncheon for a discussion on recent trends in alternative payment methods (APMs) and optimizing your shoppers’ online experience. We will explore how to balance the benefits of offering multiple APMs to help drive conversion and stay competitive, with the challenges of potentially offering too many choices and overwhelming your shoppers.

Incorporating visual storytelling techniques into your content can help you bring your brand to life, stand out amid the digital clutter, and forge emotional connections with your customers. Join us for this fireside chat with The Washington Post Creative Group to understand why B2C brands turn to them to create content that incorporates cutting-edge visual storytelling. You’ll learn tips for:

• Telling brand stories that are human, authentic and impactful
• Incorporating innovative technologies like 360-degree video, photogrammetry and motion recognition
• Measuring the impact of visual storytelling
• Making design choices that bring content pieces to life

Amanda Green

Creative Director
The Washington Post

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Jeana Garms

Vice President of Marketing
Arc XP

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Today’s customer is most attracted to an authentic brand with a real story that hits home to them. While you make have an authentic brand story and are able to effectively tell it internally, it’s not always as easy to share that message with potential customers in an engaging way. Join this panel with several community led brands that have been able to successfully tell their story across their different channels in order to attract the right customer. Expect to hear about: 

• Examining the future of digital storytelling and how immersive media can draw out improved omnichannel sales  
• Understanding how you are influencing the customer through various forms of interactive media  
• Studying customer needs, desires and experiences to inform decision making around content  
• Remaining detail oriented via digital channels to ensure authentic brand voice that truly connects to your brand promise 

Hamid Saify

SVP, Digital Retail
Liquid Death Mountain Water

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Allison McGuire

VP of Marketing
Paper Mart

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Ben Soffer

Founder & CEO
Spritz Society

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Amy Reichert

Director, Partnerships
Truly Free

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Suzanne Sinatra

CEO
Private Packs

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• Determining why you are seeking a partnership and setting clear goals

• Approaching the negotiation process and balancing the interest of both brands

• Investing in a partnership beyond dollars and cents, what each brand can bring to the table

• Weighing in on the trade-offs of a partnership" 

Sophia Tsao

Chief Digital Officer
Fashionphile

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As new customer acquisition costs continue to rise, brands are turning their focus to customer retention. In this session, we evaluate how leading manufacturers are deploying radical new approaches to build direct relationships with shoppers to grow customer lifetime value and share of wallet. The presentation will highlight the latest strategies used to collect first-party data and activate personalized marketing programs to drive more engagement, advocacy, and sales with shoppers across Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers. 

Michael Lagoni

CEO
Stackline

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Buy now pay later is another great way to bring convenience to your customers. It also increases sales and keeps customers engaged with your brand. Join this panel discussion with several executives from retail brands who have developed this strategy and reaping the rewards. Expect to hear about:  

• Developing your BNPL strategy and positioning your business to take advantage of this growing trend  
• Optimizing customer retention and acquisition  
• Examining the potential increased sales/ AOV and overall customer spending power from incorporating BNPL options  
• Weighing in on the best BNPL partners for your particular business and goals 

Gerard Sullivan

Founder/CEO Of Adquench Representing Shirofune At The Event
Adquench/Shirofune

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James Kao

CEO
Larson Jewelers

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Matt Gehring

CMO
Dutch

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Nitu Walker

Manager, Enablement & Activations
Adobe

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Carol Hargrave

Senior Director, Global Pay Later
PayPal

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Retaining customers is one of the hardest things a brand can do – but is of course vital to keeping costs down, as repeat buyers cost less money to attract then new ones. Join this case study with Lindsay Whitaker of Petsmart as she shares with us how she retains customers post purchase and what it means to form a real community. Expect to hear about: • Recognizing the post purchase path has evolved over time and is more complex than ever

• Tackling the process of bringing customers back to your brand
• Avoiding discounting or specific promotions and focusing on content driven post purchase campaigns
• Using blog content, app content, showcasing new releases of content for complimentary products, how-to guides or instructional content
• Demonstrating to customers that you care about them long term (beyond just the purchase)
• Finding technology partners that can support you in these efforts

Lindsey Whitaker

Director of Product Management
PetSmart

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Wunderkind will explore the impact of first-party data strategies to create a nurturing and profitable customer journey. They will be joined by a retail partner who will share their strategies for delivering a value-driving customer experience.

Joe Anhalt

VP, Marketing
Koio

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Vern Tremble

Senior Director, Marketing & Communications
Wunderkind

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Most loyalty programs check the box a variety of common benefits – points, discounts and tiers abound. But is there a interaction between your brand and your members that creates a differentiated bond above other commoditized experiences? Join this panel with several loyalty program experts who show us how to explore what defines the foundation of building a true long-term relationship with your best customers.  

• Outlining the business case behind the execution  
• Learning what customer problems you are trying to solve with your loyalty program  
• Talking through the results of your program (and did they differ from expectations)  
• Getting past roadblocks that you’ve encountered along the way 

Ben Searcy

Chief Commercial Officer
GoVi

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Dylan Jones

CMO
PODIUM Nutrition

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Joe Doran

Senior Vice President, Loyalty
Capillary Technologies

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Elizabeth Koshy

CEO
Empress Naturals

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Cody Palubicki

Digital Marketing Manager
NutriSource Pet Foods

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Most retail brands are using the basics of AI through chatbots or virtual assistants. But what are the use cases of AI on the horizon? How can brands harness this technology to make life easier, drive sales AND improve the customer experience? Join this fireside chat featuring Jenna Posner, CDO of Snipes to hear more about:

• Fostering a culture of digital innovation and experimentation 
• Unlocking human creativity and human-like intuition through pattern recognition and predictive modeling
• Highlighting the efficiencies gained by using AI to get products in front of customers more quickly
• Using AI for personalization
• Integrating AI tools like ChatGPT for automated copywriting at scale
• Imagining what AI will look like in the future and what it could mean for retail 

Jenna Posner

Chief Digital Officer
Snipes

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Sara Lebow

eMarketer
Insider

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The goal of any marketer is to find ways to engage customers and drive them toward continued sales and improve CLV through personalized marketing. Companies have lost billions of dollars due to poor ecommerce personalization. Now with Google’s impending ban on 3rd party cookies in 2024 and Apple doing away with device identifiers in IOS, marketers must find a way to continue to access data. Join this session to hear how a panel of savvy brand advertisers plan to approach things like: 

• Ensuring your cookieless solutions are well thought out and employed given the looming deprecation deadline 
• Making investments with the proper partners to rethink your approach to data and personalization 
• Determining how much you must pivot toward zero and first-party data 
• Brainstorming new ways to capture customer data 
• Finding new ways to accurately track site visits and customer behavior without cookie data 

Tracy Sestili

VP of Marketing
Intellimize

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Jamie Braxton

VP, Marketing
Nest

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Marta Dalton

VP, Data Analytics & Customer Insights
Amyris

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Mike DiMiele

Director, Digital Marketing
Chamberlain Group

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Udayan Bose

Founder & CEO
NetElixir

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As an executive leader, you don’t need to be a futurist to lead digital transformation…but you do need fervor. During this C-level discussion, learn how these executives are motivating their teams to address the biggest challenges facing retail today (retailer only). To RSVP, please contact kristin.schoenstein@wbresearch.com

Nicole Wegman

Founder & CEO
Ring Concierge

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Phoebe Yu

Founder & CEO
ettitude

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Kevin Clor

CIO
Tent & Table

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Evelyn Krasnow

CMO
Fernish

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As technology advances in the retail space, it is important to understand how intent signals have changed. Online and retail indicators have become increasingly important. Understanding these signals is a crucial part of one’s marketing strategy to turn browsers into customers. This session will discuss leveraging intent signals in your marketing mix to efficiently improve the targeting and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, and ultimately drive more conversions and revenue for your business.

Brian DeLaite

Senior Vice President, Marketing Solutions
LS Direct

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Today’s retailers need to be thinking about how social media can affect their customer’s buying journey. Millennials and Gen Z have adopted new digital shopping behaviors, including interacting with brands on social media. And given the amount of screen time these generations spend on social, how can you take advantage of these mediums and build a brand aesthetic without trying too hard to sell. Join this panel as several brands walk us through some of the campaigns their teams have developed to get in front of the social media savvy generation. Expect to hear about:

• Using video to enhance your offerings as video consumption on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter continues to rise
• Embracing gaming and VR, especially now that gamified promotions are now available
• Creating design elements like infographics and memes to deliver the bite size content that today’s consumers crave
• Focusing on authentic, thoughtful content vs. churning out hundreds of promotional posts
• Revisiting your ad buys and partnerships to ensure they really make sense for your brand
• Analyzing what’s not working in retail and which trends to skip over for now

Greg Haslam

Head of Worldwide eCommerce
Davis Instruments

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Alessandra Sales

CMO
Trifecta Nutrition

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Johnathan Price

Owner
DownForSound

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Join this fireside chat with Bhavan Shah, Principal at L Catterton and Nacelle’s CEO, Brian Anderson as they discuss trends in the market and why headless commerce is the must-have business investment that empowers superior brand shopping experiences. Learn how companies like Boll & Branch and Rhone infused Nacelle’s headless technology with storytelling content to increase site performance and average order value.

Brian Anderson

CEO
Nacelle Inc

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Bhavan Shah

Principal
L Catterton Portfolio Operations

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Your customer does not have the patience to wait for pages to load or glitches to settle. They want to visit your website and expect a smooth experience from the minute they click on to the minute they check out. Any hitches could result in killing your sale. Join this panel of digital product and experience experts from top retailers as they walk us through how to create the most seamless web experience for your customer. Expect to hear about:

• Focusing on providing a solid, dynamic customer experience and testing out new functionality at each given moment
• Building the foundation for your site overhaul: constructing a platform that can respond quickly and flexible
• Rebuilding tools into your new platform as needed (such as A/B testing)
• Conducting effective and efficient tests of your site to provide relevant and timely feedback to continue improvements in the future

Gerard Sullivan

Founder/CEO Of Adquench Representing Shirofune At The Event
Adquench/Shirofune

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Purvi Patel

Senior Director, Digital Experience and Design
VF Corp

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Jenny Hanlon

Senior Director, User Experience
VF Corp

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Tim Marra

Senior Director, Online Business Solutions
Lowe's

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Ben Sack

VP, Regional Sales
Syte

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Kristen Grace

Marketing Manager, Digital Customer Experience, Residential & Power Products
Kohler

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With market disruption from online players and just increased competition across the board, how can you differentiate your brand with highly personalized experiences? A diverse group of panelists talk about how they are making their customers part of the dialogue to drive sustainable customer loyalty. Review ideas around:

• Moving past personalization to building a flow of conversations between loyal fans and your brand

• Producing a personalized dialogue that is bolstered by data

• Creating new, unique content based on the customer shared voice and their shopping behaviors

• Measuring how the personalized dialogue converts to sales

Suruchi Shukla

VP, Marketing
Minted

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Here's what's happening now:

• 57% of digital buyers purchase products from an online store outside their domestic market
• 92% of sellers surveyed plan to enable cross-border online purchasing by the end of 2023
• Only 10% of cross-border consumers agree that most brands meet their expectations for what they consider a ‘good experience.’
• There was $5.7T in global online retail sales in 2022

So, consumers are ready, your competitors are gearing up, and there is still huge room for improvement. Learn how to create a good customer experience and capitalize on the Cross Border opportunity.

Patrick Frith

Global Trade
Avalara

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Your customer's phone is always in their pocket and you have the power to reach them there via SMS messaging campaigns. There are many ways to effectively use SMS to attract, engage & retain customers, and during this session, one SMS savvy retailer will walk us through some of these options. You’ll hear from several panelists about: · Determining the role SMS can play in your marketing strategy

• Testing the different uses of SMS outside of just general marketing
• Using it for customer engagement or supporting customers with it
• Balancing entertainment versus promotional and how to add a “human touch” to SMS messaging
• Exploring use cases and results of MMS (multimedia send)
• Using email and SMS tangentially and the proper mix preferred by your customers

Ben Searcy

Chief Commercial Officer
GoVi

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Praful Krishna

Chief Product Officer
Haptik

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David Contract

Marketing Team Lead
The Betesh Group, Inc.

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Marta Dalton

VP, Data Analytics & Customer Insights
Amyris

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Tracy Hermans

Former Director, eCommerce
Matter of Fact

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Over 90% of visitors on any digital property are anonymous, and yet over 70% of consumers expect personalized experiences from brands:

• How can retailers understand anonymous visitors in real-time?
• What does personalization mean in a privacy-forward world?
• How to leverage AI and other new methods to engage and convert anonymous visitors in real-time?

Join Eli Adams, executive director of digital product management at Young Living Essential Oils, and Manish Malhotra, chief strategy officer, head of data science, and co-founder of ZineOne, to hear how Young Living unlocks new revenue and explore why the future of consumer engagement hinges on anonymous users to accelerate your eCommerce growth. 

Manish Malhotra

Chief Strategy Officer
ZineOne

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Eli Adams

Executive Director of Global Digital Experience
Young Living

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Delivering personalization at scale can be difficult for retailers. It involves managing vast quantities of data, making complex calculations, and constantly adapting to changing customer preferences. Thankfully, by utilizing AI and machine learning algorithms, retailers can analyze customer behavior and make accurate personalized recommendations in real time. This not only enhances the shopping experience for customers, but it also helps increase sales and loyalty for businesses. Join this panel of retail experts as they explain how investing in the right technology can make all the difference in delivering personalization at scale. Expect to hear: 

• Looking at the entire customer journey and enhancing personalization across your site, mobile, email, advertising and store  
• Determining which aspects of your website to tailor for users or user segments   
• Using ML to build real time customer segments  
• Ensuring you have the data quality and transparency across channels and teams to effectively personalize  
• Sorting through your must-haves for personalization success when you are on a tight budget 

Tracy Sestili

VP of Marketing
Intellimize

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Todd Kozan

SVP, Global Customer Success
BlueConic

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A.R. Tabrizi

Senior Director, Growth
The Leaf Group

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Janiece Lincoln

Director of Product
Stitch Fix

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Robert Elzner

VP and Head of HP Store, Americas
HP

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