Phygital: the future of Customer Experience is already here

The second appointment of the event " L’età ibrida: dialoghi per le imprese alla vigilia di una nuova era", organized by the Milan Chamber of Commerce Monza Brianza Lodi at Palazzo Giureconsulti in Milan, took place on 13 October and saw the participation of Nicolò Andreula. Dilium took part in the event to offer discussion points based on its direct experience in the creation of Augmented Reality solutions to support companies. The key theme of the event was the concept of Phygital, but what does this term, coined at least 10 years ago and still foreign to many marketing strategies, indicate?

Phygital combines the online world with the offline one trying to take the best aspects of each to create a more complete and satisfying customer experience. The main feature of this approach is the multi-channel approach, thanks to which the consumer purchase process becomes more fluid and easier. In dilium we offer AR solutions for the Marketing & Retail world that allow customers to experience a "phygital" experience in order to help them move more easily within their spaces and to create more immersive interactions in order to increase trust towards brands and the values they represent.

From the latest research in our possession, it emerges that the world of on-field marketing is constantly evolving, driven by technologies and mega-trends, but also influenced by uncontrollable events such as Covid-19. These researches show how customers are increasingly looking for connected experiences where physical and digital coexist in the customer journey. For example, a customer's shopping experience can start with the search for a lamp and continue with the AR test on the bedside table, ending with a purchase in the store. We are no longer just talking about the digital experience, but about the customer experience. And this is precisely the goal of a successful strategy that considers technologies such as AR an essential condition for the realization of expectations.

Over the past two years we have seen an increasing interest from companies in using these Phygital strategies to realize innovative projects in order to get to know their customers better and enter into a closer relationship with them helped by high-level engagement interactions. How not to mention the Burger King case that invited users to burn competitors' advertising posters in AR. An activity in which the classic strategy of Out-of-home advertising was accompanied by a digital one capable of bringing Burger King users / consumers to play with the signage of competitors (McDonald's in primis).

Always drawing on the vast literature of maketing & management, the economic activities of the next few years will be increasingly personalized and focused on the needs of individual users. Marketing will therefore have to adapt to the challenges of the future, integrating marketing automation software and multi-channel phygital strategies into its analysis, planning and communication processes. The barrier between the physical and the digital has been eroded for years and with 2021 upon us, the era of phygital can no longer be postponed.