Bob Skinner
Lead Technology Strategist

FORDDIRECT

About The Session

Unleash “Empathy as a Service” and Unlock Your Full Loyalty Potential

To win in today’s hyper-distributed environment, innovative brands like Ford and their Ford and Lincoln dealers are shifting their focus from simply building, selling, financing, and servicing the best vehicles to creating extraordinary, next-generation experiences – delivering “moments that matter” where a consumer can’t help but sit up and pay attention. But staying relevant is difficult, especially as vehicle owners are bombarded with messages, offers, and alerts everywhere they turn. Real-time technologies and streaming data can help brands rise above the noise – but only if they’re willing to change how they think about customer relationships.

In this session, we’ll showcase how Ford and Lincoln dealers, working in conjunction with the OEM, are unleashing “empathy as a service” to truly embrace customer needs, activate their data, and monetize automotive loyalty. You’ll learn how they’re leveraging advanced AI and real-time decisioning to personalize every lifecycle experience –including new requirements for virtual retailing and touchless delivery – to ensure every interaction adds value, wherever and whenever it occurs.

About The Speaker

Robert Skinner is Lead Technology Strategist at FordDirect. In this role, Bob is responsible for looking across the organization and aligning technology and product to the business strategy and planning. Bob primarily focuses on digital transformation and the use of AdTech and Martech tools in the execution of consumer lifecycle engagement and a personalized experience.

Previously, Bob served as a consultant at FordDirect, leading a Tier 1 personalization team which focused on building foundational marketing technology to support the future of one to one personalized experiences with Ford consumers. Bob has worked with Adobe on the implementation & optimization of the Adobe Experience Cloud tools along with Pega Systems Platform for decisioning to support a foundation for people-based marketing.

Bob is a board member of the Direct Marketing Association of Detroit as well as a Techstar Mobility mentor. Prior to joining FordDirect he led various entrepreneurial and technology ventures where he lived and worked across 4 continents. He is proud Michigan State University Spartan graduate.