Experience the Future: 5 Questions With Samsung 837’s Zach Overton

Samsung 837 is an experience space like no other. Part store, part event venue, part glimpse into the future, 837 is the brand’s headquarters for trying out cutting edge tech, checking out products, or just snapping some selfies. Besides trying on VR headsets or using the 360 degree camera, you can attend any number of brand-partnered events. This summer alone has seen a regular slate of “Netflix Nights” with movie showings on the roof, performances from musical artists such as All Time Low and Noah Cyrus, and a regular Run Club sponsored by lululemon. We had the chance to sit down with Zach Overton, Vice President of Customer Experiences and General Manager of 837, to get his input on what’s next for the space and the future of experiential retail at large.

How do you gauge customer feedback when people come to Samsung 837? Is it just by which activities have the most attendance, or are there are other ways that you’re taking in feedback?

With every experience that we create here, we try to say: is it personal and is it shareable? Is it something that ultimately is going to be more about you than about us but the technology was the conduit or the platform? Is it an experience that you’re going to be compelled to share? And we think we’ve done that.

Analytics are very important to us—we’re a technology company, after all. In addition to the core KPIs of foot traffic and dwell time, we measure key patterns and where people are traveling to and how. One of our core KPIs is device interactions. How many products are users engaging with when they come and visit the space? How long do they spend here? Are they sharing?

We have make difficult choices in order to keep the space fresh and to not rest on our laurels. Two of our most popular installations, the mosaic selfie installation and the Social Galaxy, have been removed. We feel we need to keep it fresh and to keep on invigorating the story that we’re telling, the way technology is changing, and the cultural relevance of both.

Based on the success of Samsung 837, are you looking to expand to other places around the world that would really lend themselves to this kind of experience?

There’s been great interest in this model and this experiment from our headquarters, from other markets, from other areas in in the country, so we’re certainly thinking about what would that look like and what new locations we would look at.

We’re still in our early phases. Just coming up on a year, we’ve learned a lot but we have a lot more learning and experimenting to do. So certainly we’ll see in the coming months whether we’ll look to have additional locations.

You do so much in collaboration with other brands here, how is that evolving? How do you decide which partnerships make sense?

I think this place, this building and this platform, has given us a unique opportunity to partner with other brands, with talent, in ways that we would not have been able to otherwise. We really look through a lens of, does one plus one equal three? Can we and this partner achieve something together that neither brand or party would have been able to do on their own?

And I think there are some really great examples of that. I think the New York Times, for us, was one of the most exciting partnerships. You know the fact that we’ve armed their journalism team with 360 degree cameras, and now every day there is this new piece of content using them and showcasing our technology, is creating a habitual nature of consumption with VR 360. They look at this as the fifth milestone in the history of journalism, which is exciting.

We are huge advocates of technology, even when it’s not our technology. We truly believe that technology is a gateway to achieving infinite possibilities. But we try to make sure that the technology integration is truly organic and not forced in any way, enhancing the visitor’s experience—and there’s a real value proposition there. And I think we’ve just scratched the surface of what we can do with other brands in this space, but it’s really fun.

How are you looking to evolve the customer experience?

We are trying to constantly evolve and innovate on the visitor journey, and how we leverage technology to do that. For example, we recently rolled out wireless security in the space.If you go up to the second floor to any of the areas where you have our phones, you’ll notice they’re not tethered to the tables. So that’s not an issue, as long as it’s on a pad the device is charging. But the fact that you can take that device and walk around and go take a picture in the window versus in a corner where there’s low light, that changes the game for how you get to demo our product. And so that also opens the doors on how we can use our devices to be that guide for you. Then we also have Beacon technology here. So as you enter this space, messages can be pushed your device, and we’re just starting to do more with NFC as well. So in the coming months, actually, you’ll see a big push in that direction as we roll out some new things that I’m very excited about that will truly give you a technology and mobile-led visitor journey.

How is Samsung 837 inspiring other brands? And what other brands inspire your approach to the future of retail?

We have a lot of the Fortune 500 companies and brands that are coming to us as thought leaders to look at the space and see how we’ve used own technology, and to get ideas. A lot of brands come to us and say, how do I use VR to tell our brand story? How do I use 360 in a way that works versus just a horrible pilot program? So, on the one hand yes, that is happening and there’s been a great deal of interest in the space and the technology and that’s certainly very flattering.

On the other hand, I get inspiration from the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, with their Pen, which allows you to both interact with exhibits and record your visit. We all know the traditional audio tour, but what they’ve done to use the pen as an engagement tool to create interactivity and a deeper engagement with the collection I think is really interesting. We certainly see a lot of other brands create their version of the experiential flagship, you know Cadillac House or Cola House. I think some of the things that the Nike Store has done down in SoHo is really exciting. I actually kind of appreciate it, I feel there’s been a true spirit of collaboration among a lot of these brands that I’m mentioning, to learn from each other and say, hey, this is the new generation of retail. But I think a lot of brands are facing a struggle: Do you fight against e-commerce, or embrace it?

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