Key Takeaways

Hugh Fletcher, Marketing Director, VML Enterprise Solutions

Naji El-Arifi, MarComms Director, VML Enterprise Solutions

Emerging channels and evolving realities are reshaping global shopping behavior. Insights from 31,000 shoppers across 20 countries revealed 10 key trends.

Access more global shopper insights here.

Session 1: AI strategy in practice: How VML built an AI pricing agent by Eelke Kroes & Cornelis Vletter

• AI: Think Big, Start Small, Show ROI. Cut through the hype. AI delivers when applied pragmatically. Target a problem, pilot a solution (e.g., AI Pricing Agent), and measure impact. Quick wins drive investment and turn AI into a tangible business asset.
• AI Success = People + Process + Purpose. Our AI Pricing Agent proved it: user adoption is paramount. AI maturity is about leadership, capability, governance, and culture – not just code.
• AI's Pillars: Quality Data & User Collaboration. Iterative AI demands clean data and deep analysis. Crucially, involve end-users early. Their insights ensure adoption and transform tech into impact. Test, learn, and "fail fast" to scale AI's power.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Kars Kooistra.

Session 2: Not just loyalty. Not just promotions. A holistic incentive approach for the bottom line by Lena Kleinwechter

• Customers are bored with the status quo. Engagement is the currency that counts.
• Meanwhile, businesses struggle with personalisation and profitability due to siloed data, tech and strategies
• Benefits of a holistic incentives strategy. 97% of businesses with an integrated approach see benefits with improved loyalty, better CX and increased revenue

Would you like to learn more? Contact Bart Klaver.

Session 3: Retail Media: Monetize your platform and audience by Rachel Scheffers & Haye van den Werf

• Retailer media has emerged as a powerful new channel within the marketing mix, effectively supporting both targeted performance and broad mass media campaigns.
• Retailers and platform owners are capitalizing on their high-traffic environments – whether online or in-store – by transforming their customer engagement into a valuable media platform.
• Success hinges on the ability to build relevant audiences and provide actionable performance insights

Would you like to learn more? Contact Kars Kooistra.

Kars Kooistra, Commercial Director, VML

Creativity isn’t just a finishing touch - it’s a strategic decision. It’s time to stop treating creativity as a luxury and start putting it at the core of your brand strategy.

Session 1: How to amplify creativity with WPP Open AI tools by Naji El-Arifi

• Amplifying Creativity with WPP Open AI Tools: AI tools like WPP Open are going to be an invaluable tool to boost creativity of teams and allow them to work efficiently and effectively.
• AI's Impact on Marketing Efficiency: WPP Open is not just about creativity there are tools that can help almost every role in the business. Connecting talent, tools, data, and AI to deliver better-informed marketing at scale.
• AI is moving fast: Technology is moving incredibly fast and it's important to get on the train and understand the technology. While that is making it hard to make long term strategic decisions its still easier than putting your head in the sand.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.

Session 2: Future 100 - prepare for tomorrow by Marianne van Rhijn

• People will live longer and healthier, what will this mean for your brand and products?
• Consumers would like brands to be humble in their advertising but expect to be entertained at the same time.
• Every household will have a robot in the future, and even 42% think they could fall in love with an AI/Bot.

If you would like to read all 100 trends, you can download the report here.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.

Session 3: Rethinking the path to purchase by Maaike Woudstra & Remon Beukers

• AI is changing discovery: Large Language Models (LLMs), chat interfaces, and social search platforms are redefining how people find and interact with brands.
• Search is shifting: Traditional SEO is no longer enough. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) andSocial Commerce are emerging as critical strategies for visibility with consumers.
• New metrics matter: Beyond clicks and conversions, we should be tracking intent signals, mentions and overall brandperformance.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.

Session 4: Accelerate your content supply chain with Optimizely Opal (AI) by David Buo & Jeroen Schuijt

• Optimizely One is the First OS for Marketing. Optimizely One unifies planning, creation, personalization, and analysis into a single, composable platform. It’s recognized as the leader by Gartner and Forrester across multiple categories. The platform simplifies marketing operations with seamless integrations and strong, native, AI functionality.
• AI-Powered Marketing Efficiency with Opal. Opal, the built-in AI assistant, automates campaign planning, content creation, and performance analysis. Opal boosts creative output by 25% and reduces production time by 30%.
• Optimizely One Drives Real Business ImpactAI-driven workflows and agents deliver faster time-to-market, higher content quality and quantity, and will free up content teams for true creative work. Case studies show up to $90K saved per campaign or asset. With Optimizely One, Marketing teams can scale up high quality output, without scaling their headcount.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jeroen Schuijt.

Brett Gaasbeek, Brand Manager at McDonald’s the Netherlands

What can you offer that no one else can? The right mix of ease, uniqueness, and talkability can turn brand moments into movement.

Session 1: Lowering barriers and unlocking Customer Lifetime Value by Jaap van Oort

• Personalization is Paramount. Moving beyond basic segmentation to truly understanding individual customer needs and preferences is essential for driving growth.
• Data is the Foundation. A robust data strategy, including harmonizing data from multiple sources, is critical for enabling effective personalization and AI-driven decision-making.
• AI Enables Scale & Efficiency. AI-powered tools and platforms are crucial for generating personalized content, predicting performance, and automating processes at scale.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.

Session 2: Pragmatic Composability: Is your commerce stack a launch pad or a liability? by Julien Bianchini

• 56% of organizations regret their largest tech purchases.
• Being pragmatic with composable ensures success.
• Microservices, APIs, cloud infrastructures and headless architectures may no longer be differentiators.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Julien Bianchini.

Session 3: How to win on the digital shelf? by Dennis Peek

• Brands and retailers need to work together to offer great CX to consumers, ​remove friction, and speed up time to value.
• Retail media can make the digital shelf more profitable for brands and retail. ​Provide better access to performance metrics.
• Build a content supply chain. ​Break the siloes between sales, creative, media, supply chain, data and tech.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.

Session 4: Turn digital investments into real growth by Rick van der Vlugt

• Budget for Growth: We discussed the importance of strategically allocating budgets across three key areas: (1) Innovation, driven by clear OKRs and insights, (2) Optimization, and (3) Maintenance.
• Design for Optimization: Rather than solely focusing on building platforms, we explored designing technology and data architectures that prioritize optimization. This approach empowers teams with the flexibility to test, learn, and optimize, while fostering accountability for outcomes.
• Evolve Your Operating Model: We touched upon the benefits of adopting a multi-skilled team approach within your operating model. This fosters continuous insights, optimization, and better control over your initiatives.

Would you like to learn more? Contact Jorik Leppink.