Don’t get left behind. If your current marketing plan doesn’t include Augmented Reality (AR) in one execution or many you just may find yourself wondering why your competitors are generating more interest in the coming months. Both Apple and Google have updated their mobile operating systems to fully integrate Augmented Reality tools for creators and users. 2018 will be awash with innovative consumer experiences built around this growing platform.

See your products and signage animate right before your eyes, creating memorable experiences, extolling their own virtues, and delivering valuable promotions right at the point of purchase — or just about anywhere you can imagine!

AR allows for consumers to engage with brands like never before

  1. Products will come alive right on the shelf to explain their benefits and make the case for purchase
  2. Retail chains will gain access to a powerful new way to connect with their customers, significantly increasing
    the chance of a sale
  3. Potential customers will linger longer at the point of purchase and experience an increase in moments and
    types of interaction, improving the likelihood of a sale

Every successful project starts with a little detective work. Our team reviews the space, the trigger (or product placement), and the desired interaction before we dive into creation. Augmented Reality works best when it’s staged properly, so we study the best way to achieve your goals and the need to build data collection into the system from the start. We encourage all clients to strongly consider a coupon and/or click-through option for their AR experiences, both to provide an incentive to the user and to collect consumer insights that help refine your strategy.

AR isn’t just a game or novelty. It’s providing forms of meaningful interaction that traditional advertising deliverables can’t. It is quickly becoming the hottest technology in marketing for creating memorable, data-rich experiences that reliably convert sales.

What can’t be had at the touch of a button today? Need a ride? Request an Uber. Hungry? Fire up the Grubhub app. You need look no further for evidence of our digitally connected age than the cardboard boxes emblazoned with the Amazon smile piling up on front stoops everywhere.

We were just getting used to the idea of the internet instantly serving up all the world’s media, but now even physical goods and services can be painlessly summoned right from our smartphones. Brick and mortar retailers are no longer just competing with their rivals across town, they now have to contend with the increasingly sophisticated world of ecommerce.

To do that, they’ll have to adapt some of online shopping’s advantages to their own model. First and foremost, physical retailers are moving away from a merely transactional relationship to something more akin to forming a community with their customers.

Luring Shoppers Back With Experiences They Can’t Get Online

Brick and mortar locations no longer want shoppers to just come, buy, and leave, they want them to stay, socialize, and feel at home. Experiential retailers are turning their showrooms into hangouts and their stores into “town squares,” places to eat, drink, take a class, have a spa treatment, or simply connect with others face to face instead of just on FaceTime.

When Urban Outfitters announced it was purchasing Pizzeria Vetri in 2015, many wondered if there was a genuine synergy opportunity between a clothing store and a restaurant. But, as Marc Vetri, founder of the pizza chain, told Bloomberg:

“Now you can order a sofa on the internet, if you want to eat at the hot new restaurant, you have to leave your living room and you have to venture out. The newest styles are available 24/7 on Urban’s website, but if you want a trendy dining experience to go with those new kicks, only the real world will do.”

Other stores are also investing in new incentives to make the trek to physical outlets. Luxury brand Coach undoubtedly upset some of its retail partners when it pulled its handbags and accessories out of a quarter of American department stores.

But, that move is drawing more attention to its own stores where visitors have access to exclusive features like monogramming stations and its Made to Order Rogue line of customizable handbags.

Physical Retail Gets Wise to the Power of Data

Enhancing the customer experience is just the beginning, though. Creating spaces that entice people to leave their connected homes will help physical retail weather the current transition in consumer behavior. But, if they want to not just survive, but truly compete with online services, brick and mortar stores will need the same analytics-hungry mindset that drives ecommerce.

Technologies like bluetooth beacons and wifi geofencing are physically tracking visitors in the same way an online shopper is traced from landing page to shopping cart. They answer questions like how many people are coming through the doors, how long are they staying, and where do they congregate?

Constant access to analytics was built into ecommerce from the start. Physical retail is now figuring out it needs that edge as well:

“Having that data and understanding how consumers are interacting with that store versus the internet, for that particular brand, that allows the retailers to change the shape of the store and invest in the store to cater to what that customer wants,” said Melina Cordero, CBRE Head of Retail Research in the Americas.

In addition to passive tracking systems, physical stores are taking advantage of the deeper and more reciprocal relationship they are forging with their customers to directly ask them for more qualitative information. Knowing how many people come through your doors is good, but knowing why is even better. They are interacting with customers during promos and events, sign ups for free services like Wifi and apps, and across social media channels. At every touchpoint, they are collecting user information and asking for feedback and suggestions. Each interaction is an opportunity to gleam precious insights about their customers’ motivations.

Final Word

In the experiential retail era, stores aren’t just where we spend our money, they’re where we spend our time. Smart brands are giving shoppers compelling reasons to leave the safe and convenient confines of their homes and smartphones. The smartest of all are using this new space as a vehicle for collection of the analytics that will help them continually improve the experience.

Managing signage for an organization, whether it’s retail spaces, university campuses, or corporate locations, can be a full-time job in addition to a full-time job. Don’t waste time and money hiring someone to oversee your signage management until you read this!

Signage management takes time, smart planning, manpower, and, of course, proper budgeting. Sometimes the right decision is to free up your internal resources by relying on an outside agency or production management firm. Graphic management can consume almost thirty hours a week in coordination tasks for you and your associates. Hiring another employee may be the answer, but in most cases it is impractical when you really dive into the costs.

Three reasons to consider why you should let us take this off your plate . . .

  1. Signage management takes time out of your day to interview and hire, time better spent generating revenue
  2. Even the most experienced new hires need onboarding, training, and time to acclimate to your company
  3. New hires are expensive when you account for salary, benefits, and time-off

At Branded Spaces, we approach signage management as a holistic program. Too often, companies consider their signage needs as individual projects, which deprives them of the many benefits of a coordinated brand scheme. When meeting new clients, we review all of the printed materials and signage they are currently producing to get a high-level sense of what their “look” is. Next we hold a workshop and ask the key stakeholders in the organization to review their aesthetic and assign a hierarchy of importance to the graphics. This process makes abundantly clear the areas where designs can be updated. From there, we create a brand guide for signage that establishes the rules for printing moving forward, limiting the possibility of rogue expenditures.

Managing a signage program, if it’s to help your customers find their way or inspire employees to give 100%, starts with an expert team that understands high-level corporate purpose, design, and production. Check-out why our clients trust in our know-how dependability, and turnkey services so their teams can stay focused on their business, not signage.

What’s your next big undertaking? Can you picture it already? Visualizing a project while it’s still in the planning phase reveals opportunities to maximize your resources and is essential to discovering and addressing obstacles before they arise. For physical spaces, complex three dimensional renderings that once demanded costly and time consuming computational resources are now so readily available that they are well on their way to becoming standard industry practice.

With the right design team guiding the process, software solutions can generate still shots, 3D walkthroughs and flybys, and even virtual tours that are so lifelike they make traditional rendering formats look positively archaic by comparison. 3D models seamlessly transport the viewer into virtual environments, creating a sense of space, proportionality, and presence that a flat rendering can’t hope to achieve. Quickly see how time of day and placement of fixtures and architectural components affect lines of sight as well as the movement of light and shadow. Experiment with visual design, placement of signage, color schemes, and see the photoreal result of any number of major design choices before a single nail is hammered.

Reasons/Ideas: In addition to proving valuable design and planning insights, simulating the feel of a room or outdoor space can inform up-selling and conversion strategies:

  1. Show off the potential of an empty space: Staging, dressing a room up with furniture and design elements to appeal to potential buyers, is one of the hottest trends in real estate. With 3D models, property owners and managers can virtually build-out a room or office to illustrate smart uses for the space.
  2. Create multiple examples to taste: Hand drawn renderings are expensive and difficult to make changes to. Restaging a physical space is even more laborious. By contrast, flexible and easily modifiable 3D models let you to take one space and adapt it to multiple styles of taste, customizing your presentation to specific audiences.
  3. Record virtual tour videos: 3D models can be rendered as still screenshots for printed marketing materials, but sometimes a single image doesn’t tell the whole story. With animated video walkthroughs and virtual tours, the viewer feels transported directly into the space, seeing it not like an outside observer, but through the lens of a true participant in the experience.

Our Approach:

To create 3D models that are both beautiful and incredibly functional, we start with a comprehensive workshop to review your architectural plans, identify the needs of the space, and discuss overarching brand goals. No one knows your offering better than you, so we collect as much client feedback and input as possible before moving into the design and development stage.

Once the major direction has been agreed upon and the initial virtual structure has been constructed, brand elements and fine details can start to be experimented with to find optimal arrangements. The final product is a practical model that allows you to dive in and explore the space with unprecedented freedom. Don’t let guesswork and outdated methods deprive your next project of its chance to shine. Exploit the vast capabilities of 3D models for a deeper look.

“There’s so many people and so many signs; I think I’m going to roll up into a ball and cry.”

That’s the sentiment an overwhelmed client once relayed while discussing Identification Signs for a 50,000 square-foot office facility their architectural firm was responsible for designing. They described the stress of having to organize every sign needed for each employee and their workspace. Spelling the employee’s name correctly and placing it on the appropriate office on the appropriate floor of the building is a daunting task. Or is it?

Worry not. Part of any good sign management project involves tackling all aspects of signage and figuring out automated solutions. There are a lot of options available in today’s market, and the best signage vendors know how to take as much work off the client’s plate as possible.

Modular ID sign systems are a two-pronged solution to the office sign plating problem. They offer a permanent fixture that looks upscale, contemporary, and sleek, with the flexibility of a removable/replaceable name card. The name card is inserted into the sign plate and then protected by an acrylic cover. It’s a striking design that is easily adjusted in the event of a position change or office move.

Forward thinking vendors can also take advantage of an online sign portal to support signage for the life of the building. Should a name or room change, tenants can simply access the support website, log in to see their building, and create a new name plate live online. Once they are happy with the layout they can download a print-ready PDF and print the name themselves to update the ID sign.

The days are gone where it was enough to just drop a spreadsheet with a chunk of names and floor numbers in the client’s lap. The pace of business is too fast for that, and it’s only getting faster. Don’t get bogged down with overly complicated or outdated systems.

When faced with our dismayed client, we were happy to alleviate their concerns by letting them know that it’s simple to accomplish a functional and beautiful identification sign project when you have the right tools and assistance in front of you.

Virtual 3D worlds today are so lifelike that they sometimes feel like the real thing, and they offer so many advantages over traditional 2D architectural renderings that they are quickly becoming an industry standard. Technology is creating levels of accessibility and interactivity that were once the stuff of science fiction. 3D models are now readily available that seamlessly transport the viewer into virtual environments, creating a sense of space, proportionality, and presence that a flat rendering can’t hope to achieve.

Beyond simulating the feel of a room or outdoor space, 3D models can be tools for up-selling and closing deals

  1. Show off the potential of an empty space: If you are trying to lease, sell, or design a property,
    3D models can add furniture and room/office build-outs virtually to illustrate smart uses for the space
  2. Create multiple examples to taste: Models allow you to take one space and adapt it to multiple styles of taste,
    increasing the appeal to multiple buyers
  3. Record virtual tour videos: Screenshots can be exported for printed marketing materials, and videos taking
    the viewer into the space as if they were actually in the location are perfect for websites

Our process starts with a twenty minute workshop where we review the architectural plans and identify the general needs for the space. Next, we set up a work session to demonstrate the initial structure and begin to add brand elements and fine details. It’s critical to have client input at this juncture as no one knows your offering better than you. The final product is a functional 3D model that allows you to dive in and explore the space with unprecedented freedom.

Your signage needs can be burdensome. They take time, smart planning, manpower, and, of course, proper budgeting. Sometimes the right decision is to free up your internal resources by relying on an outside agency or production management firm. Graphic management can consume almost twenty hours a week in coordination tasks for you and your associates. Hiring another employee may be the answer, but in most cases it is impractical when you really dive into the costs.

  • Signage management takes time out of your day to interview and hire, time better spent generating revenue
  • Even the most experienced new hires need onboarding, training, and time to acclimate to your company
  • New hires are expensive when you account for salary, benefits, and time-off

Signage plays a key role in the revenue stream of many companies and organizations. If it’s mismanaged, a serious dent can be left in the bottom line. In those cases, reaching out to an agency or a signage management firm just makes good sense. You get access to an entire team of specialists for less than the cost of hiring a single new employee — specialists that elevate your brand appeal and help you put your best foot forward.

We look at signage management as a holistic program. Too often, companies consider their signage needs as individual projects, which deprives them of the many benefits of a coordinated brand scheme. When meeting new clients, we review all of the printed materials and signage they are currently producing to get a high-level sense of what their “look” is. Next we hold a workshop and ask the key stakeholders in the organization to review their aesthetic and assign a hierarchy of importance to the graphics. This process makes abundantly clear the areas where designs can be updated. From there, we create a brand guide for signage that establishes the rules for printing moving forward, limiting the possibility of rogue expenditures.