I attended IRCE 2014 at McCormick Place a few weeks ago. It is really a BIG show. I was overwhelmed when I walked into the Exhibit Hall and was immediately asked to have my badge scanned. "For what?" I asked. The lady responded, "To enter our contest." I knew nothing about this contest but let her scan my badge because I was impressed with her ability to shamelessly scavenge for leads.
As I walked the hall, I encountered many different types of companies and they all were focused on one facet of the same topic: data. Whether using data to engage a user in better searching or to use behavioral data to personalize content, everyone is trying to find their piece of the data pie.
I attended sessions in the e-Marketing, Small Retailers, B2B and Design & Merchandising tracks. Most of what I heard, I am happy and proud to say, I already knew. We've been practicing much of what was being presented for about 18 months. I was really surprised many companies haven't yet latched on to the concept of the digital marketing ecosystem and how it can turn your web site into a marketing machine with the right integrations.
The one session which was the standout to me was "Neuromarketing: Where Science Meets the Visuals of Web Design" presented by Jered Goodyear from Epson and Kurtis Morrison from EyeQuant. I was really jazzed by this session. It got into the two types of brain activity, instinctual and conscious, and how they each play a role in how a user responds to what they see. They introduced EyeQuant's product which utilizes predictive modeling and helps optimize web designs. They used Epson as a case study and walked the audience through the evolution of a landing page design. The results of an EyeQuant evaluation and the subsequent optimization steps, led Epson to deliver a landing page design that resulted in a much higher conversion rate for the landing page.
It happened to be this was the last session I attended on the last day I was there. I left that session really energized by what I heard and saw. And again, I felt validated that I am thinking along the right lines.