Shaping Young Minds

As an intern, I remember the excitement and anxiety of walking into a new firm on my first day. Heart pounding, head held high, constantly trying to balance the perception that I was a mature, working professional without giving the impression that I had any idea what to do without specific instruction.

AWARDS: 2016 EDGE Award for Exhibit Design and Graphic Excellence Recipient

After several months trying to contain our excitement Hood Branded Environments is proud to announce we are the recipients of Exhibitor Magazine’s 2016 EDGE Award for Exhibit Design and Graphic Excellence.

Branded Environments: Why digital brands need an off-line presence.

Technology has forever altered the way we market brands.  We’re living in an era of deep customer engagement.   Today’s more empowered, critical, demanding, and price-sensitive customers are turning in ever-growing numbers to social networks, blogs, online review forums, and other channels to quench their thirst for objective advice about products and to identify brands that seem to care about forming relationships with them.

Meanwhile, more and more consumers are using digital video recorders to fast-forward through TV commercials and are consuming video content on Web sites such as YouTube and on mobile devices. Billboards alongside train lines and bus routes struggle to capture the attention of people absorbed by the screens of their smartphones.

Branded Environments: Are Boutique Stores The Future Of Tech Retail?

There’s been a lot of buzz this past week about Google and whether they will be opening their own retail stores sometime later this year.  In our view a Google store makes a lot of sense. Google’s Nexus tablets and low-cost Chromebooks are reasons enough for retail stores.  Add in the Android Marketplace, Google Play, Google+, Google Now, plus an ever-tightening cross-integration of products and services, and the broader Google brand narrative starts to come into focus. A retail store is a perfect place for Google to connect the dots between it’s vast array of products and services, and to give consumers a hands-on opportunity to experience the Google digital lifestyle.

Branded Environments: Ten Technologies Redefining Retail

The retail industry is undergoing a transformation of epic proportions.  Two weeks ago, serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame predicted the eventual death of bricks-and-mortar retail in favor of pure play ecommerce.  Reid Hoffman responded with a more balanced view that envisions a world where innovations in software and social media bring the off-line and on-line retail worlds together in an ever more seamless integrated experience.

Underlying either forecast is the acknowledgement that technology has irreversibly changed the way consumers shop.   

BRANDED ENVIRONMENTS: AN AMAZING 3-D LIGHT SHOW YOU CAN JAM WITH

Beyonce's half-time show at the SuperBowl last night was breath taking. I'm not just referring to her performance, which was terrific. But also to the amazing special effects and massive video displays that made her live performance feel like a finely edited music video. As millions of us witnessed last night, display technology has reached new hights, opening a world of possibilities for brands looking to engage and amaze their fans in all sorts of brand activations and themed environments.

Here's another recent example reported in Design.Co featuring English soul singer, Jamie Lidell, demonstrating "a remarkable projection-mapped cube that creates insane visuals in real space -- all while responding to user inputs."

TRADE SHOWS: From A One Time Event To Year Round Engagement

The trade show industry was on life support just a few years ago.  But, as with so many other industries, technology is rapidly altering the trade show landscape, driving higher levels of customer engagement and increased efficiencies. Here is an excellent update from Forbes that discusses the major shifts that has marketers rethinking their trade show strategies.

RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS: GET READY FOR THE 6TH SCREEN

The “screens concept” has been around for awhile.  First came the one-way screens, at the movies followed by TV.  Then came interactivity via the computer screen, followed by the mobile phone or PDA.  And more recently digital touch-screens are popping up everywhere, earning the official position as screen #5.

What’s in a screen? A screen is a user interface that gives a brand a way to display brand messages, to create branded interactions with customers, to invite those customers to engage, and encourage them to participate with the brand in some way.  Screens play different roles at different stages of the customer journey, pre, during and post.  And increasingly, shoppers expect retailers to deliver an experience across all screens that’s seamless and coordinated.

If you track with that logic, we would argue that there’s even a sixth screen.

TRADE SHOW EXHIBITS: WHY DESIGN IS A STRATEGIC PRIORITY

The idea of design as a foundational element of business strategy is not new.  But thanks to the success of Steve Jobs and Apple, companies are increasingly placing more value on the concept.  As a strategy, design guides the development of products.  It frames the user experience.  It communicates at a glance what you want people to know about your brand. It influences the tactics you choose to go-to-market.  No longer is design simply relegated to the art studio or the ad agency.  It’s a strategic priority at the highest levels of the enterprise.

POP-UP STORES: More Big Brands Choosing Small Retail

The little pop-up store is earning its rightful position in the big marketing playbook.  Once reserved for edgy fashion designers and artists, more big brands are using temporary pop-up stores to address big marketing challenges.

Retail Environments: Integrating Bricks With Clicks

This week we've posted a great perspective for retailers and retail designers on the integration of digital technology and bricks-and-mortar stores. It's from an excellent article written by retail consultant Bill Bishop and originally posted on the Hub Magazine site.  As Bill points out, there's a bit of the "shiny new toy" phenomenon going on as retailers rush to integrate clicks with bricks. Bill's article is a breath of fresh air on the subject.

Branded Environments: 10 Interactive Ideas For Retailers

Interactive technology is taking the retail world by storm.  And as technology and cost barriers continue to fall, the pace of innovation is accelerating. Retailers around the world continue to find new and interesting ways to use technology to engage shoppers and deliver branded experiences. Here are ten of our current favorites.

Branded Environments: 7 reasons why customer experience is in danger of dying

Great brands deliver great customer experiences. But building a great customer experience is easier said than done. It's a complex enterprise involving business strategy, the integration of technology, business models, brand management and committment at the highest levels of the organization.  A few get it right.  And many get it wrong.  Here's a provocative piece from RetailCustomerExperience.com that raises some very valid concerns about how loosly the concept of "customer experience" is being bandied about, and the risks associated with that.  A quick read and very worthwhile.

O2O: It is time for e-tailers to embrace retail.

More ecommerce brands are embracing and integrating physical bricks-and-mortar retail experiences into their multi-channel strategies. In a recent article in Forbes “New Rules for eCommerce”, Will Hsu, co-founder of MuckerLab, a start-up accelerator consultancy, points out several factors behind the trend.

Retail Environments: 7 Tips For Future Proofing The In-Store Experience

Every physical space we enter needs an interactive experience or connection. By integrating digital technologies and web experiences into the offline world, retailers can find innovative ways to drive shopping behavior, enhance the consumer experience, and future-proof brands.

Here are some tips: