Commentary

Break The Silos!

by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, August 18, 2014

But make sure the consumers don't get hit by the shrapnel.

Speaking at the MediaPost Mobile Insider Summit in Tahoe, Calif., this morning, Jesse Wolfersberger, director of consumer insights at GroupM Next, said that the "in-store experience has a long way to go."

"How many hours of your life, while shopping, have you spent flipping through for a pair of jeans?" Wolfersberger asked. "Probably far too long. If I can walk into the door, and they can recognize my face and walk up to me with my size jeans, that’s a win."

To get to that "win," however, Wolfersberger said "it's all about integration," and breaking down silos. "If the mobile team is a silo, the in-store team is a silo and the desktop team is a silo, then these things will never happen."

That's when panel moderator Joe McCaffrey, planning director and head of social at Huge, asked: "How careful do we need to be?" Recognizing faces when consumers walk into a store is rather personal, after all.

Adrian Olvera, global consumer and SMB CRM, business development manager at Dell, believes believes that "creepy" factor will disappear over time. He doesn't know if it will take five years or 20, but he's confident consumers will become more comfortable with mobile technology and how it can be useful for both them and marketers.

"20 years ago nobody wanted to buy on the Internet," he pointed out.