Here’s my recap – in 140 character bites from the Twitterverse.

On targeting Millennials:

The average millennial owns 7 devices. #IRCE #sxsw

— Sara Clarke (@seclarke) March 11, 2014

#millennials are forcing new sales and service models. need to be where they are at: online and face2face where they frequent. #irce #sxsw

— amanda grosgebauer (@ag_spotstrat) March 11, 2014

On consumers and the second screen experience:

"90% of people will recommend a brand after they've had a social interaction with that brand." @ranvir @getchute #OOHFuture #acsxsw #sxsw

— Laurie Keith (@lauriekeith) March 10, 2014

More than 84% of American tablet & smartphone owners use their devices while watching TV. #2ndScreen http://t.co/QgHRQaoD8p

— DanDawes (@DanDawes) March 11, 2014

#2ndscreen "Gotta hit targeting, reach, and frequency AND reporting, then you can nail monetization and ad buys" @gconsig #sxsw

— Mass Relevance (@massrelevance) March 8, 2014

On customer experience:

Brand strategy = customer experience strategy. You can't market your way out of a mediocre customer experience. Redefine your focus. #yodel

— Nikki Rappaport (@nikkirap) March 11, 2014

"Digital & physical retail need to be on the same team"… Entirely true. It's the key to 'holistic' retail success. #digistore #SXSW

— Alex Blaney (@hitono) March 9, 2014

On social:

personal shopping recommendations via Instragram trends, this is the year to buy on Instagram @whatupwilly #retailtech

— Kim Geralds (@kimgeralds) March 9, 2014

Both Lowe's and GE say Vine & Instagram work informs their TV and ad strategies. #mpomma

— S. Schierholz (@schierholz) March 7, 2014

On leveraging new tech:

Future of wearable tech and brands – Wearable device recognises you have run 10 miles. Auto delivers gatorade to your door #DoBrands #Sxswi

— Karen Fewell (@DigitalBlonde) March 7, 2014

On digital advertising:

New line of hair care brand has an digital billboard at a train station, reacts to train arriving. #OOHFuture http://t.co/beXwhOU7NF

— Robert Freeman (@robertfreeman2) March 10, 2014

People process visual content online 60,000 times faster than text. #OOHFuture #SXSW14

— dan pankraz (@danpankraz) March 11, 2014

Right place, right time, right person, right message, that is the future of successful, effective omnichannel marketing. #OOHFuture

— Pam Krengel (@pkrengel) March 10, 2014

On innovation (in lab form or otherwise):

Now your iPhone can produce smells … and the first scent they picked was bacon. #scentee #SXSW http://t.co/kfupS2fmZR

— Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) March 10, 2014

Leaving #SXSW & reminded of how innovative retailers already are. Thank you @BestBuy & @BenefitBeauty. http://t.co/YYOHgr8Sob

— Sarah Neale Rand (@SarahNRand) March 10, 2014

New Allsaints CEO instilled 100-day sprints for projects. Agility needs to be important to those at the top. #retailtech #SXSW

— esther s. kim (@e5thelove) March 9, 2014

Which topics did I miss? Tweet me at @mcaselittle or add your takeaways in the comments. Until next year, South by!

Our friends at digital analytics agency Pointmarc took a deep dive into our social data and created this great infographic that tracks the buzz from the start of the show Saturday, January 11 to its close on Wednesday, January 15.

We think you’ll find it pretty interesting–and you can even compare this final wrap up to a mid-event snapshot from Tuesday. But this isn’t the end of #nrf14 talk. Join in the conversation to tell us what you learned at the show!

A big thank you to Pointmarc for tracking our social stats! You can find out more about their marketing insight and analytics platform instrumentation services here.

This is what Aptaris, an enterprise marketing and promotions management solution provider that has worked with brands such as Toys ‘R’ Us, Winn Dixie and BI-LO, knows best. Ahead of its appearance exhibiting at Retail’s BIG Show, we spoke with Aptaris CEO Tom O’Reilly to get his thoughts on new challenges for retail marketers, what tools are needed to beat the competition, and where retail marketing is headed.

Tom O’Reilly, CEO, Aptaris

What are some of the biggest challenges for retail marketers today?

It’s harder to achieve and maintain a competitive edge. It’s not just about price, convenience, selection — all the usual things. Retailers need a bottom-up strategy with delight as the controlling principle for beating the competition. Yes, you have to knock it out of the park on all the old metrics, but that is not enough. You have to speak to the customer when, where and how they want to be spoken to with a proposition that is specific to their needs. Take the example of loyalty cards. Does it makes sense to keep using them as a discount card or can you offer rewards or conveniences or unique experiences?

When it comes to the execution of targeted offers how do you manage the logistics of one-to-one marketing, especially when different teams across the organization are involved?

That’s where it gets interesting. It’s one thing to know intellectually that you have to get the right offer at the right time to the right customer through the right media channel. It’s another thing altogether to execute on that ideal. It takes agility — and that is a combination of speed, visibility and connectedness. You need technology and a culture that fosters true collaboration and makes it easy for each part of your organization to work together. You need visibility to information, such as what offers are available, what has worked in the past, how does it connect with what you know about your customers, and so on. Then you need to be able to act fast. The old model of planning weeks, even months out is no longer sufficient. You need to be able to see an opportunity and react within days — perhaps hours. That kind of agility requires a cultural change and technology tools.

Retailers are dealing with more data than ever before. What should they focus on to measure and build on their successes? 

Retailing excellence will rely more and more on a positive feedback loop that begins with research and insights to help segment and target your activities. Next comes positioning and offering selection through the right marketing mix. You’ve got to be able to execute clear from plan to store floor, then measure results and provide actionable feedback that improves the process through each cycle. Many retailers are drowning in metrics. What they really need is fast access to metrics and the ability to roll up, drill down, and look across on the fly. You can’t have the agility we are talking about if you have to spend hours collecting data and creating spreadsheets. You need it in a click or two.

How do you think retail marketing will evolve in the next five years?

Connection is the key. Retailers need to connect to shoppers. Departments need to connect to collaborate. Strategy needs to connect with systems and data. And it all has to happen fast. Planning will always be important. The six- or 12-week, even quarterly, traditional planning rhythm will never go away. But you need to add agility to that mix. Big box retailers will continue to dominate, and retailers that find a niche will thrive. You need to act fast and act smart. We hear a lot about big data, the empowered customer and omnichannel marketing. The promise and the challenge in each of those trends will require retailers to be agile — connected and coordinated, with fast visibility into data and the ability to speed execution. That is what makes the industry exciting and what motivates me personally and our company.

Want more from retail’s top technology leaders? Attend Retail’s BIG Show EXPO, open January 13-14 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Retailers can register for a free EXPO pass.

In fact, one retailer’s unusually early holiday-themed commercial in September  secured their place as one of the more memorable ads in recent history. According to thousands of consumers polled recently, they have been driving the conversation ever since.

When asked which retailer had the best holiday TV commercial, 12 percent of holiday shoppers said Kmart, up significantly from the nearly 2 percent in 2012. The survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, found that Walmart (22 percent) and Target (14 percent) were the clear winners in the eyes of consumers, but the survey makes it evident that Kmart’s edgy take on “Jingle Bells” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” really caught people’s attention this year. Watch both TV spots below.

While Retail’s BIG Show is known for the four days of learning, networking and exhibiting in the Javits Convention Center, it also offers a chance to go behind the scenes at some amazing New York stores. NRF has put together a program of self-guided tours of more than 30 stores that can get attendees out of the convention center and into retail hot spots in the Meatpacking District and nearby Bleecker Street. The stores on the tour were chosen to showcase current trends, as well as some very innovative thinking.

“We try to give people a sense of trends in retail and retail marketing, but also expose people to new things, so the tours are a combination of insight, education and inspiration,” explained Eric Gustavsen, founding partner at Graj and Gustavsen, who developed the tours. He highlighted three themes for the tours.

Meatpacking District of midtown Manhattan, New York

Trend 1: Curation

With so much information available on the Internet and through social media, it’s more important than ever that retailers have a way to distinguish themselves.

“We’re seeing a lot of retailers curating items in the pursuit of having a unique and special product mix,” Gustavsen said.

Whether it’s a small retailer like OWEN hand-selecting merchandise from up-and-coming designers or a national brand like J. Crew adding uniquely made products with a backstory to the “Discovered” section of their website, retailers are finding innovative ways to offer one-of-a-kind experiences.

Trend 2: Authentic engagement

“Another trend you’ll see is retailers engaging in real, down-to- earth ways with customers,” Gustavsen said. “Many of them are using social media to be really transparent.”

For example, Tory Burch’s mood boards on Pinterest, her Twitter account and her Instagram feed are personally managed by her, giving fans a way to directly engage with the designer.

“A lot of that used to be behind the curtain, but it’s a whole new world now,” Gustavsen said. “Transparency and relationships are key.”

Tory Burch’s Instagram gives followers an insider experience.

Trend 3: Bundled experiences

Retailers aren’t just creating stores, they’re creating destinations. For example, Saturdays Surf NYC isn’t just a store. It also has an espresso bar and inviting seating areas to sip your cup of Joe.

“By bundling experiences like this, retailers are engaging with customers on more than one level and are getting customers to come back more frequently,” Gustavsen said. ”By including gourmet coffee and backyard seating in their retail environment, Saturday’s Surf achieves something else really valuable, too: an insider experience that makes people who know about it feel cool and in-the-know, which builds brand loyalty.”

Places like Chelsea Market, which combines great retail shops with great food and coffee, and Acme Hotel, where restaurants, shops and the hotel create a live/shop/dine/play/work environment, offer even more inspiring examples of how to create a true destination experience.

Gustavsen noted that while these themes stand out, the retail destinations included in the store tours are incredibly varied, and that’s because there’s more than just one key to success in today’s retail world.

“Everything matters now,” Gustavsen said. “There’s no one thing that makes retail successful. Brand, store design and the social landscape are equally important. It’s a 360-degree experience.”

Self-guided store tours are available as an mp3 download for your mobile device for those registered for Retail’s BIG Show. For more about the stores, trends and strategies highlighted in the tours, visit the event website.

As the Super Bowl for the retail industry, all bets were off this weekend when many retailers opened their doors on Thanksgiving Day. NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay on Black Friday told CNBC that when all is said and done, “the consumer is the real winner.” Some retailers touted free $100 gift cards with the purchase of an iPad Air while others gave in-store shoppers a chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet or one of 10 weekend getaways. Discounts and special deals like these were a powerful combination for retailers this past weekend.

In addition to what Shay and Prosper’s Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow said during NRF’s annual media briefing, here are a few of our top takeaways from the weekend:

More people were shopping, but were spending less. Discounts and low prices, combined with the fact that 53 percent of Americans started their shopping in early November, were contributing factors to shopping over the holiday weekend. Spending dropped 3 percent to $57 billion, at an average $407. But with the number of shoppers up 1 percent and Thanksgiving Day in-store traffic growing 27 percent over last year, retailers are still calling the weekend a win.

Why the uncertainty? NRF’s forecast that holiday sales will increase 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion holds strong. But Americans still aren’t sure about the staying power of the economic recovery. Family income hasn’t grown in quite some time, and next year’s added health care costs mean consumers are keeping a close eye on holiday budgets.

Millennial power. NRF’s survey of consumers found young adults 18-34 spent an average $460 over the weekend, the highest of any age group. As in years past, they showed up eager to take advantage of retailers’ Thanksgiving deals: 49 percent were at stores by midnight on Thanksgiving, with eight in 10 shopping on Thanksgiving Day and 58 percent on Black Friday. And 31 percent shopped online on Cyber Monday using mobile devices. Retailers are smart to target and engage these shoppers.

Thanksgiving weekend goes digital. Consumers want to shop when they want, where they want and how they want, regardless of the channel, and retailers are responding. Walmart saw 400 million page views on its web site on Thanksgiving Day, including customers who used smartphones, tablets and computers. And NRF found similar excitement among weekend shoppers: nearly 44 percent of what consumers spent between Thursday and Sunday was spent online, up from 42 percent last year. The average amount spent online also increased, up 3 percent at $178 over the weekend.

Cyber Monday continues to grow. Retailers were touting “cyber” deals as early as November 20, even leaking information about their own upcoming deals, and Cyber Monday was bigger than ever. More than 131 million consumers shopped online on Cyber Monday, up from 129 million last year, according to numbers from NRF and our Shop.org division. Sites like CyberMonday.com worked overtime to attract holiday shoppers, and retailers ramped up efforts to perfect their mobile sites and apps to make sure they had the capacity to handle expected traffic. In just one example, eBags founder Peter Cobb told me his company’s sales were up 21 percent over last year by 3 p.m. on the big day.

The most telling Cyber Monday consumer statistic might be in the numbers for mobile. More than 25 million Cyber Monday shoppers – nearly one in five – shopped using their smartphones or tablets, up 22 percent over last year. As NRF Senior Vice President and Shop.org Executive Director Vicki Cantrell told Bloomberg, it’s this influx of mobile that has the retail industry’s attention during the holidays and year-round.

Instill a can-do, customer-first attitude in your employees

B.J. Bueno, founder of The Cult Branding Company, says you don’t need a big marketing budget to do the most important thing — treating your customers and associates right.

“First, show your best customers the love,” Bueno said. “Concentrate on small details that big box retailers cannot. Superb customer service is the biggest intangible asset to the independent retailer. People like to shop where they feel comfortable and where they feel the owner truly cares about their wants and needs. Train your associates to better serve your customers. Hire employees that you will treat fairly and whom you enjoy working with. If you want your associates to take care of your customers, start by taking care of your associates. This level of service will give your customers an extra incentive to continue doing business with you.”

Encourage your customers to share

Shopping is a social activity, and customers are increasingly using their mobile devices in-store to find information and share with friends. John Perls, founder of JoopLoop, points out that in-store customers represent an incredibly valuable link in the social food chain to customers’ like-minded friends and family. And all at a very key moment, while they’re in your store shopping.

“Create an in-store offer and promote it with signage that asks your customers to share your offer on their favorite social channel,” suggests Perls. “Or have your sales associate simply ask your customers to post the sale or promotion in their status. It’s fast and straight to the point and most customers you’ll find will do it without batting an eye. You can even create a mobile app that serves unique barcodes to your in-store customers via GPS, has some cool tracking metrics and puts social channel options right at your customer’s fingertips. Which is a lot simpler and less expensive than most people might think. The opportunities are endless. But the one thing to always remember is that people love to share deals, offers, whatever… And their friends and family are there and ready to listen to them.”

Embrace the “little guy” persona

“In my research I found that once we determine a person or entity is a worthy underdog, we view their situation and them completely differently,” says Amy Showalter, author of The Underdog Edge.

“By ‘worthy’ they must show that they have worked hard for the few resources they do have, that they play by the rules, and that they are careful with what little resources they have. Once we determine their ‘underdog street cred,’ we imbue upon them positive characteristics that flavor how we interact with them, root for them, and most important, allow them to persuade us. Being a worthy underdog is indeed an influence edge. We are seeing large companies incorporate this into their marketing because they know that bigger is no longer better in the consumer’s eye. Elected officials like to help the ‘little guy,’ too.”

Foster a culture of integrity

When it comes to reducing shrink and forming good loss prevention strategies, even more than a large staff or next-generation technology, it’s the people on your team that are the biggest asset. This advice comes from Teri Tapella, corporate manager for retail loss prevention and business continuity planning at Ace Hardware Corporation. Today, over 4,600 of Ace Hardware’s 4,700 stores around the world are independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs.

“They key to an effective LP solution is not to work harder, but to work smarter,” says Tapella. “Not every solution is costly or time-sucking. Identify the controls that are necessary and practice consistency in execution. Creating a culture of honesty and profitability in your store starts at the top. Make sure that owners and managers understand and enforce your chosen controls, and push that all the way down to your newest employee. You can learn to use what you already have to implement an effective LP strategy that won’t break the bank or your spirit.”

Eight by Eight CEO Amy Africa recaps her biggest mistakes in mobile and how to avoid them at Shop.org Summit’s Mobile Boot Camp.

Because mobile is in its youth, Africa believes it is still a level playing field. No matter how big your company is, now’s your chance to make your mark. “Mobile is the great equalizer,” Africa said. “Everybody has a shot.”

Like most that jump in early, Africa failed in mobile before she succeeded, which left her with a lot of great lessons learned for attendees. Here are just a few highlights to keep in mind when planning mobile initiatives.

• People shopping on mobile are almost always doing something else at the same time, so they need to find what they want fast. Africa’s best practices: limit your entry page to five to eight items and a text search box. The top three items following the first click are the only ones that matter, so make sure the results are what your customer is expecting. “With mobile, people don’t try again. They go somewhere else,” she said.
• Getting mobile sales is tough, but get something—like an email or text number, or provide a click-to-call link. For example, Africa suggested that a great way to capture a customer’s email is by building it into your store locator.
• 90% of users device hop, so whatever is put in a cart on mobile needs to show up when the customer is using another device.
• Be persistent. Email, text and chat gives retailers a lot more opportunities to follow up with a customer and drive a sale, and having fewer days-to-sale on mobile warrants it. “You can make a lot more money on mobile people because you can be a lot more aggressive,” Africa said.
• Social traffic is great, but analyze your traffic from direct, non-referral sources and build your keywords around them.

As for design, Africa had a few great reminders:

• Be big and bold in your design, and include one action on each page.
• Design for fat fingers and leave thumb space.
• Search is not secondary. Make it prominent.
• Most people don’t have the connection speed to play your fancy videos.
• While responsive design is great, it’s not the answer to every problem. Consider that behaviors are different for mobile and traditional web and create the appropriate entry points.

Africa’s words may not be gospel for everyone; a retailer’s own data will be the best guide for how to move forward. But her closing words ring true for everyone. “Fail, and fail fast,” she said. “The people who are persistent are the ones that win.”

To share some tips on how to prepare, we spoke with Katie Washington from American Express OPEN, the company’s small business division, and leader of the Small Business Saturday and Shop Small team. Here are Washington’s seven tips for small retail businesses to get ready for the holidays and how to take advantage of the busiest shopping time in retail.

Katie Washington, Director, Shop Small, American Express OPEN

1. Create a stellar holiday marketing plan.

Start by creating a detailed plan that includes a variety of marketing platforms such as print and online advertising, holiday store signage, direct mail, email marketing and social media. In addition, consider implementing some grassroots marketing strategies to inexpensively target customers in your community. For example, you can partner with other small businesses in your community to hand out coupons or flyers for one another, network at local chamber of commerce meetings (many of the members will be looking for holiday gifts for family members or clients), call VIP customers to personally invite them into the store, post on your town’s forum, post on local “mom blogs” and distribute store flyers in places such as a gym or supermarket.

2. Plan special holiday events.

Store events are also a very effective way to drive more traffic to your store during the holiday season because they give customers a reason to shop during a specific time frame. One event you should add to your holiday event marketing plans this year is Small Business Saturday. This is a nationwide initiative on the day after Black Friday, November 30, that encourages consumers to go out and celebrate and support the local independent businesses that are a vital part of their communities.

Last year, millions of consumers shopped small. With growing consumer interest in supporting local businesses, you can leverage this powerful national event by inviting your customers to participate in the day through email marketing, direct mail, store signage, and social media posts. You should also promote your participation in Small Business Saturday in all of your print advertising as a way of attracting new prospects into the store on the day. You can download free marketing materials on the Small Business Saturday website.

3. Offer holiday deals and discounts.

Consider running special product promotions throughout the holiday season to incentivize customers to come into the store and buy. Some stores even sell a few products during the holiday season at a loss, known as a “loss leader” to lure customers to the store because they know that once the customer is in they will typically buy more.

4. Hire ahead of the holiday rush.

Most retailers agree that exceptional staffing is a key element in holiday sales success. If you need to beef up your team for the season, it’s important to start the hiring process as early as possible. Remember to execute a thorough training program for your entire sales team that includes customer service tactics, in-depth product information and tips on handling a large sales volume to get everyone ready and excited for the holiday rush.

5. Make sure you have enough inventory.

It’s very challenging to stock just the right amount of inventory to ensure that you have a vast product selection with a mix of specialty items that holiday shoppers are searching for. Plan on doing a holiday inventory assessment to confirm that you have ordered enough across the different product categories to last throughout the season and hit your numbers. If you realize that you still have not ordered enough, it’s not too late to reach out to wholesalers to add to your holiday buying.

6. Use your store windows.

Store windows are a powerful marketing vehicle to help you promote and sell specific holiday products. They also serve as great tool to help you attract more customers into the store. Make sure your windows create visual impact, are well lit, have strong signage and that you use vertical and horizontal space to tell your merchandising story.

7. Promote holiday gift cards and gift certificates.

There is a lot of research that shows that holiday gift card giving is on the rise. Make sure that your store is top of mind with customers who want to purchase a gift card rather than a specific gift. Promote your store gift cards in all of your marketing efforts. In addition, you might also consider giving a small gift card to buyers who spend over a certain amount in your store during the holiday season.

Implementing these savvy marketing strategies can keep you ahead of the curve this holiday season and make it a signature year for blockbuster sales.

To network with Main Street retailers near you and learn more business growing tactics, from loss prevention strategies, to important health care changes, to social media and more, and check out the Main Street Retailing Forum in  New York on January 14, 2014.

To gauge consumer sentiment around back-to-school and back-to-college advertising, Prosper Insights & Analytics polled more than 5,000 families about their favorite commercials and websites of the summer.

Walmart tops the list for both groups this year with 20 percent of back-to-school shoppers voting for the discounter and 18 percent of college shoppers favoring its ads. Walmart took a simple, cost-saving approach, aiming to speak to real families on a budget. In this economy, that tone likely goes a long way.

Here’s a look at one of Walmart’s school commercials from this summer: