CEW hosted its second annual Connected Consumer Conference – an immersive event created to explore the high-tech trends influencing today’s beauty consumer. The half-day informational program focused on the influence of today’s booming digital industry on the behaviors and habits of the beauty consumer and how to stay competitive and differentiate your brand in the current marketing climate.
 
The conference was held at the New York Marriott Marquis, bringing together 700 executives from beauty and related industries, as well as 18 experts representing the unique perspectives of brands, retailers, social and digital platforms and futurists.
 
“Our first Connected Consumer event last year was received well by our members, who indicated a need for educational resources in the digital space,” said Carlotta Jacobson, president, CEW. “We knew immediately that this was a conference that needed to be reprised and we are proud to have assembled an outstanding list of speakers, both inside and outside of the beauty industry, to share their expertise in this rapidly evolving arena.”
 
Topics and speakers included
 
·         Christine Barton, Sr. Partner and Managing Director, and Mario Simon, Executive Principal, New York, The Boston Consulting Group, Inc., shared a proprietary report on how prestige beauty shopping habits are impacting retail across demographics.
·         Angelica Munson, Global President, Shiseido’s Digital Center of Excellence, Shiseido Americas, and Scott Rosenfield, Site Director, WIRED, discussed how to leverage “content, care and commerce” to drive customer acquisition and engagement.
·         Marc Dispensa, Co-Founder & CTO, Equals 3, provided insights into how artificial intelligence technology is posed to shake up the beauty industry.
·         Brian McDevitt, Managing Director, Home & Personal Care, Google, shared behind-the-scenes insights into how video content for beauty has evolved.
·         Bryan Gildenberg, Chief Knowledge Officer, Kantar Consulting, provided insights into beauty shopping in a voice-enabled age.
·         Paul Vigna, Co-Author, The Truth Machine, and an expert in crypto-currency, explained how decentralized databases will impact everything from online currencies to tracking the supply chain of ingredients.
·         Paula Pontes, SVP & Global General Manager, GlamGlow, discussed how creating a scientifically driven formula for success on social media doesn’t have to look and feel clinical.
·         Rob Garf, VP of Industry Strategy and Insights, Salesforce, shared how leading brands are translating intelligence into personalized experiences.
 
·         Fred Gerantabee, Global VP of Digital Innovation, COTY; Francisco Gimenez, Founder and CEO, eSalon; Jennifer Goldfarb, Co-Founder & President, Ipsy; and Karen Moon, CEO and Co-Founder, Trendalytics shared how they are setting a new standard for personalization by engaging the consumer at multiple touch points - from product co-creation to marketing to customer in-store experiences.
·         Alice Chang, Founder & CEO, and Wayne Liu, GM and Vice President of Business Development, Perfect Corp., creators of the YouCam Makeup app, demonstrated their virtual, on-demand Beauty Advisor that allows users to experience a real-time custom beauty consultation through guided augmented reality.
·         Guive Balooch, Global VP of Technology Incubator, L’Oréal, and Lucie Greene, JWT Intelligence, shared their perspectives on the breakthrough developments that are re-shaping beauty, how new tech can inform and improve product design and the role that technology will play in transforming the consumer experience.
·         Bridget Dolan, SVP of Omni Experience & Innovation, Sephora, discussed how the retailer blends emotional connection, digital experiences and physical assets to create experiences that resonate with today’s consumer.
 
The conference was sponsored by Beauty by Amazon, Meredith, Mane, YouCam Makeup, 24/Seven, Birchbox, Zo Skin Health, ReVive, Yotpo, Consultancy Media, Moblty, Samsung, Suite K Kaplow Communications and Dera Lee Productions.