March 13, 2017

Accenture Introduces Accenture Genome, Next-Generation Personalization Solution

Real-time API-enabled solution shifts brands understanding from ‘what’ to ‘why’ - puts the ‘personal’ back in personalization

NEW YORK; Mar.13, 2017 – Accenture Interactive has launched Accenture Genome, a personalization technology that helps accelerate transformation by enabling brands to create highly individualized experiences based on individual customers’ unique motivations.

Developed by Accenture Interactive in conjunction with Accenture Labs, the Accenture Genome is a fundamentally new approach to personalization that powers a ready-to-use technology solution for brands. Its underlying idea marks a paradigm shift from tracking ‘what’ customers do to uncovering ‘why’ they do it.

“Similar to experiences in the offline world, being personal is more than simplistic recommendations based on a past purchasing decision that may or may not be relevant,” said Jeriad Zoghby, global personalization lead at Accenture Interactive. “Our best personal experiences are when a brand knows us better than we know ourselves and makes it easier for us to buy or engage with what we want on our terms versus theirs.”

How the Accenture Genome helps brands and their customers
The Accenture Genome leverages customer interactions to create Living Profiles based on the most unique aspects of an individual. These Living Profiles can help drive an orchestrated experience across all personalization platforms, such as recommendation engines, data management platforms, rules engines, campaign management platforms, and experience optimization tools. Living Profiles shed light on a person’s unique needs, wants and preferences, and can inspire the creation of new experiences, products and services.

Accenture Interactive introduces the Accenture Genome putting the personal back in personalization @AccentureSocial

Living Profiles enable brands to engage much like a personal assistant, concierge or shopper, resulting in a truly personal customer experience – and relationship. In addition, the Living Profiles form a unique asset for the enterprise that is richer, more dynamic, and at a much greater scale than traditional market research. This collection of voices is invaluable intellectual property (IP) that can drive new forms of innovation across marketing, merchandising and service design.

How the Accenture Genome works
Unlike a traditional segment-centric mentality, Living Profiles are based on individual’s interactions with brands and evolve in real-time. The Accenture Genome begins by deconstructing each interaction, such as purchases, emails opened, events attended, and social posts they like. In doing so it creates a unique set of attributes, or DNA, for each interaction that can be mapped to a customer’s Living Profile. For example, a purchased product has a unique set of attributes based on factors such as ingredients, features, specifications, brand, and ratings and reviews that customers consider when making a purchase decision. Instead of simply capturing the product a customer choses, the Accenture Genome maps all aspects of the product DNA to an individual.

“We saw an opportunity to revisit, reimagine, and innovate how to understand customers, taking advantage of the changing data landscape, such as significant increases in accessible data, advancements in algorithms, and improvements in the performance of today’s data platforms,” said Mary Hamilton, Digital Experiences R&D Lead at Accenture Labs. “Conceptualized and prototyped in the Labs, and then developed and scaled by Accenture Interactive, this work is a great example of the Accenture Innovation Architecture in action.”

“In a world in which experience is the new battlefield, brands must create experiences that are uniquely curated to each individual,” said Zoghby. “Given that the top 20 percent of customers typically represent 80 percent of the profits, companies cannot afford to treat people – especially their most valuable customers -- as segments. The Accenture Genome enables brands to accelerate their transition to this new state of personalization so they can compete in today’s digital marketplace and uncover innovation opportunities for tomorrow.”

To learn more about the Accenture Genome Solution, visit accenture.com/personalization.

About Accenture
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 394,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Accenture Interactive, part of Accenture Digital, helps the world’s leading brands create superior customer experiences. Through our integrated and industrialized offerings in experience design, marketing, content and commerce, we create new ways to win in today’s experience-led economy. Accenture Interactive was recently named by Ad Age as the world’s largest and fastest-growing digital agency. To learn more follow us @accenturesocial and visit www.accenture.com/interactive.

Accenture Labs invents the future for Accenture, our clients and the market. Focused on solving critical business problems with advanced technology, Accenture Labs brings fresh insights and innovations to our clients, helping them capitalize on dramatic changes in technology, business and society. Our dedicated team of technologists and researchers work with leaders across the company to invest in, incubate and deliver breakthrough ideas and solutions that help our clients create new sources of business advantage. For more information, please visit www.accenture.com/labs

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Contact:

Kelly Coffed
Accenture
+ 1 404 219 3100
kelly.coffed@accenture.com

Jens R. Derksen
Accenture
+ 49 175 57 61393
jens.derksen@accenture.com