1. The Mars Agency 2015
Shopper Marketing Trend Report
examines how Social Media, Visual Web & The
Internet of Things are shifting the landscape
for CPGs and retailers. For a deeper dive
into these trends and to follow how our
predictions unfold throughout 2015,
visit themarsagency.com/2015.
TREND #1: Real-Time Social Shopping
TREND #2: Visual Web Shopportunities
TREND #3: Shopping & The Internet Of Things
FROM OMNICHANNEL
TO OMNICOMMERCE
The Shift to a World Where Everything is Shoppable.
For years, the shopper marketing industry has been stuck in an Omnichannel
approach to what we do, pushing out experiences and forcing engagement.
By ignoring the needs of the whole person, these experiences are becoming less
relevant to consumers’ lives. Today, people want to drive the interaction.
Forward-thinking Shopper Marketing leaders are moving the emphasis away from
trying to control the shopping experience, and going toward the convergence of
all commerce, where the barriers of when, where and how we shop are removed.
The shopper marketing practices that the industry knows today are fundamentally
changing. Three leading Omnicommerce trends are quickly shaping our space and
demanding that we all think differently:

2. TREND #1: REal-TimE Social ShoppiNg
gETTiNg REal abouT REal-TimE Social commERcE
This trend is showing up all across the industry. (And this is only the beginning.)
pERcENTagE of
u.S. aDulTS
buSiNESSES
aRE fEEliNg
fRuSTRaTED
While Social Media has been very
effective at building communities,
sparking conversations and generating
earned media, it’s been slow to get
the type of traction from a commerce
standpoint that many expected. That’s
all about to change.
i’ll buY ThaT
Shopping has always been a social
activity where people have looked to
friends for inspiration and validation. As
companies like Facebook and Twitter
make it easier and more secure to
transact on their platforms, the promise
of buying directly from a social feed will
become commonplace. As a result, the
roles of Digital, PR, Brand and Shopper
will blur even further. To capitalize on
this emerging opportunity, Shopper
Marketers will need to beef up their
Social Media chops.

3. aTTENTioN
TWiTTER
ShoppERS
Twitter recently launched both
#AmazonCart and the “Buy
Now” button – which allow
shoppers to add products directly
to their Amazon shopping
carts or complete a one-click
transaction, without ever leaving
their Twitter feed.
facEbooK
official
Facebook launched its own
“Buy” button in July, enabling
friends to not only “Like”
something but buy it as well
– all without ever leaving the
Newsfeed. San Francisco-based
Modify Watches was the first
brand to lean in, and the early
returns have been positive.
maKiNg Social
cuRRENcY
faShioNablE
At the Marc Jacobs Daisy
pop-up store in New York City,
shoppers can buy products
with social currency in lieu
of cash. Just tweet with the
hashtag #MJDaisyChain and
walk out with a free perfume,
necklace or handbag.
EXamplES impacTiNg ShoppER maRKETiNg:
bRaNDS No loNgER haVE ThE luXuRY of TalKiNg oNlY abouT pRicE
or features through traditional advertising. Today’s shoppers favor brand-provided content that
not only helps them find inspiration for daily living, but allows them to immediately act on that
inspiration with a purchase. Social media provides shoppers with content they can pull when it
is convenient for them. It allows the brand the opportunity to be part of those conversations that
are happening outside of traditional advertising vehicles. And now it creates a platform where
conversation advances to commerce.
bill SuSSmaN, CEO Collective Bias
WE’VE SEEN SomE EXciTiNg Social ShoppiNg EXamplES
popping up around the world and this year I predict that this trend will move into
the CPG space by way of shoppable recipes, health & beauty posts and wellness
tips. All of these categories have a natural connection to sharing ideas and
suggestions, and leave the reader wanting to test and try the subject of the post.
EThaN gooDmaN, VP Digital and Innovation at The Mars Agency
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TREND TalK
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MARS AGENCY

4. TREND #2: ViSual WEb ShoppoRTuNiTiES
SaY chEESE, maKE Dough.
A handful of CPG brands and retailers are testing the impact of photo and video commerce.
uploaDED DailY
a picTuRE iS
WoRTh...a loT
When you consider the meteoric
rise of platforms like Instagram
and Tumblr, it’s easy to see how
pictures and videos are fast
replacing text as the official
language of the Internet. Shopper
Marketers need to prepare to
capitalize on this new opportunity.
ENDlESS
ShoppoRTuNiTiES
Advances in image recognition and
eCommerce technology make it possible
for a digital photo or video, on a social
network or a retailer’s website, to be
transformed from a static object to a
shoppable one. And yes, this will quickly
lead to some very interesting possibilities:
Should a brand’s visual marketing assets
be treated as media or commerce?
Should activities on Instagram and
YouTube be the domain of the Digital or
Shopper team?

5. aS paRT of ThiS NEW coNTENT impERaTiVE,
shoppable content, both video and photos, is intriguing, as a brand can build both a reason to
believe and a reason to act. Said differently, how do you build the brand and drive sales impact?
Take for example Zappos who films hundreds of videos daily featuring Zappos employees
sharing features and benefits of their shoes. These videos appear beside product listings –
they’re simple, quirky, visual and effective with reports claiming that products with videos are
seeing double digits sales increases, while seeing fewer returns.
JEff fagEl, CMO G/O Digital
ShaRED phoToS capTuRE ouR DailY liVES aND paSSioNS
and often include brands. On average, 85% of photos we find with
brands do not reference the brand in the text, but contain the rich
context of usage occasion, pairings, sentiment, and insights into the
lives of the customer - an ‘always on’ digital ethnography that can be
used for customer intelligence and targeting.
maRY TaRcZYNSKi, CMO, Ditto Labs
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TREND TalK
haiR
appaRENT
Unilever and its hair care brand
TRESemme enabled shoppers to
buy products featured in styling
videos on its YouTube channel
via a new “channel gadget.”
iNSTa-buY
Retailing giants Target and
Nordstrom are experimenting
with a new platform called
“Like2Buy” that makes items
posted to their Instagram
feeds instantly shoppable.
ShoppablE
ViDEo cRaZE-Y
Walmart and its UK counterpart
ASDA embraced the shoppable
video craze in 2014 to make
their online video content
shoppable. Walmart partnered
with Fuisz Media to create a
series of commerce-enabled Back
to College videos on walmart.com,
and ASDA is leveraging YouTube
to let shoppers add items to their
shopping lists from its Mums
Eye channel.
EXamplES impacTiNg ShoppER maRKETiNg:
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MARS AGENCY

6. TREND #3: ShoppiNg & ThE iNTERNET of ThiNgS
paRT of ouR liVES
There has already been some early activity in this realm within the CPG space.
moRE ThaN a
buZZ phRaSE
More and more of the objects
and devices we interact with
on a daily basis are becoming
intelligent and addressable. They
have immense potential to make
our lives, including our shopping
experiences, better. There are now
refrigerators that know when to
order milk. Or imagine a smart pill
bottle that notifies your pharmacy
when you need a refill.
ShoppER
maRKETiNg
implicaTioNS
Frictionless, automated, anytime-
anywhere Omnicommerce is on the
verge of becoming a mainstream
reality. That presents a real opportunity
for brands, retailers and agencies to
get into the smart hardware game
and rethink the use of commoditized
products so they can serve a new
purpose in our lives. Sometimes
reinvention is the best invention.
ToTal NumbER of WiRElESS
coNNEcTED DEVicES
(iNcluDiNg WEaRablES liKE fiTbiT)

7. SmaRT EggS
GE recently partnered with Quirky,
an innovative product design
shop, to build the Egg Minder, a
smartphone-compatible egg tray
that keeps track of how many eggs
a user has (and how old they are)
and helps them decide if/when to
buy new ones.
ScaN oR SpEaK
Amazon has gotten into the
Internet of Things game in a big
way with the recent releases
of Dash and Echo. Dash is
a handheld device that lets
users scan product UPCs
to add items directly to their
Amazon shopping carts. Echo
is a Siri-like smart speaker that
responds to voice commands,
answers questions and performs
simple tasks like completing
transactions on Amazon.
ShoppER loVE
Babolat’s Pure Play Drive product
system uses sensors in the handle
of the tennis racket to track and
analyze ball speed, spin, and
impact location to improve the
player’s game. It can even compare
a user’s swing against the pros,
including Nadal and Nu. As the
company expands the line, the
racket will tell players when they
need to graduate to the next level
of technology, or other equipment
they’ll need to continue to improve.
EXamplES impacTiNg ShoppER maRKETiNg:
iN ThE NEaR fuTuRE i pREDicT WE Will bE uSiNg SEaRch NoT oNlY foR WEbSiTES,
information or products, but to see if we personally have a product in our homes. For
example, I will search on Google: “Do I have soup at home?” and if I don’t, Google will
tell me the nearest store or friend that has the soup I’m looking for. It seems like a very
complex idea, but with Google’s Physical Web Project, they are making it their mission to
give people the ability to walk up to any smart device - a vending machine, a poster,
a toy, a can of soup, a bus stop, a rental car - and connect to it over the Web.
KEViN hiSKo, Director Creative Technology at The Mars Agency
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MARS AGENCY
TREND TalK
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8. For a deeper dive into these trends and to follow how our predictions unfold throughout
2015, visit themarsagency.com/2015. Here, we ask that you tell us about your
predictions for 2015. We’ll send you a virtual postcard in November 2015 to remind
you of your trends and to see how right you were.
• What do we need to accomplish in 2015 to get ahead of Omnicommerce?
• How can we push the technology in our media to allow for a richer, shoppable experience?
• What currently static assets/content do we own that could become shoppable?
• What content should we develop as an extension of our brand that fuels conversation?
• How do we determine ownership of these assets to move projects forward?
• Who within our organization is in the best position to lead an initiative into this less-predictable,
less-controllable territory?
• Should projects be driven by our shopper agency? Our media agency? Or our digital agency?
• Will a meaningful amount of our sales come from new commerce touchpoints?
• How will we measure this success?
Brands need to start thinking about how Omnicommerce
applies to their categories, considered or not. They also
have to ask themselves, and especially their shopper
marketing teams, some very important questions:
OMNICOMMERCE:
ATREND IN MOTION
themarsagency.com
(248) 936-2200
Ken Barnett: barnettk@themarsagency.com
Rob Rivenburgh: rivenburghr@themarsagency.com