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Retailers, Designers Say Collaboration is Key to Creating Audiovisual Experiences

When ‘intentional,’ AV solutions help retailers tell stories and build connections.

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As customers walk into the new Under Armour flagship store in Tokyo’s vibrant Shinjuku district, they can’t miss the audiovisual experience created to draw them in. And that’s by design. “It starts at the beginning of the store and takes you all the way through the first floor and up the back wall,” explained Sharon Lessard, Under Armour’s Senior Director of Global Store Design and Development.

Lessard discussed the thinking behind Under Armour’s Shinjuku store at the 2019 International Retail Design Conference (IRDC) in Boston, during a panel about audiovisual design moderated by AVIXA. She was joined by Kathleen Jordan, Principal at Gensler, and Andrew Lazarow, Designer and AV Technologist at ESI Design.

“It’s all very intentional,” Lessard continued. “This is a busy part of Tokyo, right at the subway, so how do you stop people as they’re walking by? Our intention from the beginning was to have a large digital presence on the exterior — brand storytelling, digital movement, drawing people in.”

The building’s façade features a giant, fine-pitch, Times Square-style LED display. Upon entering beneath a low ceiling, video projection systems create a lighted runway, which leads people into a large atrium and flows seamlessly into another large LED videowall. “It’s very dynamic,” Lessard said, “and it’s informing how we’re going to take digital into our smaller formats.”

According to AVIXA’s Market Opportunity and Analysis Report, retailers continue to invest in brick-and-mortar stores, and a growing share are committing more of that spend to audiovisual solutions. Based on construction data, AVIXA researchers found that one-third of retailers would spend 6 to 10 percent of their capital budgets on AV, and whopping 30 percent had earmarked 10 percent or more for AV technology.

AV is a ‘Modern-Day Requirement’

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“When I first entered the profession, the biggest thing was handicap-accessible fitting rooms. Now it’s how to integrate digital technology,” Jordan told IRDC attendees. The two trends are similar, she explained, because each is a modern-day requirement, and each takes money, space, and resources.

Collaboration among retail brands, designers, and AV technologists is critical to achieving the right experience, the panel agreed — and the earlier the better for all involved. Gensler’s Jordan described working on a new retail project when suddenly the client voiced interest in adding an AV experience. “They really don’t know what. They hadn’t factored it into the budget. We’re in schematic design and they think maybe they want to have a ‘wow,’” she said.

When it comes to that point, said Lazarow, it’s important to ask questions. “What do you want people to feel? What do you want them to take away? How do you build that connection?” he said. “The brands understand how important it is to make every touchpoint speak together, and so they're bringing us on earlier.”

Lazarow continued, “We like to do a lot of projection where we embed [technology] in the ceiling, the main reason being when you turn the projector off, you have a gorgeous wall that’s still an interesting space. But doing so takes planning, time, and testing.”

For Lessard and Under Armour, the connection with customers is made through motion visuals. “Under Armour is really about making you perform better, so how do we use digital movement to make you understand what the products can do for you?” she said.

At the time Lessard addressed the IRDC audience, the Shinjuku Under Armour store had only been open a couple weeks, but a program was in place to refresh the content and sustain the AV experience. She said, “The second-most critical question after ‘What’s your strategy?’ is ‘How are you going to maintain it?’”

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AVIXA™ is the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association, proud Presenting Sponsor of the annual International Retail Design Conference. AVIXA and its members help retailers create a more successful future through the integration of compelling audiovisual experiences. AVIXA represents the $231 billion global commercial AV industry and produces InfoComm trade shows around the world.

For more information, visit www.avixa.org/retailAV.

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