This week I had the privilege of being at RIW — and I could compile trends here, talk about the stands, speakers, etc. But I prefer to take a slightly different approach, inspired by a conversation I was lucky enough to have with Felipe Aguiar (who went with me) and Ricardo Bezerra (to whom I told this story and who  gave me the insight for today's post).

A long time ago, I heard about something called the “Choice Paradox” and the experience of FOMO* happening live, coupled with an environment of people recording every moment of the event on their cell phones from the first step upon entering and all the possible symbols of RIW to be posted live on their respective social networks, left me very reflective and paralyzed. But let's go back a little bit: The Choice Paradox is precisely about how we freeze in the face of a huge amount of things we could choose. The idea of having more options should make us excited, but faced with the pressure to choose one among so many, we fix our minds on loss rather than gain. The famous saying: “With every choice, there is a renunciation.”

It's no wonder that stores with a huge number of items help their shoppers with a "people who bought this also bought", that streaming services have "Recommended for you" or "because you saw... you might also like", and many other features that, in addition to trying to keep us engaged longer or make new purchases, also try to facilitate our decision-making process and make us feel more at ease about our choices.

That said — RIW was a great paradox of choice in practice for me: many warehouses, with many stands, many simultaneous talks, with many people around, making any decision about what to see super complex, leaving a bitter taste of missing something and simply not "doing it right" lol. Even though there were sections by topics of interest, they weren't enough to help me navigate the confusing experience, which was full of stimuli on all sides.

“Oh, Ju. But there was an app, there was an online schedule, there was signage, there was segmentation by theme.” And, really, there was all that. But there was SO MUCH going on at the same time, to the point where there were 3 different talks happening inside the same pavilion. How could it not be overwhelming? That said, let's think more about how to make it easier for those who are there to have a brand experience.

By the way: thank you, Tátil Design, for giving me this opportunity to go to the event and reflect on how we can always think about improving brand experiences on a daily basis.

*FOMO — Fear of missing out