AnyMind Group (AdAsia Holdings) was at this year’s edition of IRX Indonesia from 24th to 25th January 2018. The event featured many giants in the Indonesian retail scene, including but not limited to names such as Shopee, Clozette and Go-Jek.
IRX Indonesia brought together a wide and diverse range of participants and ideas, with retail as the central connective tissue. Indonesia is at the frontier of innovation with a heady mix of innovation across e-commerce, online payment and online marketplaces. In this context, IRX attracted a wide range of local startups, mid- to large-sized companies as well as local venture capitalists keen on understanding current trends and successful implementations. It is rare to see such scale and depth in a seemingly narrow domain like retail – it could only happen in Indonesia!
The retail industry is experiencing disruption right now; the first wave brought on the use of data and analytics, brought about by the sheer scale of devices and users – providing businesses with a more complete picture of their customers. This conversation has since evolved into one of enablers that drive outcomes for retailers.
Vivek Misra, Director, Corporate Strategy at AnyMind Group took to the stage at IRX Indonesia to deliver two presentations.
Highlighting 3 tips on what really makes AI work, from @vivekmisra15 talk yesterday. 1) Leverage authentic conversations between micro-influencers and their followers 2) Make viral promotions 3) Set up e-commerce platforms to open up micro-influencer services. @IRXAsia #IRXAsia18 pic.twitter.com/TO54PR2wAd
— AnyMind Group (@AnyMindGroup) January 25, 2018
The first of these was titled “How Can Artificial Intelligence Benefit E-commerce?”, where Misra talked about how players in the retail industry are already riding trends like AI and Internet of Things (IoT) through chatbots, recommendation engines and smart logistics. As an industry, e-commerce has been a pioneer in adopting programmatic advertising in the quest to better understand and communicate with customers. AI’s role in the industry will grow, including customer-facing functions such as AI-powered creatives – retaining and enhancing the ability to evoke consumers’ emotions will be a key point to look out for.
Speaking of emotion, Misra’s second presentation, “Using Online Video Marketing to Drive Sales Conversion” put the emphasis on the point. Video has proven to be popular and effective in Indonesia in conveying emotion and personality, as well as better ad recall rates from the combination of visual and auditory messages. In 2017 an eMarketer report showed that more than 80 million people in the country watched digital video regularly, up 13.9% from 2016. With the wide variety of video formats available in the market, developing a suitable video advertising strategy and measuring it with the right KPIs is of utmost importance.
Looking ahead, technology will play an increasingly important role in the retail industry, helping to scale business outcomes and drive sales by helping businesses better reach and connect with their customers with the help of AI. The only thing that is needed is the widespread adoption of emerging technologies – facilitated by access to these tools.
