Exciting insights at the 9th Online Media Net Innovation Day [digital] 2021

apollon, leading software provider for marketing automation and product data communication, organized the 9th OMN Innovation Day [digital] on September 23, 2021 under the motto „Omnichannel unplugged: Megatrends in e-commerce“. Proven experts from the fields of e-commerce and AI, marketing and IT managers from companies such as WAS Germany, brandport or Leitermann as well as representatives of apollon did not miss the opportunity to share their views on the big topic of e-commerce of the future on this unique stage – partly a very personal, partly a general, social one. The varied online event was moderated by Martin Groß-Albenhausen, Managing Director at bevh.

The organizers of the 9th OMN Innovation Day [digital] succeeded in covering a wide range of topics with great speakers in the total of eight program points, thus offering participants a particularly rounded picture of the e-commerce and omnichannel marketing of the future.

After Norbert Weckerle, CEO of apollon, described current developments in e-commerce technologies and the very different adaptations by customer companies in the B2B and B2C sectors in a welcome talk with moderator Martin Groß-Albenhausen, bevh, Dr. Tu-Lam Pham – better known to many as Teo Pham – took over with an exciting keynote. Under the topic „What we can learn from China, influencers and Generation Z“, he took the participants through the history and future of e-commerce and explained the generational differences and their influence on the branding of established and new, innovative companies. In doing so, he showed very clearly how platforms (for example TikTok) and current topics such as influencer marketing, ultra-fast fashion, social commerce, live video shopping, social community building and digital products are already attracting a young but very affluent audience today, thus also creating immense potential for companies.

Afterwards, Stephan Lichtenstein, Managing Director of Leitermann GmbH & Co. Fachmarkt KG, provided detailed insights into the current modernization project of the over 150-year-old family business. In addition to the introduction of Online Media Net as a PIM system, the merger of two outdated webshops is also on the agenda. Marketing strategy, design, target group analysis: The complexity of this project demanded clean strategy planning from the very beginning. The most important insight: a clean data model is the be-all and end-all, and the flexibility to adapt the data model to new processes in the future must not be ignored either.

In the next program item, Simon Frenz from brandport GmbH – formerly Hanse Reprozentrum GmbH – and Christian Bodem from apollon presented the joint project for process acceleration in media production at the spirits manufacturer Bacardi. In a web portal, Bacardi makes digital assets such as images and videos available for download to internal as well as external users, depending on their role and authorization. However, it goes much further and, as a production portal, already starts with the creation of the assets: Based on a wide variety of defined processes and workflows, the complete creation of communication media such as print products, packaging, displays or can imprints can be carried out in the portal itself and the approved layouts can be sent out to the appropriate channels. The individualization of products, for example by the end customer, and the subsequent review of the 3D images as well as the output in AR applications are also integrated use cases in the production portal. In this way, brandport and apollon address the increasing expectations of Bacardi’s customers in terms of delivery and response time as well as digital participation in the production processes.

After the lunch break, Tobias Marks and Pablo Kern from apollon took over with impressive reflections on the topic of the „sustainability megatrend“ and the extent to which a PIM system like Online Media Net can support companies in making their processes more sustainable. In addition to the internal perspective of the organization, the two speakers looked in particular at the optimization of partner relationships between suppliers and retailers as well as the multi-layered challenges in product communication.

After these remarks, Stefan Witt, General Manager and authorized signatory at WAS Germany, together with employees from Marketing and Product Management and Antonios Karamatskos, CIO at WAS Germany, described the diverse internal goals, wishes and expectations that play a role in the introduction of Online Media Net. As a retailer of more than 4,000 catering products, the Hamburg-based company offers its partners particularly fast availability and delivery under the motto „Where Service Begins,“ which with the help of Online Media Net will soon also apply to product information and marketing materials.

Norbert Weckerle then described and demonstrated what new features Online Media Net customers can already expect today, but also in the near future, with the OMN Roadmap for 2021/2022. In addition to new user-defined settings, OMN 5.8.0 offers a whole range of efficiency-increasing functions and services in the area of AI – both in image processing and product data maintenance. Furthermore, the roadmap for the coming months holds exciting innovations in the functional area, for example for translation processes, communication or the workflow editor Camunda, but also in the area of integrations and AI services, which optimize completely different workflows.

The crowning finale of the OMN Innovation Day [digital] was Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach – linguist, coach and enthusiastic AI expert. In her very vivid presentation, she talked about the opportunities and limitations of AI, about current use cases in retail, medicine and the financial sector, and about the urgency of putting aside European reluctance and investing in AI technology in order not to completely lose touch with the USA and China. Because one thing is clear, according to the expert: There is incredible potential in AI, even for small and medium-sized enterprises, because it doesn’t even need the masses of data that Google, Microsoft & Co. have access to. have access to. However, according to Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach, in order to achieve a collective understanding of AI that could make us fit for the future as a business location in this area, we need a sociopolitical willingness to integrate the handling of data as an important component in our education.

Norbert Weckerle, CEO of apollon: „Many thanks to all participants and special thanks to Martin Groß-Albenhausen, who accompanied us so confidently through this exciting day. Thanks also to all speakers for their constructive and interesting contributions. Thank you to all participants for your interest and of course a very special thank you to the organization of the event, to Wenke Wuhrer and Yasemin Czechowski, our event experts, and all others who helped to prepare this event – you really did a great job! We hope to be able to plan another face-to-face event with you next year and invite you in advance to keep 15.09.2022 free for the 10th OMN Innovation Day, which will probably take place at the Porsche Museum.“

Press contact:

Yasemin Czechowski
Marketing Manager
Tel: +49 7231 941-133
Mobil: +49 162 2626133
E-Mail: yczechowski@apollon.de

apollon GmbH+Co. KG
Maximilianstr. 104
75172 Pforzheim
www.apollon.de