The IAB has today announced the winners for the 2020 IAB Europe Research Awards, which sees OMD EMEA awarded Gold in the newly launched ‘digital advertising and marketing industry insight’ category, for our proprietary global research project the ‘Retail Revolution’.

The ‘Retail Revolution’, a global multi-phased research project which launched in 2017, set out to understand how the next wave of disruptive AI technology could drive brand growth through higher-value consumer experiences.

With AI set to be the major disruption throughout the 2020s, we recognised that the understanding of human needs is paramount if we wish to scale AI technologies to make an economic impact. The ‘Retail Revolution’ provides empirical evidence for marketers to represent the voice of the consumer alongside a wide range of logistical and financial challenges for companies. New technologies have significant potential to drive growth, not just in terms of efficiency, but also to catapult the most successful brands into new sectors. This study is a strategic asset for the whole sector.

Therefore, to have the study recognised by the IAB Europe Research Awards, as one which has delivered new insight and learnings about the digital advertising industry, is an award we are proud to receive.

The IAB Europe Research Awards are described as an “opportunity to gain industry recognition for digital research projects and to show the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry. They serve to celebrate the best digital research projects that are deserving of pan-European recognition”, further cementing the study as one relevant not just to the whole sector, but globally.

Please continue reading to view a portion of our award-winning entry, and hear more on the key insights which took our project to Gold status.

You can access the full research report, and view all articles written to date at omd.com/retail-revolution.

To find out more, please contact [email protected]

About Retail Revolution

AI is increasingly woven into our daily lives. New technology has changed the way we communicate and make purchase decisions. To understand how brands can maximise the opportunity of AI, we must move beyond simple technology trends and enhance our understanding of how consumers accept and trust AI-based services in their daily lives.

Therefore, OMD created a global multi-phased research study to track AI perceptions, adoption and usage as the technology evolves. With novel insights, the research shows that AI technologies are reaching the tipping point of mass adoption and that consumers are beginning to expect more than a novelty experience.

This provides opportunities for brands. Now, with a wealth of data from 21 markets, 30,000 consumers and 65 future retail scenarios, we have a better idea of how brands can create more valued and valuable brand experiences for consumers. This invaluable data asset allows us to build future-proof AI strategies and guide us towards creating a consumer-focused roadmap for action. To put insights into action, we’ve worked with our clients on understanding how their consumers use these technologies, how their brands can engage, and what is possible now.

There were three core elements to the project:

• Quantitative surveys in 2017 and 2019, tracking AI perception and adoption in 21 global markets, across 21 sectors and 9 smart technology categories;
• Qualitative research in partnership with 2CV, exploring how people interact with Voice in their daily lives (In-home depths, mobile ethnographies, Go-pro Recordings) in three markets of interest;
• A second quantitative survey, digging deeper into voice and image search behaviours across 12 global markets.

Each stage of research built-on the previous research phases, whilst client workshops and stakeholder interviews helped refine the scope of the research.

Our topline learnings from the research project are that:

• Most new technologies have surpassed the 20% penetration threshold – after which, adoption tends to accelerate. We now need to shift from adoption to frequency
• Voice tech offers more valued ways for brands to engage with consumers – A respondent described it as ‘action at the speed of thought’
• Trust is a key barrier, 65% of Consumers are concerned about how much data is being collected – transparency and positive user experiences are key to building trust
• Retailers are the second most trusted brand to make decisions on consumers’ behalf – there is an opportunity to leverage this advantage to deliver more valued services